- Recently released Parallels Desktop 18 can deploy Windows virtual machines (VMs) with just one click.
- The application offers impressive performance improvements allowing users to play Windows-only games inside virtual machines.
- Since Apple Silicon is based on ARM architecture, it deploys Windows for ARM, which experts say is not as polished as the standard version.
Parallels has announced a new version of its virtual machine (VM) software for macOS, which claims to make it easier than ever to run Windows 11 on Apple Silicon.
Virtualization is generally considered too geeky a process for average desktop users, but it only takes one click to install Windows 11 on the new Parallels Desktop 18. With dramatically improved performance and the ability to work with Xbox controllers and PlayStation to play Windows games only, first reviews on Twitter seem to suggest that Apple Silicon Macs are the best Windows PCs, although the experts aren’t buying any of them.
“While you can technically run Windows 11 on your Apple Silicon hardware, that doesn’t make it the best Windows box out there,” JumpCloud senior product manager Tom Bridge told Lifewire via email. “Until Microsoft does the work to make the license work, and until they put some elbow grease into the ARM version of Windows, it’s going to be [an unconventional] best solution.”
Unprecedented release
Apple hardware users have long used Parallels Desktop to run Windows, and even Linux, in a virtual machine on their Mac. With the latest version of Parallels Desktop 18, the application introduced a host of new features, the main feature being the ability to launch into a fully functional Windows 11 virtual machine through an automated process that does all the tedious work.
The ARM-based Apple Silicon chips inside the latest generation of Macs can no longer run the standard version of Windows designed for Intel x86 chips. That’s why Parallels Desktop 18, running on the latest generation Mac, uses the ARM version of Windows.
During Windows 11 virtual machine setup, Parallels Desktop 18 allows Mac M1 and M2 owners to download and purchase Windows 11 for ARM from within the app.
However, the biggest downside of running any type of software through virtualization is the impact on performance. Because virtualization creates hardware within software, any applications running on virtualized hardware perform much worse than when running on hardware for which they were designed.
However, in its press release, Parallels claims that applications running inside virtual machines in its latest version run just as well as on the hardware they were designed for. It claims that its M1 optimizations provide up to 96% better performance than the previous version of Parallels Desktop.
“We are proud of our engineering team who continue to drive innovation to deliver a remarkably more powerful and seamless Parallels Desktop for Mac experience to our users,” said Prashant Ketkar, CTO and products at Corel, which acquired Parallels. in 2018, in the press release. “It’s as simple and easy to use as possible, and our users can rely on Parallels Desktop for Mac to focus on the job at hand.”
original solution
One of the biggest benefits of using a virtualization tool like Parallels is that it lets Mac owners seamlessly work with macOS and Windows exclusive apps simultaneously. The latest version improves this even further by allowing Mac owners to play Windows games that are incompatible with Apple devices.
An user posted a video on Twitter to play Need for Speed: Most Wanted on a virtualized Windows 11 virtual machine inside his MacBook Pro M1. In the video, he can be seen using a wireless Logitech gamepad, and the gameplay looks smooth.
Bridge, however, isn’t impressed, saying that while it is indeed possible to virtualize Windows for ARM on Apple Silicon, there are a few quirks.
“First, and this is the most important part: you cannot currently license Windows 11 on ARM processors,” Bridge said. “That should be fixed someday, but it’s probably not a priority for anyone in the decision-making process right now.”
He’s also not entirely sold on the performance advantage, which has more to do with Windows for ARM than Parallels.
“It’s a complete platform to a new architecture, and it’s not something Microsoft has had to do as often as Apple (three times in two decades),” Bridge explained. “There are idiosyncrasies with Windows on ARM, which means it’s just not as polished a product.”
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