Software
You Can Now Run Windows 10 On Arm On Apple’s M1 Macs And More
Parallels recently released an update to its Desktop virtual machine software, allowing M1 Mac owners to install Windows 10 on Arm. The 16.5 version now properly supports users running the Arm version of Windows 10 on MacBooks with the M1 processor.
Parallels Desktop's latest version even allows users to run traditional x86 apps alongside Mac applications. When emulating Windows 10, however, it is expected that there will be numerous limitations. Furthermore, x64-based applications and their emulation will be supported soon.
In comparison to running software on Intel-based Macs, the latest 16.5 version of Parallels Desktop, according to Corel, delivers better results in terms of performance and battery life. Furthermore, when compared to an Intel-based MacBook Air, the 16.5 update uses up to 250 percent less energy on an M1 Mac. Running the Arm version of Windows 10 on an M1 Mac instead of a Windows 10 VM on an Intel-based MacBook Pro promises up to 60% better DirectX 11 performance and up to 30% better overall virtual machine performance.
One of the few drawbacks is that you'll need to run a preview version of Windows 10 to get it to work, as Microsoft only licenses the Arm version to PC manufacturers.
Parallels Desktop 16.5 supports Linux distros such as Ubuntu 20.04, Kali Linux 2021.1, Debian 10.7, and Fedora Workstation 33-1.2 in addition to Windows.
