Late last week, Parallels released a Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac technical preview program that allows Mac M1 owners to use Parallels software. Along with an Arm-based version of Windows available through the Windows Insider program, you can start Windows and run on an Arm-based Mac.
In the most recent YouTube video I installed, I installed Parallels on a Mac M1 and tested Windows, but it didn’t work exactly. When I first set up Parallels on a Mac M1, it was functional, but after about an hour of experience we encountered errors in trying to make Windows work. It froze continuously, and the show was terrible.
With some modifications and help with troubleshooting MacRumors forums, we managed to work well enough to test them. Parallels on the Mac M1 are available as a technical preview, and Windows can only be installed through Windows Insider, so none of these are software versions. Given that we are working with beta software that is still under development, it is not surprising that there are issues that need to be fixed and anyone who wants to test Windows on a Mac M1 through Parallels should expect to deal with bugs. .
When running macOS Big Sur, MacBook Pro M1 with 8 GB of RAM has a single-core Geekbench score of 1719 and a multi-core score of 7384. When running Windows 10 via Parallels using the two-core default setting, Mac M1 obtained a single score of 1491 and a multi-core score of 2753.
It’s quite similar to Microsoft’s Surface Pro X in terms of multi-core performance and better when it comes to single-core performance, so when it works, the speed isn’t too bad. In parallel, Parallels only allows two cores when you run Windows, but you can switch to a four-core operation.
With four cores activated, the Geekbench multi-core scores were much better, reaching 5013. The single-core score did not improve as much in 1518. You can also activate eight cores, but the transition from four to eight cores did little for performance (1524 single core and 5958 multi-core).
In quad-core mode, there are some performance issues, so it’s best to stay with dual-core by default where possible. When an application is able to open and run, the performance is solid, but there are a lot of errors to manage and a lot of software that does not work.
Many pre-installed applications do not work well and often refuse to open, but third-party applications such as Geekbench seem to work as expected. Paint 3D, the Xbox app, and the Calendar app refused to work, for example, but the Microsoft Edge browser and Office suite were functional and decent. Third-party applications like Spotify, Notion and others have worked well, and Windows VM is even capable of playing older games like Civilization IV and Skyrim.
At this time, to get Windows on Arm on a Mac M1 requires Parallels and the Windows Insider preview version of the software and it remains unclear whether Microsoft will provide a release version of Arm Windows for people to license .
Those who want to try Windows (or another operating system) on a Mac M1 can sign up to try Parallels Technical Preview.