I‘m sure Corel (owner of Parallels Desktop) would be willing to be an “OEM” for Windows on ARM. It would open up enterprise sales (no large business is going to deploy Windows on M1 Macs while Windows licensing is at best ambiguous). Also, it would ensure that there is a viable business model for Parallels Desktop. As it stands, Microsoft can crack down on Windows on M1 Macs at any time if it wanted to.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
There's No Windows for Arm Macs Yet Because Microsoft Has Secret Exclusivity Deal With Qualcomm
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I‘m sure Corel (owner of Parallels Desktop) would be willing to be an “OEM” for Windows on ARM. It would open up enterprise sales (no large business is going to deploy Windows on M1 Macs while Windows licensing is at best ambiguous). Also, it would ensure that there is a viable business model for Parallels Desktop. As it stands, Microsoft can crack down on Windows on M1 Macs at any time if it wanted to.
So MS has this 'preview' build to get around the clause, smart.
I've been running the preview build in Parallels for a while. It seem pretty complete to me. Obviously, having a fully licensed copy of Win11 would be more comfortable, I suppose.
It's amazing how this new MBP is. Windows runs better than anything I've used before natively. Pretty funny.
Btw, Win11 is very good. Just aheads up.
I've been running the preview build in Parallels for a while. It seem pretty complete to me. Obviously, having a fully licensed copy of Win11 would be more comfortable, I suppose.
It's amazing how this new MBP is. Windows runs better than anything I've used before natively. Pretty funny.
Btw, Win11 is very good. Just aheads up.
Possibly, but it's still a rate of return calculation.
I think MS would rather license Windows 365 Cloud PC to enterprises rather than have them buy a VM where they would make less money.
Tye might get sales from people who won't pay for Windows 365 Cloud PC but that means supporting non- Qualcomm ARM processors and the associated development costs for what is likely very little revenue.
Parallels booting Windows 11 on an M1 Max is the fastest cold boot time of any disk-based operating system I have ever used. That includes Apple DOS 3, if you can believe it. It's almost a whole minute faster than Ubuntu! There is essentially no point to suspending/resuming it.
It was always better for most uses. If IBM/Motorola had their s*** together Apple would’ve never gone CISC at all.
There’s an alternate reality where IBM chose Motorola for the PC instead of Intel… would’ve saved Apple two architecture transitions.
Actually the preview accepts a Win11/Win10 product code and can be activated easily that way
I fully agree - this is the best Windows experience I *ever* had (including Windows only laptops).
It is just there - no fan noise, no lag - nothing.
The applications (although the whole office is emulated on Win ARM) run fast and without any problem.
I am reverting to the (better) Windows version of Office instead of the (somehow restricted) Mac versions -
and I am thinking of doing a Work (Win ARM) Private (MacOS) split via VMs - again.
I first tried that a couple of years ago with my x64 MBP16 (I specially got the 64GB version at the time for that) and it was a mess making the machine unresponsive and loud. Seems these times are over now.
Nope, it's just the OS.
Just read the OEM EULA for Windows on Arm -- it states that it can only be distributed with the hardware it runs on and there is no way to purchase a retail copy of Windows on Arm because Microsoft doesn't sell one -- see the news about the Qualcomm exclusivity agreement.
ok, but you use the license to “activate” the os, whatever that even means (removing a watermark?)
The point is that you may be technically able to activate the OS but still not allowed to use it.
No, you don't use the license, you use the key to activate it. Agreed, Microsoft is REAL loose with their terminology with the activation wizard, but I have to go beyond that and read EULA's, it's part of my job -- it would not be good to get threatened to be sued by Microsoft, nor would it be good if Microsoft just went ahead and stopped it from working.
If you're interested, just google "Windows on Arm Licensing". There's plenty of info and analysis out there on the subject...
Personally, I do believe that this will change, but I've already spent way, way too much time on this thread arguing with people about it.
I will say, for the record, I still like MacOS better. I will grant that a lot of that is just familiarity that comes with more frequent use. But most of it is that I am a Unix guy at heart.
I also do - but Windows has come a long way. And with the linux subsystem they can even render graphical applications natively by now.
i see
thanks for explaining
just to make sure i get it, the software allows you to use the key to activate the licence in a manner that breaks the terms of the eula?
In principle.
My own opinion (and I'm not a lawyer, and even if I were I wouldn't be your lawyer) is that I am not violating the spirit of the license, as I have paid for it.
No, it just activates the OS, not the "license". Activation and license are 2 different things. Note that I am not a lawyer nor a Microsoft employee or licensing expert.
in that case i’m still left with the question of what exactly activating the os actually means or entails in a licensing or legal sense ?
what if i buy a license but never activate the os?
(i’m not arguing anything here just genuinely looking to understand)
From what I gather from this mess LOL, is that with any Win 10 or 11 key you can activate the OS, which is just getting rid of some nag type limitations.
It's not a purchase which requires a license, which isn't available because it's a pre-release, and won't be available unit this thing with Qualcomm is over.
You are not breaking the law. Don't let these people scare you.
Happy thanksgiving!
Btw, you always can get Win 10 activation keys on Ebay for about $5. They show up daily, and then are taken down by Ebay because they are volume keys used by large organizations, and aren't meant for this type of sale. Are they legal?
Well if it works it's legal. Easy as that. It's not a keygen, it's a legit volume key. But after a while they expire for activation. You still get updates, and all, but you can't use they key again after a while. I'm not sure if it's a time thing of volume thing. Most likely it's used up. When I recently tired to activate this Arm build, I tried all sorts of volume keys. You can find them even on a lot of MS sites. They are all over the place. One of them usually works, but not this time. So frustrating LOL.
It's not a purchase which requires a license, which isn't available because it's a pre-release, and won't be available unit this thing with Qualcomm is over.
You are not breaking the law. Don't let these people scare you.
Happy thanksgiving!
Btw, you always can get Win 10 activation keys on Ebay for about $5. They show up daily, and then are taken down by Ebay because they are volume keys used by large organizations, and aren't meant for this type of sale. Are they legal?
Well if it works it's legal. Easy as that. It's not a keygen, it's a legit volume key. But after a while they expire for activation. You still get updates, and all, but you can't use they key again after a while. I'm not sure if it's a time thing of volume thing. Most likely it's used up. When I recently tired to activate this Arm build, I tried all sorts of volume keys. You can find them even on a lot of MS sites. They are all over the place. One of them usually works, but not this time. So frustrating LOL.
Last edited:
Activating removes a watermark but also enables various random features, including various personalization stuff (change the wallpaper, colors, etc.). Some Windows versions also lock you out entirely after a while (for example, Windows Server needs to be activated after 180 days).
I'm not sure what you're getting at, though. It isn't really relevant to the VM discussion — you can activate Windows and still not meet the licensing terms.