

Parallels is incredibly easy to use even for beginners and once you’ve downloaded everything, will install Windows on an Apple Silicon M1 or M2 Mac in little more than 10 minutes. Parallels is a virtual machine which runs Windows “virtually” within macOS meaning you can switch between Windows and macOS instantly.

Microsoft also highlighted how Mac users can access Windows 11 through their browser on any device with its Windows 365 Cloud PC service.īusiness users can access a Windows 11 instance for as little as $31 (approximately £26) per user per month (with a maximum of 300 users).If you’re wondering whether Apple Silicon M1 Macs or M2 Macs can run Windows the good news is they can and here we show you how to install Windows on an M1 or M2 Mac for free.Īlthough there are various ways of running Windows on a Mac, the best way to run Windows on an M1 or M2 Mac is with Parallels. “The same volume licensing system that addresses enterprise licensing, such as Key Management Services, can be used to provide Pro or Enterprise licenses to the Windows 11 guest operating system.” Windows 11 Arm on Mac: The Windows 365 Cloud PC alternative

“Licensing the Windows 11 operating system that runs on the Mac device is straightforward,” said Parallels in a blog post. It isn’t immediately clear how these licenses will work with Parallels. Parallels said that “users can purchase Windows 11 through their normal Windows procurement process”.Ī Windows 11 Pro key costs £219.99 directly from Microsoft and Windows 11 Enterprise licenses are purchased through Microsoft 365 Enterprise. Users will still be able to run software that’s built for Windows machines but isn’t available on the Microsoft Store. One of the main drawbacks for users wanting to run Windows 11 on Mac is that the Arm version occasionally encounters issues where applications built for windows don’t run correctly.

Parallels was still a viable and popular option for those who wanted to run Windows on Macs, but didn’t want to dedicate substantial space on their hard drive for a disk-partitioned setup. Apple has never suggested it will be bringing Boot Camp Assistant to Macs powered by its own chips. With this method, users could choose which OS to launch when booting. Microsoft officially authorised Windows 11 arm installs on Thursday.īefore Apple’s M1 chip was released, its Macs were powered by Intel CPUs and supported Apple’s Boot Camp Assistant - software that allowed users to partition their hard drives to install Windows 10 on the computer natively. The virtualisation software has been supported on Apple silicon Macs since 2021, but Windows installs have always required unofficial workarounds.
