Need info on parallels on Mac M1

Combat squirrel · 17 Dec 2021 at 12:29

I'm looking to run an old windows x86/64 game on Windows parallels (supreme commander forged alliance) and iv seen people on YouTube do it.....but I can't seem to find a straight forward answer if I can install non arm windows on parallels on my Macbook Pro m1 max.

I guess it must be possible, but what are people's experiences? It would have to be emulated I'd guess?

Feek · 17 Dec 2021 at 13:52

No, you can only install the ARM version of Windows using Parallels.

Combat squirrel · 17 Dec 2021 at 14:49

Feek said:
No, you can only install the ARM version of Windows using Parallels.

Then how did they run supreme commander? Does arm windows have emulation built in to it?

Feek · 17 Dec 2021 at 14:59

No idea how they got it to run in ARM Windows, I was just answering whether it's possible to run the x86/64 version of Windows in Parallels on an M1.

visibleman · 17 Dec 2021 at 18:02

Combat squirrel said:
Does arm windows have emulation built in to it?

As Feek mentioned, only Arm variants of OS's can be virtualised on Apple Silicon but 'Windows 11 on Arm' (insider programme) supports x64 emulation, so perhaps it's done via that.
Best asking on the YT video or Reddit posts.

Combat squirrel · 17 Dec 2021 at 19:09

visibleman said:
As Feek mentioned, only Arm variants of OS's can be virtualised on Apple Silicon but 'Windows 11 on Arm' (insider programme) supports x64 emulation, so perhaps it's done via that.
Best asking on the YT video or Reddit posts.

Ahhh that'll be it then, I'll try windows 11 arm then and see how it's emulation goes? Good job the m1 max is fast, virtualised and then emulated will take a hit! Lol

Feek · 17 Dec 2021 at 21:03

That’s good to know, I didn’t realise that.

Not that I’ll be using it, I’ve finally been able to work around my need to run any Windows VMs.

picnic · 18 Dec 2021 at 10:05

Feek said:
I’ve finally been able to work around my need to run any Windows VMs.

I suspect you've already shared this but I have a couple of old Windows XP VMs and looking for a solution. My memory is not what it was, could you point me in the right direction please?

Feek · 18 Dec 2021 at 10:36

picnic said:
I suspect you've already shared this but I have a couple of old Windows XP VMs and looking for a solution. My memory is not what it was, could you point me in the right direction please?

It won't be much help to you I'm afraid. I've found Mac equivalents of everything I needed to run under Windows.

MacRS4 · 18 Dec 2021 at 14:45

You can run most-ish s/w on Windows 11 on ARM from what I've found. If you've a copy of what you want to test I can give it a go for you if it would help?

picnic · 19 Dec 2021 at 10:23

They're old mobile module development environments. Occasionally I have to make a tweak. I can live with the VM solution I have now for those rare occasions but thanks for the offer :cool:

Minstadave · 19 Dec 2021 at 10:27

Where is @jigger? This is his area of expertise :cry:

Looks like it does run on Windows 11 ARM with safe emulation mode:

https://www.applegamingwiki.com/wiki/Supreme_Commander_Forged_Alliance

Bluecube · 19 Dec 2021 at 12:06

You could try UTM (https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/utm-virtual-machines/id1538878817?mt=12 ) which is an x64 emulator for M1 Macs. I successfully booted a qcow2 Windows 8 disk using it. It wasn’t slow but it wasn’t fast either. Nor did it allow me to load the piece of software I needed to work! However, it’s worth looking into if you’re desperate.

HACO · 24 Dec 2021 at 11:37

You can emulate x86 operating systems directly on M1 macs (hell, even on jailbroken iPads) with Qemu which is free and open source. There's also UTM (which is Qemu under the hood).

Qemu is basically the king of emulation, Apple heavily contributes to the project. You can even emulate other ISAs on M1/x86 (e.g. RISC-V on AMD CPUs).