As of the release of Apple’s M1 MacBooks in November 2020, these virtual machine programs weren’t yet ready to support MacBooks.

Popular virtual machine programs include Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion. You can also run Windows software on Intel Macs through virtual machines. RELATED: What Is Windows 10 on ARM, and How Is It Different? Can You Run Windows Virtual Machines on M1 Macs? Apple Windows 10 on ARM is only available to device manufacturers who want to preinstall it.

Microsoft is working on it.Įven if you were fine with the limitations of Windows 10 on ARM, Microsoft doesn’t make the ARM version of Windows 10 available to download and install on your own devices. Also, it can’t yet run 64-bit Intel Windows applications-only 32-bit programs. It has an emulation layer so it can run Windows software written for Intel chips, but it’s much slower and buggier than the Mac’s translation layer. As of November 2020, this version of Windows isn’t really ready for prime time. You can’t use Boot Camp to install Windows on an M1 MacBook or Mac Mini.Įven if Apple did support Boot Camp on M1 Macs, you could only install the ARM version of Windows 10. Boot Camp only works on Intel-based Macs. However, Boot Camp is not supported on M1 Macs with Apple Silicon. After all, both Intel Macs and PCs have the same hardware architecture. Windows runs on the Mac just as it would on a PC. To switch between Windows and macOS, you have to reboot. RELATED: How the Mac Will Switch From Intel to Apple's Own ARM Chips Do M1 Macs Support Boot Camp?Īpple’s Intel Macs include a feature called “ Boot Camp” that lets you install Windows directly on your Mac. Those apps will run even faster after they’ve been updated to support Apple Silicon.īut what about apps that aren’t Mac apps? Apple There’s a bit of a slowdown due to the translation, but the M1 chip is so fast that they seem to perform just as well as they did on Intel Macs.

Your existing Mac apps will run just fine even if they haven’t been upgraded to support Apple Silicon. This is a custom ARM chip that has more in common with the chips built into iPhones and iPads than the Intel CPUs found in existing Macs.Īpple built into a translation system named Rosetta 2, and it lets these new Macs run Mac applications designed for Intel Macs. Why the M1 Chip Is a Problem For Windows SoftwareĪpple’s M1 chip is the first Apple Silicon chip used in Macs.

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