14 DAY TRIAL // Parallels is getting a new update, and this time, it comes with good news for those who wanted to run Windows 10 on their M1-powered Apple computers.
Windows 10 ARM is now compatible with Apple Silicon, thanks to Parallels, and the parent company says users can download the free insider preview builds to give it a try.
“More than 100,000 M1 Mac users tested the Technical Preview of Parallels Desktop 16.5 for M1 Mac and ran Microsoft’s Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview, as well as tens of thousands of different Intel-based Windows applications—including Microsoft Office for Windows, Microsoft Visual Studio, SQL Server, Microsoft PowerBI and MetaTrader,” the parent company explains.
Performance improvements
Needless to say, Parallels used this occasion to highlight some of the performance improvements available on Apple Silicon, explaining that even running Windows 10 on ARM on an M1-powered device is faster than on Intel chips.
Parallels claims users can obtain a performance boost of up to 30 percent in a virtual machine.
“Running a virtual machine (VM) of Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview on Parallels Desktop 16.5 on an M1 Mac performs up to 30 percent better than a Windows 10 VM running on Intel-based MacBook Pro with Intel Core i9 processor,” it says after running a series of tests.
Apple Silicon was announced last fall and since then, developers have been working around the clock to bring their apps to devices powered by the M1 chip. As far as Windows 10 is concerned, Apple itself said it can run on Apple Silicon, though it’s up to Microsoft to decide whether it wants its operating system to land MacBooks or not.
Parallels 16.5 for Mac is available today, and those who are already running Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac are allowed to update to this new release at no extra cost.