With Apple’s transition to the M1 processor in 2020, the company decided to not develop Boot Camp for the M-series Macs. 2006 also was the year that Apple switched from PowerPC processors to Intel, and since Windows runs on Intel silicon, Apple was able to provide the benefit of running Windows (as well as Linux) natively on Mac hardware–though Apple always reminded users that it did not provide support for Mac hardware running non-Mac operating systems.Īpple’s M-series chips use the Arm architecture, which is different from the x86 architecture in Intel processors, so the version of Windows that runs on Intel PCs will not work on M-series Macs.

Parallels International The final nail in Boot Camp’s coffinīoot Camp became an official part of the Mac operating system in 2006 as part of Mac OS X Leopard. Microsoft has authorized Parallels as a solution for running Windows for Arm on an M-Series Mac. (When I asked Microsoft PR about unauthorized VMs, they referred me to the beforementioned support document and said that they have nothing further to share at this time.) The only other authorized option for running Windows on a Mac is to use Microsoft’s Windows 365 online service and run a Cloud PC. VMware Fusion, QEMU, and other virtual machines don’t offer a way to get Windows for Arm (though they can run it), and these VMs appear to be still unauthorized.

Microsoft does not sell Windows for Arm as a standalone product, but you can download and install Windows 11 directly through Parallels. Microsoft’s announcement specifically names Parallels as an authorized solution. The authorization is a big deal because it means that in business environments, Parallels and Windows on Arm can be deployed, and users can get support if they run into problems. However, on Thursday Microsoft announced through a support document that Parallels Desktop 18 is now “authorized” to run Arm versions of Windows 11 Pro and Windows 11 Enterprise on M1 and M2 Macs.

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