You Can Run Windows 11 for Free on Your Apple Silicon Mac
The latest generation Apple Silicon Macs are powerful and fast, but they can’t run Windows. Fortunately, there is a workaround – and it’s free. This requires using the free VMware Fusion Player and an official copy of ARM for Windows 11. Once installed, you will have an instance of Windows 11 running inside an app on your Mac. It will be real Windows 11, so you can run all your favorite apps. The only thing you can’t do is play, but you can blame Direct X for that.
Download the Windows 11 for ARM ISO from Parallels Desktop for Mac.
Parallels Desktop is the best way to run Windows on your Mac. Unlike VMware Fusion Player, it even supports Direct X so you can also run Windows games on your Mac. But it costs $79 for personal use and we want to run Windows on macOS for free.
To get started, download and run a free trial of Parallels Desktop for Mac and use the setup wizard. Follow it until you see the Download and Install Windows 11 menu. Here, click the “Install Windows” button. Once the download is complete, you can exit the application. Then go to your Downloads folder to find the Windows 11 ISO file.
Install Windows 11 for ARM with VMware Fusion Player
VMware is the industry standard when it comes to emulation apps and they have a free license for personal use of their Fusion Player product. To get started, first register for a personal use license using your VMware account.
After that go to License > Downloads > Manually Download . Then open the downloaded DMG file and double click the VMware Fusion icon to start the installation. Confirm your actions and accept the agreement.
Enter the license key you created earlier, click Continue, and click Finish .
On the next screen, drag the Windows 11 for ARM ISO file onto the screen and click Continue to start the installation. After that, you will see the virtual machine window. Here, click on the Play button to start installing Windows 11. You can select the I don’t have a product key option to skip the process. You can choose the Windows 11 Home option if you’re going to buy a key later (because it’s a cheaper option). Then keep clicking “Next” until the installation is complete.
Install and run Windows 11 for ARM on your Mac
By default, Windows 11 for RM does not include the required virtual network drivers, so we need to bypass network registration in order to get through the Windows setup. You can do this with PowerShell and some quick commands.
When you are on the page “Is this the right country or region?” press Shift + F10 (try Fn + Shift + F10 if that doesn’t work). At the command prompt, enter the following:
OOBE\BYPASSNRO
Windows will reboot and restart the entire installation process. Select your country and keyboard layout and click Yes . You can skip the second page of the keyboard layout.
When you get to the network page, click on the “I don’t have internet” button at the bottom and select ” Continue with limited setup “. Continue the process and accept the privacy settings.
Once Windows restarts, go to Start Menu > PowerShell , right-click, and select Run as administrator . Click Yes to confirm, and in the PowerShell app, type:
Set-ExecutionPolicyRemoteSigned
Press ” A ” to indicate that you want to change the execution policy for all steps. Press the return key and close the PowerShell application.
From the Mac menu, click Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools . In the pop-up window, click the “Install” button to mount the virtual DVD drive. Then open the Windows Explorer application and select the mounted DVD. Locate the PowerShell script called ” Configure “, right-click, select “Run with PowerShell ” and click “Yes” to confirm.
This will finally open the VMware tools to install the driver package. After that, you should have full access to the network. You can now go to Start > Settings > Windows Update > Check for Updates to download the latest updates. You are now, as they say, in business.
If you want to see the complete installation guide, check out this helpful video by 9to5Mac .
[ 9to5Mac ]