The inability of the Mac with M1 to be able to run Windows 10 might seem like an obvious limitation, but in reality, it’s a major problem for anyone who in one way or another needs to open apps. Windows on their Mac.
For years, Boot Camp has been a great ally of this collective, but once you no longer have it, the possibility of running it is eliminated. Windows natively on Mac with M1, which means you need to use a virtualization application.
A few months ago, Parallels released its latest version of the Software virtualization Parallels Desktop for Mac. Now a new edition of it, Parallels Desktop 16.5 for Mac, provides full native support for Intel and M1 chips. It is accessible to the general public.
This way, if you want to be able to run Windows on your Mac with M1, the solution is to start Parallels Desktop 16.5 to run Windows 10 ARM Insider Preview, the only version of Windows that can be run on computers with Apple Silicon.
How can I use Windows 10 on a Mac M1
In fact, the steps are extremely simple, since it suffices to install the new version of the Software Parallels Desktop 16.5 for Mac on your Mac M1 computer and deploy the virtual environment.
As we anticipated earlier, not all versions of Windows 10 are valid to run on the computer. You will need to obtain the version corresponding to Windows 10 ARM Insider Preview.
This edition of the operating system is available from the Microsoft website and to get it you need to register in the Windows Insider Program. Please note that this is a beta version so some features may not get the most out of their performance.
What other operating systems can I use?
In addition to Windows 10 RT, Parallels confirms that any other ARM64 operating system can be run with this edition of its Software.
This way, users can also run versions of any Linux distribution with maximum functionality, be it Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian GNU or Kali, among others.
Most 32-bit x86 applications work fine on Parallels Desktop. Many others of the 64-bit x86 type are also compliant, and if they don’t, most of them have been redesigned from scratch in order to accommodate.
What about system performance
Despite Microsoft’s lack of optimization, Parallels claims that Windows 10 ARM performs 30% better on a Mac with M1 than Windows on a MacBook Pro with Intel Core i9, and DirectX’s performance is 60%. compared to a MacBook Pro with Radeon GPU Pro 555X.
In addition, the Mac M1 uses 2.5% less power than a 2020 Intel-based MacBook Air.
Best of all is that the main features we had in version 16 of this Software, remain unchanged in the version for Mac with M1, including Coherence mode, keyboard layouts, shared profiles or touch bar controls.
From Parallels, they confirm that they hope to add the ability to run macOS Big Sur in a virtual machine later this year.
Pricing and availability
All versions of Parallels Desktop 16.5 for Mac (Standard Edition, Pro Edition and Business Edition) are compatible with Mac computers equipped with an Intel processor and an M1 chip. In fact, Parallels Desktop subscriptions include free subscriptions to Parallels Access already Parallels Toolbox for Mac and Windows.
The price for new subscribers is $ 79.99, while if you have an older version (Parallels Desktop 14 or 15), you can buy it for $ 49.99. The price for a new permanent license is $ 99.99.
It is always possible to access the fully operational and free version of Parallels Desktop for a period of 14 days, in order to test its functionality and if it really complies with the compatibility of the applications we usually work with on Windows.
If you still have a Mac with an Intel chip, you have other additional alternatives you can consider, such as using Boot Camp. We tell you everything in this article on how to install Windows on a Mac.
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