Microsoft opens up about Windows 11 on Apple M1 chips

It can hardly have escaped your attention that Windows 11 is just around the corner. If you have been following the news about the latest version of Microsoft's operating system, you'll be only too aware of the confusion surrounding hardware requirements, the need for TPM 2.0 in particular.

But while PC owners have been busy checking to see whether their system makes the grade or if its time to invest in a new computer, many Mac users have been wondering about the possibility of running Windows 11 on Apple hardware. Now Microsoft has spoken out about Windows 11 on M1 chips, and the news is less than ideal.

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• Microsoft explains how to enable TPM 2.0 for Windows 11
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Speaking to the Register, a Microsoft spokesperson delivered the disappointing -- but not remotely surprising -- news that running Windows 11 on Apple M1 chips is "not a supported scenario".

This will come as bad news for anyone who fancied the idea of dual-booting Windows 11 and macOS, but there have also been problems for those who have used virtualization software to try out Windows 11 on their Mac.

One of the most popular virtualization tools, Parallels Desktop, recently hit version 17. Things were running smoothly for people using the software to run Insider builds of Windows 11 on Apple silicon, but all of a sudden, a Dev build started to have hardware compatibility errors. This was fixed in Parallels Desktop 17.0.1, but there is no guarantee that something similar won't happen again, especially considering Microsoft's "not a supported scenario" stance.

The Register enquired about what has been done in the jump to Parallels Desktop 17.0.1 to allow Windows 11 to run on M1 chips:

The Reg asked Parallels what it had done to persuade the Windows 11 preview that all was well. It has yet to explain the trick. We asked Microsoft whether running Windows 11 on an M1 Mac in Parallels is supported, and were told it's an unsupported scenario. Running the OS directly on the hardware isn't supported, either.

So, it seems that the only way to be sure that you will be able to run Windows 11, is to have a fully compatible PC ready to install the operating system on.