Microsoft is now offering an Arm version of its Windows 11 “licensing solution” for Apple’s latest M1 and M2 Macs, but it requires Parallels Desktop 18 or Windows 365 cloud computers.
For now, this is a boon for business users who may need a mix of Windows and macOS computers on a daily basis. However, Macs cannot support 32-bit Arm apps from the Windows App Store, so please choose x64 or x86 emulation apps if possible.
Previously, Microsoft had only licensed the Arm version of Windows to OEMs, so support was not available for M1 and M2 users.
Parallels Desktop for Mac is also optimized for Apple silicon-based Macs, including MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini and Mac Studio.
Parallels says that businesses can now purchase Windows 11 licenses “through the normal Windows procurement process” and individual users can purchase Windows 11 Professional licenses directly from Microsoft for $199. It’s worth noting that the Home Standard Edition of Parallels Desktop currently costs you an additional $100 to license.
It’s worth mentioning that Apple used to have its own Boot Camp solution, but Boot Camp is no longer available on Apple silicon based Macs, so virtual machines are now the only option for Mac users using Windows 11.
With the original announcement.
"Windows 11 works best on computers designed for Windows. When such options are not available, there are two different ways to use Windows with a Mac. Windows 11 and Windows 365 Cloud PC Windows 365 is a software-as-a-service solution for organizations of all sizes, available monthly on a per-user basis. A variety of pricing options and cloud computer configurations are available based on performance requirements. Windows 365 supports nested virtualization for testing, running emulators, ensuring full application compatibility, and more. Windows 11 and Parallels Desktop Parallels Desktop version 18 is a licensing solution for running arm versions of Windows 11 Professional and Windows 11 Enterprise on platforms on Apple M1 and M2 computers. The Arm version of Windows 11 has limitations that may affect the ability to use various types of hardware, games, and applications, including those that rely on DirectX 12 or OpenGL 3.3 or higher. For more information, see the FAQ in this document. Experiences that rely on other virtualization layers (nested virtualization) are not supported, including Windows subsystems for Android that enable Windows 11 devices to run Amazon Appstore Windows subsystem for Linux, used to enable GNU/Linux environments on Windows 11 Windows Sandbox, a lightweight desktop environment for securely running applications in isolation Virtualization-Based Security (VBS), which enables customers to create secure areas of memory and isolate them from the normal operating system DirectX 12, a set of multimedia technologies often used in Windows games and other applications, is not supported. Mac computers with M1 and M2 chips do not support the 32-bit Arm applications available in the Windows App Store. support for 32-bit ARM applications is being phased out for all ARM versions of Windows. The preferred customer experience is to run 64-bit Arm applications, but customers can also use applications in x64 or x86 emulation on Mac M1 and M2 computers."
