Parallels Desktop can now run Windows 11 on Apple silicon-powered Macs

Now there’s an official way to run Windows 11 on ARM silicon-powered Macs – the latest version of Parallels Desktop can do it with Microsoft’s blessing. This solution was developed by Parallels and Alludo team.

“Why would you?” some of you may be wondering, but if so, you’re lucky you don’t need software that only works on Windows. Some business apps don’t have macOS versions, but are vital for certain jobs.

Parallels could run Windows before, although previous versions only supported Windows 10. The latest version supports Windows 11, which opens up new possibilities.

Parallels Desktop version 18 supports Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise on all current Apple M Macs. You need a valid Windows license, of course, but this can be managed enterprise-wide with Key Management Services.

Here’s an interesting note – Windows Subsystem for Android, aka Windows 11 Android Emulation, works. This means you can download Android apps from the Amazon App Store and run them on your Mac.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux also works, so Macs can turn into veritable cross-platform development machines since you can test builds of an app for every major operating system under the sun.

As for what’s not supported, DirectX 12 is on that list. Also, you can’t run 32-bit ARM apps for Windows (although Microsoft wants to deprecate them anyway). Learn more about what works and what doesn’t here.

To run the new Parallels Desktop, you need 600MB to install the app, plus an installation (and license) of Windows 11 and, of course, the apps you want to run. You should get near-native performance from the Parallels virtual machine.

Source 1 | Spring 2 | Via