How to Run Windows 11 PC on an Intel or M1 Mac – Guide
Windows 11 is the latest version of Windows, and whether it’s for PC gaming or a Windows-only app, you might want to run it on your Mac. However, due to the limitations of TPM and Secure Boot, you cannot running Windows 11 naively on modern Macs. Even Macs with Apple’s new M1 chips can’t run Windows naively because Microsoft doesn’t license the ARM version of Windows for Apple to use. All macOS device users were able to run the latest Windows OS with Boot Camp. However, with the release of Windows 11, Microsoft added a TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot to its list of requirements, eliminating many Windows laptops and even Macs, as Macs don’t have TPM hardware built into their motherboard. This basically means that you cannot run Windows 11 on your macOS devices. However, the Parallels app is third-party software that bypasses the TPM requirement on your macOS device and allows you to run Windows 11 on your macOS computer. The Parallels app is a third-party offering for macOS devices to run a virtual machine on all major operating systems. The only selling point of the “Parallels” app is different from the Boot Camp utility, it allows you to run both operating systems on your Mac at the same time and even lets you drag and drop files between operating systems.
Running Windows on an Intel Mac
When Apple switched to Intel processors in 2006, Windows just got easier to run. Apple released Boot Camp, which allows users to install Windows on a dedicated partition on a Mac and boot into that operating system when needed. Around the same time, Parallels Desktop was released, which offers virtualization; the ability to run Windows on macOS instead of having to choose an operating system at startup. A year later, VMware Fusion was released offering the same feature and today these two applications offer excellent Windows virtualization on Macs; if they have Intel processors. (Both apps can also run other operating systems, including Linux and even older versions of macOS.) Other options available for Intel Macs were VirtualBox which is a bit tricky to configure up, and Cross Over, which can run some Windows applications but not the full operating system. As Apple transitions from Macs to its own processors, many users who want to run Windows may want to keep an Intel Mac for that purpose, especially if they already have virtualization software.
Running Windows on a Mac M1
Apple’s M1 Macs use a variant of ARM processors and cannot run Windows with Boot Camp. While Parallels Desktop can run Windows on a Mac M1, VMware Fusion cannot. With Parallels Desktop, the process is exactly the same as for an Intel Mac, except that a specific version of Windows is required. Microsoft makes an ARM version of Windows 11 available that you can access by subscribing up for the Windows Insider Preview program. This version is not officially distributed and is currently free. It’s unclear whether Microsoft will officially release the ARM version of Windows 11 outside of this preview program. Parallels Desktop is $80 for the Standard Edition, which is somewhat limited in the amount of virtual RAM and CPU cores it can use; The Pro edition costs $100 per year. If you use it regularly, the latter is probably a better option. There are also some limitations when running Windows on Parallels Desktop: the software does not support DirectX 12, so you may not be able to play all the games you want. Another option is to use the open source Qemu, which can emulate various operating systems, including Windows. As with Parallels Desktop, you must sign up for the Windows Insider Preview program to get an ARM build of Windows and set up Qemu is a little more complex than using Parallels Desktop. Finally, Cross Over can still run some Windows apps, particularly games, on a Mac M1, but not on the Windows OS. You need to verify that the app you want to use supports Cross Over.
Final note
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