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Windows 11 for Mac in the Works, Says Parallels Desktop

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The popular software for virtualizing Windows on macOS, Parallels Desktop, has confirmed that support for the newly announced Windows 11 is in the works for Mac computers.

Windows-11-Parallels-Feature.jpg

Last week, Microsoft unveiled Windows 11, the next major version of the Windows operating system. Obviously, Windows 11 won't be supported on Mac computers, but as is normal, some Mac users run virtualized desktops on their Mac with Windows.

As reported by iMore, Parallels has confirmed that it is waiting to dig into Windows 11, once all of its features, such as Teams integration and Android apps, are released and part of the Windows 11 Preview build before they starting working on Mac compatibility. As per the report:
"Since Windows 11 has just been announced recently, the Parallels Engineering team is waiting for the official Windows 11 Insider Preview build to start studying changes introduced in the new OS to deliver full compatibility in future Parallels Desktop updates," Nick Dobrovolskiy, SVP of Engineering and Support told iMore. Microsoft's first Insider preview build came out on Monday, but the rollout was a bumpy one and it doesn't include all of the new features that are coming to Windows 11 later this year such as Microsoft Teams integration or support for Android apps.
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No specifics were given, but Parallels did say that it "will surely do everything that's possible to make it happen." On Intel-based Mac computers, users can natively run Windows using Boot Camp, as well as through virtualization. However, running Windows natively through Boot Camp is no longer possible on all Apple silicon Macs, leaving virtualization to be the only option.

Article Link: Windows 11 for Mac in the Works, Says Parallels Desktop
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/07/01/windows-11-on-mac-parallels-desktop/
Last edited:
  • Wow
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Do you know what the problem with Windows is?
They do not know who to be.

Every time they change everything and then you see is the same old thing, because the old things that used to work are the ones that have survived.

It feels like every department is on its own and there is no way to take direction. That is why probable the CEO or the guy who did the presentation video was about to cry.

I like the new interface but in two clicks I know I am going to face the old applications with the same lack of user experience. There is where Macs run on top of them.
 
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R.T.J. said:
Do you know what the problem with Windows is?
They do not know who to be.

Every time they change everything and then you see is the same old thing, because the old things that used to work are the ones that have survived.

It feels like every department is on its own and there is no way to take direction. That is why probable the CEO or the guy who did the presentation video was about to cry.

I like the new interface but in two clicks I know I am going to face the old applications with the same lack of user experience. There is where Macs run on top of them.
Click to expand...
It is a mess isn’t it? Like Windows 10 has the old control panel from Win 7, the “we’re also a tablet” settings from Win 8 and a whole new layer of settings for Win 10. It’s like all you have to do is keep scratching the surface to find the stuff that worked 12 years ago.

I’ll give MS the benefit of the doubt that it’s been cleaned up in Win 11 but the strategy for it seems to be more in-line with competing with Chromebooks then fixing Windows problems.
 
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R.T.J. said:
Do you know what the problem with Windows is?
They do not know who to be.

Every time they change everything and then you see is the same old thing, because the old things that used to work are the ones that have survived.

It feels like every department is on its own and there is no way to take direction. That is why probable the CEO or the guy who did the presentation video was about to cry.

I like the new interface but in two clicks I know I am going to face the old applications with the same lack of user experience. There is where Macs run on top of them.
Click to expand...
It happened slower than I expected...a whole 8 minutes after the original post. Sigh...
 
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FightTheFuture said:
It is a mess isn’t it? Like Windows 10 has the old control panel from Win 7, the “we’re also a tablet” settings from Win 8 and a whole new layer of settings for Win 10. It’s like all you have to do is keep scratching the surface to find the stuff that worked 12 years ago.

I’ll give MS the benefit of the doubt that it’s been cleaned up in Win 11 but the strategy for it seems to be more in-line with competing with Chromebooks then fixing Windows problems.
Click to expand...
The difference is Windows can run on some pretty old hardware. Apple, on the other hand, gives users of older Apple stuff the big middle finger and says "F you" after 5-6 years.
 
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Hopefully Windows 11 will be available and compatible with VMWare and Parallels. I imagine that for the vast majority of users of Windows VMs on the Mac are only using it for the odd app here or there and just needs something that works rather than blistering performance. I for one use a Windows only app almost every day but it doesn't require any kind of real power so any reasonable x86 emulation that might be baked into Windows 11 arm will likely be more than sufficient. If I needed more power, I'd use a dedicated physical Windows machine.
 
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dmylrea said:
The difference is Windows can run on some pretty old hardware. Apple, on the other hand, gives users of older Apple stuff the big middle finger and says "F you" after 5-6 years.
Click to expand...
That's not really true. Any new OS release stops supporting older hardware - Windows 11 is stopping hardware support for a whole load of systems that are only 2-3 years old. Hell, at work, we have a couple of Surface Book 2 laptops that are I believe only a little over 2 years old and they do not support Windows 11. Apple's never released an OS that didn't support their own machines that recent.
 
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It will probably work with both Parallels and VMware eventually. VMware is being more cautious with "official" support, because Microsoft still hasn't made it possible to acquire an ARM Windows license separately from purchasing an ARM Windows PC. So technically, no one is allowed to run it on an ARM Mac at this point, although the Insider Preview version doesn't complain if you run it without a license.
 
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Spanky Deluxe said:
That's not really true. Any new OS release stops supporting older hardware - Windows 11 is stopping hardware support for a whole load of systems that are only 2-3 years old. Hell, at work, we have a couple of Surface Book 2 laptops that are I believe only a little over 2 years old and they do not support Windows 11. Apple's never released an OS that didn't support their own machines that recent.
Click to expand...
Although MS is not officially supporting old hardware (...which is bonkers if you ask me...), the Insider Preview version of Windows 11 has been shown to work just fine on basically anything that runs Windows 10, including some old Athlon 64 X2 and Core 2 Duo systems, once you bypass the install-time compatibility checks. So it seems that this is a business restriction and not a technical restriction.
 
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dmylrea said:
The difference is Windows can run on some pretty old hardware. Apple, on the other hand, gives users of older Apple stuff the big middle finger and says "F you" after 5-6 years.
Click to expand...

As long as MS sticks to it's guns on TPM 2.0. MacOS will support computers older than Windows 11 does. There's even plenty of reports on computers less than a year old not working. Plus loads of people can't figure out how to enable TPM. As much of the computers with TPM support leave it disabled by default.
 
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