Microsoft adds “official” support for Windows 11 on Macs with Apple chips

3 years ago 1

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Users with Apple Mac computers powered by the company’s own M-series chips now have an “official” way to use Windows 11 on their systems.

Microsoft recently published a support article on its website which provides options for using its latest operating system on machines with Apple M1 and M2 processors.

Aside from using the cloud-based version of Windows 11, the company said users could run Windows 11 Pro or Windows 11 Enterprise in a virtual environment via Parallels Desktop version 18.

Apple’s M-series chips are built on Arm-based architecture instead of the x86 architecture used by Intel and AMD.

Previously, owners of MacBooks with M1 or M2 chips could run Windows 11 in Parallels, but only if they were using an Insider Preview version of the OS.

Microsoft said this was now an “authorised” way of running Arm versions of the operating system.

However, the solution comes with some significant limitations.

Firstly, any apps or systems that require an additional layer of virtualisation are not supported.

These include Windows Subsystems for Android and Linux, Windows Sandbox, and virtualisation-based security (VBS).

Furthermore, games and other multimedia apps that run on DirectX 12 or OpenGL3.3 or higher are not supported.

Lastly, 32-bit Arm apps on the Microsoft Store are not supported, although this should not be as much of a dealbreaker as the aforementioned drawbacks.

Microsoft is currently depreciating 32-bit Arm apps for all Windows Arm versions.

Apple also discontinued native support for 32-bit apps several years ago.