So far, Microsoft hasn’t offered any clues about whether it will be willing to open up the ARM-based version of Windows to Mac users, but for now the answer remains no. Craig Federighi, Apple Senior Vice President, Software Engineering

But the Macs are certainly very capable of it. But that’s a decision Microsoft has to make, to bring to license that technology for users to run on these Macs. We have the core technologies for them to do that, to run their ARM version of Windows, which in turn of course supports x86 user mode applications. In an interview with Ars Technica, Federighi joined his colleagues Johny Srouji and Greg Joswiak to talk about Apple Silicon in general, and while much of it touted the great things we’ve already heard about the M1 SoC and the future of Apple’s own chip development, when it came to running Windows on M1 Macs, Federighi made it clear that there’s no reason Apple’s new architecture won’t support it, but it’s ultimately up to Microsoft to make that call. Notably, though, Apple isn’t ruling out the possibility of being able to run Windows on M1 Macs, and in fact Apple’s Senior VP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, has punted that ball solidly into Microsoft’s court. It’s not so much the virtualization itself - Parallels is already at work on an ARM-based version of Parallels Desktop for Apple’s new M1 Macs - but whether it will be possible to run the Windows operating system in that environment from both a technical and legal perspective.Īt this point, Microsoft only offers an ARM-based version of the Windows operating system to very specific hardware platforms, such as its own Surface tablets which use Qualcomm chips it’s not available for normal consumers to simply purchase off the shelf.įurther, even though it could be theoretically possible for Parallels to emulate the x86 instruction set to natively run the standard Intel version of Windows, there’s a quagmire of licensing issues to sort out that would prevent end users from legally doing so, and might even block companies like Parallels from actually offering support for it - at least officially.

However, there’s still one glaring limitation that may prevent many users from taking the plunge just yet: the ability to natively run Windows on the new architecture.Īpple has made it absolutely clear that Boot Camp - the technology that’s allowed Windows to be installed on a separate partition and dual-boot with macOS - is not and will not be supported on the new M1 MacBooks and Mac mini, and although Apple hasn’t closed the door to virtualization using apps such as Parallels, it remains a huge grey area right now. The new lineup of Apple Silicon Macs have pleasantly surprised everyone with the sheer power and performance of the new M1 chip, with the new entry-level models running circles around even Apple’s highest-end Intel MacBooks.

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