Microsoft and Parallels are teaming up to officially bring Windows 11 to your Apple silicon-powered Mac. The pair of companies now offer ARM-compatible virtualized machines for you to use, with one-click installation.
Alludo (the rebranded Corel) has previously announced the compatibility in its Parallels software before, but Microsoft now confirms and makes it official with its new support page (opens in new tab).
This could be very exciting for applications that have traditionally not worked very well on Mac, such as some games or other pieces of software. At the moment, however, things seem a little more restrictive and complicated.
Compatibility issues
Windows 11 runs in what's called Parallels® Desktop version 18, an authorized version available through the new partnership. The program itself is not new, but the fact that Microsoft is involved is. You'll be able to run all the core Windows apps, such as the Edge browser, but other software will be a little trickier. There is a full list on the Microsoft support page (opens in new tab), but here is the general gist of things.
Perhaps most devastating is that DirectX 12 won't run, so all those hoping to play the latest games will be left disappointed. Looks like we won't be able to see just how powerful the Apple Silicon chips are for gaming quite yet.
Also unavailable are apps that require an "additional layer of virtualization", listed by Microsoft below:
- Windows Subsystem for Android (opens in new tab), which enables your Windows 11 device to run Android applications that are available in the Amazon Appstore
- Windows Subsystem for Linux (opens in new tab), which enables a GNU/Linux environment on Windows 11
- Windows Sandbox (opens in new tab), a lightweight desktop environment to safely run applications in isolation
- Virtualization-based Security (VBS) (opens in new tab), which enables customers to create and isolate a secure region of memory from the normal operating system
32-bit apps from the Windows store will also not work, given that "The preferred customer experience is to run 64-bit Arm apps". That doesn't mean that all 64-bit apps will work, and compatibility will be on an app-to-app basis.
To circumnavigate the limitations, Microsoft has Windows 365 Cloud PCs. This is another option that will let users run all Windows-compatible apps in an officially supported virtual machine. This will run on all M-chip Macs including Apple's best MacBook, the new MacBook Pro for 2023, and is available on a per-user subscription basis from Microsoft.
