Work laptop: MBP w/ Windows VM or Surface Laptop 7 or ???

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Here's the thing: at work we get a lot of freedom in choosing our devices and simply put we get a budget with which we can choose either a MacBook or a Windows laptop. But the past year or so the company has put in some device management (Intune for those familiar with it) in place together with some security measures. Basically this means that if you want to use the actual apps like Outlook for mail, Teams and OneDrive sync, you have to enrol the device. You can simply not do that and use all these things in the browser, which is what I did the past year or so on my personal M1 Pro MBP.

However, for me personally there are a couple of non-ideal situations:

• I cannot sync my work files (OneDrive) so I need to work fully in the browser and often download a file, edit it locally and then upload it again. (Honestly: using Outlook and Teams on the web is perfectly fine, it's file sync and editing Word/Excel/PowerPoint files which do not always show correctly in a browser).
• I use a lot of non-work tools (which is allowed) for note taking, markdown writing, coding/scripting and a lot of these are macOS-only. Now mind you: for work Windows would be enough, and there are alternatives, I just don't like them and there's no sync between the macOS apps/tools I use and their Windows alts because they're simply different apps.
• Sometimes, like once or twice a week I need to use a Windows VM for mainly some scripting which requires some PowerShell modules not available on macOS. That's fine because they do run on my Windows 11 arm VM.
• I use my MacBook for personal stuff as well as some side hustles. And for this reason I don't want my company controlling this and seeing what I'm using it for. Now, like I said: it's totally possible to work within the browser, but the thing is that it's frowned upon to be doing that on your main device. It's basically only meant for a secondary personal device and we're meant to use an enrolled and controlled work device.

So I'm trying to figure out my options and so far I've come to these options and side-effects:

• Ordering a Surface Laptop 7. This would mean I can use my MBP M1 Pro for personal/side stuff and the SL7 for work. But that also means there's zero sync so to speak between the two and I do have to use two devices. Since my work is very flexible and sometimes involves waiting times, I'm not used to straight away using my MacBook for a side project when I need to wait for my paid job. Sometimes that's 2-3 hours. Going with a SL7 means physically switching my device and keeping both at my desk (I work 80% at home).
• Ordering a M4 Pro MBP. This would mean 2 things: I can either replace my M1 Pro and sell that or keep using both. My preference would be to use the M4 Pro for personal / side projects and the M1 Pro could then be wiped, reinstalled and enrolled with the company. I can still use my personal iCloud to sync with certain tools like Bear which I use for work, I don't mind that, and I can turn off all really personal stuff on the company enrolled device like Photo library and such. Because replacing the M1 Pro really doesn't do much because I'd still need to enrol it. The major downside of not selling the M1 Pro is that an M4 Pro MBP is a few hundred euros outside of my budget and selling the M1 Pro would more or less cover that.
• In the past (on x64 Intel Macs with x64 Windows VMs) either VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop allowed you to visually use Windows apps as if they were macOS apps but that functionality doesn't seem to exist anymore on Arm devices, is that correct? Because for me, I could also very well enrol a Windows 11 Arm VM which resides on my MacBook and use the OneDrive sync and Office apps from there. This would also mean I'd just have to start the VM's OneDrive app and configure it to pass through its folder to macOS to be able to access the files in both systems. This would be the ideal situation for me as it means I can simply use a single device for everything.

So my question is: are there people in a similar situation and what did you decide to do? Or are there any other alternatives to these options?

To reiterate: my main priorities are to preferably not have to use 2 physical devices, have sync capabilities for my work files and keep work and personal separated.

 

[BigBlur]

My company is pretty similar. We have the option to use a company-provided device and use a VPN, or choose our own device and use a VDI (essentially a Remote Desktop infrastructure that they have). I chose the latter and use my Mac for personal use and log into the VDI for work. Sounds like your company doesn't have that, but perhaps you could see if they're interested in setting something like that up for their employees? Citrix, Omnissa, and Azure Virtual Desktop are a few examples. If it's a smaller company, then it may not be quite as feasible.

In the past (on x64 Intel Macs with x64 Windows VMs) either VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop allowed you to visually use Windows apps as if they were macOS apps but that functionality doesn't seem to exist anymore on Arm devices, is that correct?

You can do this with Parallels Desktop. It's called Coherence Mode and works with Windows 11 on Arm. VMWare Fusion never supported this feature for Apple Silicon, and they even dropped it from Intel in Fusion 13.6. (They called it Unity Mode.)

