A discreet partnership has just been concluded between Microsoft and Parallels, the publisher of virtualization software well known to hackers.
An article published on the Windows 11 support page tells us that the M1 and M2 processors ofApple are now officially authorized to launch the operating system.
Windows 11 virtualization made easy on the latest Macs
In details, ” Parallels® Desktop version 18 is an authorized solution for running Arm® versions of Windows 11 Professional and Windows 11 Enterprise in a virtual environment on its platform on Apple M1 and M2 computers ”, teaches us the blog post of Microsoft.
Named after the famous virtual machine software, Parallels is therefore officially approved by the Redmond giant to be able to use Windows 11, in its ARM version, on Macs equipped with an M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max or M2, M2 Pro chip. and M2 Max.
Parallels 18, whose license costs €99.99, takes care of everything. It only takes one click to install Windows 11 ARM, which can be launched directly from macOS in a separate window, as shown in this video.
Concretely, what changes is that Windows 11 ARM is now able to take advantage of the specificities of Apple’s chips. Previously, real-time translation of instructions was required for Microsoft’s OS to run properly. We must therefore expect better performance in this type of configuration.
Windows in the cloud
That’s not all. In its post, Microsoft also recalls the existence of Windows 365 Cloud PC, its own virtualized machine solution running on Windows 11 Professional.
Like a Shadow, for example, this allows you to take advantage of a real Windows desktop in the cloud, and therefore to overcome the technical limitations imposed by the ARM version of the OS (certain incompatible applications and games, in particular ).
An expensive option, however, billed from €28.20 excluding tax / month and per user.
Finally, remember that if your need is limited to the use of a few Windows software only, CrossOver could be a preferred solution. It spares the installation, sometimes painful, of a virtual machine to concentrate on the compatibility of hundreds of applications and games on macOS.