Apple silicon Macs have excellent performance and impressive battery life, and they come running macOS, which is an excellent operating system. Still, you can’t use macOS for everything, so you might be wondering if it’s possible to install Windows on your Apple silicon Mac as well.
Running Windows on an Apple silicon Mac definitely isn’t as simple as it was for Intel-based Macs, but it’s still an option. We’ll discuss all your options below.
You Can’t Use Boot Camp on Apple Silicon Macs
Installing Windows using Boot Camp Assistant was a breeze on older Intel Macs, allowing you to use Windows using the dual-boot method. Unfortunately, Boot Camp isn’t an option on the Apple silicon Macs because they work on a different ARM chip architecture. This makes installing and using Windows on Apple silicon Macs a bit trickier.
Fortunately, you can still run Windows on your Apple silicon Mac using virtualization software. You may need a Windows bootable installation disk to install Windows using this method.
Creating a Windows Bootable Installation Disk
The process of creating a bootable Windows installation USB is quite simple on a Windows PC, but it’s slightly more complicated on a Mac.
First you need to download the Windows 11 ISO file from the Microsoft website, then you can create a Windows installation disk using Terminal. The process involves installing Homebrew first, which you can then use to create the bootable disk.
An easier way around is using a third-party application, which is easier but costs a bit more. We’ve covered both of these methods in a separate article that explains how to create a Windows installation disk on your Apple silicon Mac.
Running Windows Virtualization Software on Apple Silicon
Once you have a bootable Windows installation disk ready, the next step is to install Windows software on your Mac. As mentioned before, due to the lack of an Intel processor, this isn’t possible using Boot Camp Assistant. Additionally, Windows 11 has some stricter requirements regarding the security TPM chips that limit which systems Windows can run on.
Fortunately, different virtualization apps are available to install and run Windows on your Apple silicon Mac. There are various options such as UTM and Parallels Desktop that allow you to install Windows and run it on top of macOS.
We’ve covered both methods in separate articles—UTM is an open-source, virtualization software that lets you run any other operating system on top of your Mac. Parallels Desktop is another virtualization app that allows you to run Windows on a Mac with impressively fast performance.
It’s Still Possible to Run Windows on an Apple Silicon Mac
Apple’s newer silicon Macs brought loads of performance improvements and upgrades. However, they missed out on Boot Camp Assistant. This made installing and using Windows a bit of a challenge since Windows doesn’t support ARM architecture, which is used in Apple’s silicon Macs.
Fortunately, by using the methods above, you can install Windows through virtualization software and use it on your Mac, allowing you to get the best of both worlds.