 

[AddVariety]

My company is pretty similar. We have the option to use a company-provided device and use a VPN, or choose our own device and use a VDI (essentially a Remote Desktop infrastructure that they have). I chose the latter and use my Mac for personal use and log into the VDI for work. Sounds like your company doesn't have that, but perhaps you could see if they're interested in setting something like that up for their employees? Citrix, Omnissa, and Azure Virtual Desktop are a few examples. If it's a smaller company, then it may not be quite as feasible.


You can do this with Parallels Desktop. It's called Coherence Mode and works with Windows 11 on Arm. VMWare Fusion never supported this feature for Apple Silicon, and they even dropped it from Intel in Fusion 13.6. (They called it Unity Mode.)

Thanks! I see what you mean, unfortunately I've been told in the past that they've moved away from a VDI infrastructure and they went all-in on purely cloud based, basically everything Microsoft has to offer.

The Coherence Mode with Parallels Desktop sounds very very enticing. I've just checked their website and it looks like this could be the solution for my 'problem'. I'm downloading it right now and will try to enrol the Windows 11 Arm VM to my company with my current M1 Pro and if that's working as expected I know I can simply order a M4 Pro MacBook Pro and all i have to do is pay for the Parallels Desktop license myself.

On that note: is there any benefit to the Pro version? I notice that the base version is limited to 4 vCPUs and 8 GB RAM, I don't do a lot besides the Office apps and some scripting which is actually why I need Windows, but that's just simple text/code and not compiling like actual developers.

 

[BigBlur]

On that note: is there any benefit to the Pro version? I notice that the base version is limited to 4 vCPUs and 8 GB RAM, I don't do a lot besides the Office apps and some scripting which is actually why I need Windows, but that's just simple text/code and not compiling like actual developers.

I don't think so. I use the Standard version, and it works fine for me. Keep in mind that you need to save some CPU and RAM for the host OS as well...so you may not be able to go much higher anyway, depending on your specs. You can always upgrade to Pro later if you end up thinking it's something you need.

 

[AddVariety]

I don't think so. I use the Standard version, and it works fine for me. Keep in mind that you need to save some CPU and RAM for the host OS as well...so you may not be able to go much higher anyway, depending on your specs. You can always upgrade to Pro later if you end up thinking it's something you need.

That's true. The price difference between the two isn't something major anyway and right now there's a sale, so a good time to start with the base version though I'll be maximising my 14 day trial first.

Currently I'm using a base 16" M1 Pro, so 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD and 10 cores. I'm thinking about going for the base 16" M4 Pro which has 24 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD and 14 cores, which is a significant boost already. Both in terms of RAM and cores, but also M4 vs M1 in identical specs would be an improvement so there's that.

I've just been using Windows 11 on Parallels and was able to connect it to my company. I did have to enable BitLocker to be allowed to access email/Teams/etc but then everything worked practically flawlessly. I was used to using VMWare Fusion but wow Parallels is so much faster and smoother, it's insane.

 

[SteveJUAE]

That's true. The price difference between the two isn't something major anyway and right now there's a sale, so a good time to start with the base version though I'll be maximising my 14 day trial first.

Currently I'm using a base 16" M1 Pro, so 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD and 10 cores. I'm thinking about going for the base 16" M4 Pro which has 24 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD and 14 cores, which is a significant boost already. Both in terms of RAM and cores, but also M4 vs M1 in identical specs would be an improvement so there's that.

I've just been using Windows 11 on Parallels and was able to connect it to my company. I did have to enable BitLocker to be allowed to access email/Teams/etc but then everything worked practically flawlessly. I was used to using VMWare Fusion but wow Parallels is so much faster and smoother, it's insane.

I have nothing but issues with Parallels on my MB Pro M2 16" 16GB ram with std or pro version, but my MB Pro M3 24GB ram is fine, if anything I would suggest minimum 32GB ram and use the pro version where you call allocate memory if needed.

My company set up is not dissimilar to yours. I only use Apple hardware for 2 reasons battery endurance and generally if my laptop fails I can find an Apple store or retailer worldwide and buy a new one in hours and be back up and running rapidly as I WFH/Travel.

This has happened twice to me I and I have purchased my replacement MB's in Malaysia, Thailand and UK. I simply then get the defective device repaired at my leisure and give it to the kids as I do not want to travel with 2 laptops.

My biggest issue is authentication for my laptop logon and my mobile must be registered with my company and this is not an easy process and very invasive having work profile on your phone as they dictate passwords etc, so I carry 3 phones, Personal Fold 6, company set up Flip 5 and Iphone 16P for fun