What has been your experience with Windows 11 on Macs?

[Laai]

Hi everyone,

I'm pondering whether or not to install Windows 11 on my 27" iMac 2020 and I'd like to know how's your experience with Win11 on a Mac so far? Once install, are Windows Updates causing any issue? How are the drivers (I am using bootcampdrivers.com)? Just general impressions would be nice.

I tried looking for similar topics, bust most of them are just troubleshooting/how to install Win 11 Threads, but none of them talk about general life with the machine.

My current use case is: I only use Windows 11 to play a game or two (CS:GO), nothing more.

Thanks for the help!

 

[carylee2002]

I looked into upgrading my windows 10 to 11 a few weeks ago. Would need to use a hack to go there but to me my windows 10 is so stable and I can run all my games through it that I just abandoned the idea since Window 10 is still supported and 11 is relatively new.

 

[A.Goldberg]

I feel like everyone I know that uses Windows is perfectly comfortable sticking with Windows 10. I feel like from what I’ve read, most people seem to think it’s not bad, but have bugs here and there and want to UI to look more like traditional Windows.

It’s actually funny because my coworker asked me to look at her personal laptop because the WiFi wasn’t working. I open it up to see a totally unfamiliar UI having never used or looked at Windows 11 screenshots. I honestly thought it was some version of Linux and was totally lost.

This person had a less than 2 year old laptop and upgraded to Windows 11 and the WiFi stopped working. I figure it’s a driver comparability problem, but couldn’t figure it out, nor could our IT people.

I guess the question is will the Windows community (particularly the business users) actually upgrade or just stick with Windows 10… just like how few people switched to Vista and stuck with XP, or how people kept Windows 7 over Windows 8. Or Windows ME never superseding Windows 98. It seems like every other OS generation gets skipped.

My Dad’s company has a consulting contract with the DOE, therefore he is issued a DoE laptop for all DoE related business. Up until the SolarWinds Hack (2022?), they were using Windows 7, despite issuing brand new computers. After the hack, they replaced all the computers and switched to Windows 10. Windows 7 was released in 2009! And the govt had to pay millions to get Microsoft to continue updates past its EOL.

 

[pshufd]

I run Windows 10 on my custom PC but may be upgrading to Windows 11 for WSL2. I have been running Windows 11 ARM on my M1 Pro MacBook Pro under UTM for a few months and it is solid. The UI is different though. I would not have a problem using either - I'm on Windows 10 on my PC because it works and because, initially, it was a real pain in the neck to try to upgrade. The upgrade actually bricked my system for several hours. I assume that this problem is in the current releases.

 

[kailesophia]

when I upgraded my system to windows 11, it was quite difficult for me. Windows 10 interface was friendly. but yeah, its initialization is slow.

 

[Yebubbleman]

For Intel Macs to meet the minimum system requirements for Windows 11:

- Apple needs to enable TPM 2.0 from the Intel processors themselves. This is only supported on the Intel processors found in 2018 and newer Macs.

- Apple's implementation of Secure Boot would need to be supported by Microsoft for Windows 11 (it may already be supported; I'm not sure) - however, Apple only has Secure Boot implemented on Intel Macs that have the T2 Security Chip

- Said Macs would need an 8th Generation Intel Core or newer CPU; the Xeons from the iMac Pro are not supported, though the ones from the 2019 Mac Pro ought to be

So, AT BEST, the Macs that would be supported to run Windows 11 via Boot Camp would be:

MacBook Pro - 2018, 2019, 2020 (all sizes)
Mac mini - 2018
MacBook Air - 2018, 2019, 2020
iMac - 2020 (27-inch only)
Mac Pro - 2019

That's not to say that you can't install Windows 11 on an earlier Intel Mac nor with these Intel Macs sans drivers/TPM 2.0 being enabled, just that it won't be fully supported (usually a good thing to have when you want to be confident in something working).

Otherwise, so long as you are running a new enough version of either Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion, you ought to be able to spin up a Windows 11 VM on any Mac able to run versions of either of those that support creating Windows 11 VMs.