Will Windows 11 operate on Apple M1 Macs?

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 11 on Apple’s M1 is not “a supported scenario” for the operating system.

The tech giant has launched an ad campaign for the Windows 11 OS, due in less than a month, and continued tweaking the preview code for Windows Insiders via the Dev and Beta Channels.

It was reported last week that a Windows 11 Virtual Machine running on an M1 Mac with Parallels Desktop 17 had begun throwing a hardware compatibility error on a Dev Channel Windows Insider build.

In what can be dubbed an arms race, Parallels has since emitted version 17.0.1 of its software, which seems to resolve the issue for now at least, allowing Windows to run on M1 silicon.

Asked whether running Windows 11 on an M1 Mac in Parellels is supported, a Microsoft spokesperson said it’s an unsupported scenario. Running the OS directly on the hardware isn’t supported, either.

New builds

The tech giant has rolled out a new 60-second spot featuring the wonders of Windows 11.

It also sought to make amends for last week’s Insider release that left some users with severely borked taskbars and Start Menus.

Build 22000.184, aimed at Beta Channel and commercial PCs in the Release Preview Channel, was relatively light on changes, as one would hope with the release date for Windows 11 now less than a month away.

However, users still face some issues, including bugchecks for some Surface Pro X (Microsoft’s own Arm-based flagship) users and ongoing problems with disappearing taskbars and non-functional Start Menus.

Dev Channel users, with build 22454 available, also shared in the Pro X woes, but got many more changes, including the arrival of a modern context menu on the recycle bin and a variety of taskbar and settings fixes.

With general availability imminent, it is a bit of a worry to see bugchecks still cropping up as known issues. Then again, with Microsoft not supporting the scenario of Windows on Arm in a VM atop the Apple M1, if only Pro X users are impacted, will anyone really notice?