How to run Windows 11 on your M1 MacBook Pro. For free.
In my previous article I rambled about how great (for me) the new MacBook Pro with M1 Pro was. One of the negatives was the inability to run other operating systems (Windows 11, Ubuntu, etc.) natively. And my irritation is alive though somewhat soothed by the fact that I’ve found a way to run Windows 11 at near-native speed.
Yes, I know that Parallels Desktop 17 and VMWare Fusion 12 offer good & straightforward solutions to do the same, but they cost money. And if you (like me) are not ready to cough up that min $79 tax for a transient fantasy, here’s what you can do.
Step 1: UTM is your friend
UTM has been around since Feb 2020 with the goal to run Virtul Machines on iOS devices. Opportunity strikes in November 2020 with Apple introducing the wonderful M1 CPUs based on Arm64 architecture. UTM could thus be extended to also work on Macs with the new silicon.
So go ahead, download and install it from https://mac.getutm.app/
Step 2: Download Windows 11 installer
For this we will use an Insider Preview for Windows 11, the Arm64 version. You can download it from uupdump.net, follow the Latest Beta Build > Arm64 > Windows 11 Insider Preview (version 10.0.22000.160 was the latest at the time of this article).
Once you download the archive, open it on your disk. You will need the file: uup_download_macos.sh from there. In order to run this script you will need a couple of utilies.
Step 3: Get utilities and prepare the iso file
To install the required utilities you need to use Homebrew (the package manager for Mac OS) and your terminal. If you don’t have brew, install from here: https://brew.sh/
Once you’re done, install the following utilities:
brew tap minacle/chntpw
brew install aria2 cabextract wimlib cdrtools minacle/chntpw/chntpwAnd head over inside the downloaded archive and run the script:
bash uup_download_macos.shIt will take a couple of minutes (even on your beast) and you will get a shiny new .iso file. Mine is called: 22000.1_PROFESSIONAL_ARM64_EN-US.ISO. This is our Windows 11 installer.
Step 4: Configure a UTM Virtual Machine
Now that we have obtained the required ISO file, we are ready to create a VM where our Windows 11 will be installed.
- Information tab: name your machine (“Windows 11”) and choose your Style (“Operating System”) and icon.
- System tab > Architecture: ARM64 (aarch64)
- System tab > Memory: at least 8GB (c’mon, you can afford)
- System tab > Drives > New Drive > NVMe with min 60GB
- System tab > Drives > New Drive > Removable > USB
Save this setup and, before you power it on, make sure you mount the ISO produced at the previous step. Once that is done: let the installation begin.
Step 5: Bypass security
Now start the VM and install Windows 11 as usual. Just kidding. You can’t do that, because Windows 11 wants some specific security measures that don’t exist on Macs. To bypass that, we must modify the registry. Before hitting “Install now” try Shift + fn + F10 (useful Function keys 😏). This brings up the Command Prompt. Type regedit and welcome to the scary underground of Windows systems. Here we must add two entries and their values.
- Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > Setup - Right click > New key:
LabConfig - Inside LabConfig righ click > New >
DWORD (32-bit) Value>BypassTPMCheck - Click BypassTPMCheck and change the value from 0 to
1. - Repeat the last 2 steps to add a new Key / Value pair:
BypassSecureBootCheck, value1
It should look like this.
Close the regedit and the command prompt and only NOW you can continue with the Install. From now on it’s the usual. Don’t enter a licence (you can do it later, I bought mine online). If you encounter errors just reboot the VM and enter the regedit keys again.
Finish the install and… tadaaa! Now you have a Windows 11 running on your Mac. But wait…!
Step 6: install Spice Guest Tools
Spice Guest Tools is a collection of drivers to handle support for network connection, display drivers, etc.
- download Spice Guest Tools from the UTM website > support
- mount the downloaded iso to the CD/DVD drive inside your VM.
- install the drivers inside your Windows 11 & reboot
You’re done. Or are you 🤔?
Step 7 (optional): use Microsoft Remote Desktop
In my experience, logging into your Windows 11 through the regular UTM interface is a bit clunky and confusing. I recommend you do the following:
- on your Mac, go to the App Store and download, gasp, Microsoft Remote Desktop
- inside your Windows 11, search for Remote Desktop and enable it
- make sure you have set up your Windows 11 account using a password
- find out the local IP used by Windows 11 (command prompt > run
ipconfig, usually something like:192.168.64.*** - open Microsoft Remote Desktop and add a new connection using the IP, the Windows 11 account name & password.
This way to access my Windows 11 proved to be way faster and reliable giving me a near native experience. I ran a Geekbench just to see how fast my Windows 11 VM is and.. voila. It is basically a bit better than running your Windows on a dedicated PC with a 4-core i7 processor.
So this concludes my experience with installing Windows 11 on my new MacBook Pro with M1. I thought of writing this guide since I tried several options and guides out there and I had mixed results. This combination of actions helped me. And hopefully it will help you as well.
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I am co-founder of Hypersay Events, an opinionated platform for digital events.
