Microsoft Adds Windows 11 Support for Macs with Apple Processors

Currently only through Parallels: the Boot Camp version is still unavailable.

Microsoft has finally provided an official way to run Windows 11 on Macs with ARM processors, although not without limitations. In a new article on the support site, the company has "authorized" the use of Parallels Desktop 18 to run ARM versions of Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise on Macs with M1 and M2 processors.

However, users will face several restrictions. For instance, running 32-bit applications is impossible, as Microsoft removes support for 32-bit software for all ARM builds of Windows. To use external devices, drivers for the ARM version of Windows will be required.

Additionally, it will not be possible to use applications that provide a virtual environment (since Windows in Parallels is already a virtual environment). This means that running Android applications, the Linux subsystem, or Windows Sandbox will not be possible. If you were planning to use such a setup for gaming, it's not that straightforward: applications with DirectX 12 or OpenGL 3.3 in the minimum system requirements will not run.

It is important to note that technically, running Windows on Macs with M1 through Parallels has been possible since 2021 - and it worked quite well. The only issue was that only test builds of Windows Insider could be installed. Now, we are talking about fully stable versions of the system.

It is not entirely clear how Microsoft changed the licensing order. Until now, the company supplied the ARM version of Windows exclusively to hardware manufacturers - that is, Asus and other brands wanting to release computers with ARM processors and Windows "out of the box".

Of course, the new solution does not provide the same stability and performance as a full Windows installation via Boot Camp, rather than through a virtual environment, but it does not seem that Microsoft will allow such an option anytime soon.