Even if the days of native Windows installations on the Mac are over – accompanied by official drivers via Boot Camp – the developer world is working flat out on a replacement. For example, CodeWeavers already showed Crossover 20 that Intel binaries can run on ARM Macs. Parallels has now also taken another important step and released Parallels 16 Technical preview for M1 Macs. But this is only the beginning, according to Parallels, because some of the limitations are still being addressed. Indeed, many Parallels Desktop features need to be developed from scratch, which takes time.
Which is currently not working
An x86-based operating system cannot be installed or executed within a virtual machine. At the same time, the VMs cannot be paused – and ARM32 apps do not work either. Parallels also has to devote itself to construction site Coherence mode, seamless system integration, shared folders and many more functions. As stated in the announcement, a significant milestone has been reached and can now concentrate on such improvements. Eager Parallels users have already taken action and demonstrated what is possible with the Technical Preview. Among other things, “Longhorn“Various screenshots in his Twitter feed.
Windows on ARM on an M1 Mac
From a purely technical point of view, running Windows on ARM via Parallels Technical Preview already works. If you ignore the legal problems for once, because it is well known that Microsoft does not have to acquire the corresponding licenses, this expands the possibilities of an M1 Mac considerably. At the beginning of the week we reported about the new x86 emulation under ARM Windows (see). Even if this goes hand in hand with a loss of performance, it would not be critical for a large part of the programs. There are still many problems to be solved (see among others this article: ), but “Windows on the M1” is no longer as utopian as it was a few weeks ago.