Parallels M1 Pro: A Game-Changer for Virtualization

Ever since Apple announced its first Macs powered by in-house ARM processors, more and more companies have had to update their apps to run natively on the new silicon. This is because Intel-based apps need to be emulated, resulting in some performance overhead. Fortunately, Parallels has just announced the general availability of version 16.5 of its virtualization software, Parallels Desktop for Mac, which brings native support for Apple's new M1 chipset.

The unsupported applications on ARM architecture are few and far between. According to our own tests and feedback from customers, only a limited number of apps are not supported yet in Windows 11 on ARM. However, if you experience an issue with 3rd-party applications, we advise you to try following the steps from KB 128796.

Parallels Desktop for Mac computers with Apple M-Series chips has some limitations compared to Parallels Desktop for Mac computers with Intel processors due to the peculiarities of ARM architecture. These limitations are listed below:

On the bright side, thanks to Microsoft's built-in emulator, the majority of applications can easily run in Windows on ARM. Additionally, software applications are heavily dependent on a computer's CPU architecture: an application that is compiled/created for one architecture cannot be easily run on another architecture.

If you're switching from a Mac with an Intel processor to a Mac with Apple M-Series chip or the other way around, you can copy personal data between Intel-based and ARM-based virtual machines. However, a virtual machine created on a Mac with an Intel processor cannot be used on a Mac with Apple M-Series chip, and vice versa.

Parallels Desktop for Mac computers with Apple M-Series chips offers several features, including:

* Download ready-to-go Windows 11 virtual machine with Visual Studio

* Import VMware, VirtualBox, and Hyper-V virtual machines

* Support for mmap() in Linux Shared Folders

Overall, Parallels M1 Pro is a significant update that brings native support for Apple's new M1 chipset. While there are some limitations to be aware of, the majority of applications can run smoothly on ARM architecture thanks to Microsoft's emulator.

Discuss your experience and findings with others on our Forum!

Parallels m1 pro