Windows 11 on M1 Mac Not Possible Due to Windows & Qualcomm Secret Deal

Microsoft has declined to make a version of Windows 11 available for Apple's M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max Macs that are built on an Arm architecture, and now we may know the reason - a secret exclusivity deal with Qualcomm.

[denisruskin]

The only barricade for this to be a perfect laptop. Work on Mac OS and then boot Windows and Steam for some great gaming on the go.

[tamarockstar]

This was a great feature of macs. I would tell people why buy a windows computer when you can run it on a mac. Or why buy 2 laptops when you can have the best of both in one machine. This is why I haven’t bought the new mac because I’m hoping they will add boot camp support.

[jlj]

Even if we ever get Windows booted on an ARM Mac, there will be no hardware drivers. Apple has effectively abandoned bootcamp even on Intel Macs; which wasn't a huge problem because the drivers from the 1st party like AMD or Intel were better than Apple's bootcamp one anyways.
Well, there are no AMD GPUs or Intel chipsets in ARM Macs. Therefor we would have to rely on Apple to write and distribute Windows drivers for their propitiatory hardware. This is not something I ever see happening.

[MrHacross]

Just tested this via Parallels on an M1 Pro system for a couple of hours and I have to say it worked really well. MS Office apps worked, Teams worked, even installed Cisco VPN Anyconnect software for Win10 ARM and VPN'd in perfectly. I only did a few hours of testing, but this is exactly what I need to run a Windows OS (needed for a few work apps) on my new laptop. I currently have an image (taken off a work laptop) running as a VM on an i7 Mac mini, but it's slower and once VPN'd the only way to use that VM is to sit at a desk (Boo...) or suffer thru WiFi lag (mouse and video) to the Mac mini via Screen Sharing from my laptop. No way to dual-home a VPN'd in VM as that would be a big security hole. Oh yeah... the Win11 ARM even with Outlook loaded used < 4GB of RAM!

[DojoOfCool]

I have used Windows on Mac as well as Linux for work and home. Got to point I didn't care what hardware I had as long as I could install VirtualBox on it and run the OS's I needed for my work. My last job the owner insisted we all run Windows but we all did programming and SysAdmin work so we ran VirtualBox and installed Linux. One guy good friend of the owner did get to use a Mac Mini, but had VirtualBox running Linux on it. I actually like running virtual machines, that way I could run a basic install of OSX or Windows and VirtualBox and no other crap apps. All the apps I worked with were installed on virtual machines, if something went bad I could just delete that virtual machine and reload a last good backup and get back to work.

After that job I went back to working in audio engineering so couldn't use virtual machines anymore, that's what got using Mac again.

[twinkieerella]

I have read something from windows support a few months ago that native Windows 11 on M1 Macs “may happen” and they’ll give us an update this late 2021 (probably around December)

This may not be true…until it happens

[adamhofmann]

I have an M1 16" MacBook Pro Max on order and was told I can run Windows with Parallel. I currently use Windows on my 3 year old MacBook Pro 15" with latest Parallels. It works very well with my ERP software.

After seeing your video I am now concerned that Windows will not work properly on my new M1? My ERP software is a critical application that I use every day. I use Windows 10 pro which is a must for the applications as Windows 10 Home version is not adequate.

[michalbrunacz]

there's a list of programs I currently use at work, that require Windows:
AFMG EASE, EASE FOCUS, Auvitran AVS-monitor, Avid VENUE, BSS London Architect, Dayton DATS, dB Technologies Composer/Network, DiGiCo SD, EV IRIS-NET, EAW Resolution/Pilot, JBL LAC/PerformanceManager, Lake Controller, Lectrosonics ASPEN, LineaResearch SystemEngineer, Martin Audio (all SW), Nexo NS-1, Powersoft Armonia, rePhase, XTA AudioCore
just to name a few of the major ones with no real MacOS alternative.
And to clarify, I'm mainly work as an independent audio consultant, which quite often includes sound system design and tuning.

[paulborneo]

I have not used Windows since 1997 and life is sweet.

[robsamuel]

I use Windows 11 to run Power BI on my 13” M1 MacBook Pro and whilst it was a little buggy originally it runs great now! 👍

[mchambers]

We are running a Windows VM through AWS (Amazon Web Service) and it runs extremely well while not using any computer resources. So far, this has been the best option in this scenario. I am on an M1 Max 16inch MacBook Pro.

[Donnut]

Windows 11 Pro runs great on my M1 MacBook Pro, But would like to see it boot natively because gaming would be a better experience when booted natively.

[joelmcallister]

Thank you for the posting. You asked what Windows App are used, I use ArcGIS on my 2017 MacBook Pro.

[nick-dogg]

Thanks for pointing this out. A lot of people don’t realize this and trying to hype up Qualcomm like it’s going to revolutionize Windows ARM. Truth is, they’ve been holding back the development of windows on arm.

[blswagger]

I use Windows for gaming. I would have bought the new 16" MBP, but I didn't because of the issues mentioned in the video.

[raymart]

My company uses Office including Publisher. I use my MacBook Pro for media editing and have office on my Mac except Publisher which isn’t available on MacOS so when I need it I remote into a Windows machine using VNC Server/Viewer.

[ryanfraley]

This is anti-competitive behavior by Qualcomm and Microsoft, not surprising with the history of those two companies.

[odinsplaygrounds]

The current ARM version of Windows is extremely barebones, with hardly any software support anyway. It wouldn't be like you'd get full access to the standard Windows and all its features and software support through a direct "bootcamp" install, that only works through x86 emulation.

[tim_arterbury]

This would be awesome!
I use Windows on Mac via Parallels to develop VR apps in Unreal Engine for Oculus Quest headsets. Although Unreal Engine runs on Mac, the Oculus specific features I need to develop are only present on Windows.

[mordechaibeizer]

Switched to an all-Mac environment years ago except for Microsoft Money for which I have yet to find a good replacement even though it was sunset years ago. I am delighted with Windows on ARM performance under Parallels on an M1 MacMini. Of course my use case does not really stress Windows but no glitches, no mysterious BSOD, it just works. Nonetheless, I look forward to when a version of Windows on ARM is officially available to use on Apple Silicon devices, preferably without the need for Parallels but I can live with that if need be.