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MP All Models Windows ARM on M1 Macs through Opencore
- Thread starter TECK
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ARM Macs are not really compatible with third party bootloaders at this time. Definitely not Opencore. They have a completely different startup sequence and firmware than Intel Macs.
So no.
The M1 firmware doesn't really support boot of anything besides macOS, including third party boot loaders and OSes. There was some work going on to get Linux to support Apple's boot loader.
Keep in mind, even if you can boot Windows, you're going to have bigger problems. Like no drivers for anything on the system. It's not standard hardware. And there definitely are no Windows GPU drivers for Apple Silicon.
So native Windows boot is not likely to happen unless Apple makes it happen.
So no.
The M1 firmware doesn't really support boot of anything besides macOS, including third party boot loaders and OSes. There was some work going on to get Linux to support Apple's boot loader.
Keep in mind, even if you can boot Windows, you're going to have bigger problems. Like no drivers for anything on the system. It's not standard hardware. And there definitely are no Windows GPU drivers for Apple Silicon.
So native Windows boot is not likely to happen unless Apple makes it happen.
Thank you for the useful information. With no Bootcamp available, Apple says is on Windows hands to make compatible their software with Apple hardware and also enable proper licensing. Based on this, we are not looking for dual boot OS in the near term like we had with intel processors, if I understand correctly.
Probably not.
Apple has also said it's on Microsoft's hands to make virtualization possible (at present they don't sell licenses for virtualization.) Apple didn't say anything about native boot. They could always change their minds but it seems as of now there will never be support for booting Windows natively. Only virtualization.
Microsoft sells licenses per machine. A virtual machine is still a machine and that’s been Microsoft’s stance for years now.
Why would you expect special rules now?
Microsoft does not provide downloads for Windows on ARM besides the betas. It's not something they sell separately for machines without Windows. Just like Apple doesn't sell macOS for machines without macOS. There is no Windows-for-machines-without-Windows like there is for the x86 version of Windows. You can't just buy it off Microsoft's web site.
Try finding a download outside of the insider program. (Cause you can't.)
People virtualizing it are using the beta/insider version. But there is no consumer version of it.
Here's the official download site. No ARM version.
According to Microsoft, the only way to get an Windows ARM PC is to buy an Windows ARM PC. You can't custom build them so why sell a separate license?
(Windows 10 for ARM is also only technically supported/certified on Qualcomm devices. So if you ever ask Microsoft for support they'll tell you to go away. Windows 10 on Apple Silicon has weird gaps like not being able to run ARM32 executables because Apple's chipsets don't support that while Qualcomm's do.)
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I know all of that.
But I asked why you expect special rules now.
You implied that Microsoft was denying people licenses for virtualization but that has never been the case and it’s not the case now.
Windows for Arm is still in beta and if it ever becomes a full consumer OS I’m sure it will be licensed like every other consumer OS from Microsoft.
Correct. Like I said, they don't license it now. They will license it as a consumer OS if they decide to release it as a consumer OS. But will or could is not the same thing as do.