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by JayDustheadz 731 days ago
I'm not a super-advanced user, so could somebody please let me know if this will allow running Windows on an ARM based Macs? Or perhaps running a VM with macOS Big Sur on macOS 15 ( I'm looking to install a specific version of an app via App Store - a version that is limited to macOS Big Sur )? Thanks in advance!
2 comments

You can already run Windows on Macs, just look at UTM or Parallels. You can also already run Big Sur on macOS 14.

Edit: Should've added that you can only run Windows ARM. Emulating x86 on ARM (= running "normal" Windows on macOS M-processors) may be possible (I'm not sure), but practically not usable as it will be painfully slow. That will probably not change in the near future. However Windows ARM contains a Rosetta-like x86 emulation layer so with some luck you won't even notice that you're running Windows ARM and not "normal" Windows.

> Emulating x86 on ARM (= running "normal" Windows on macOS M-processors) may be possible (I'm not sure), but practically not usable as it will be painfully slow.

I tried the UTM qemu based solution for x86 windows. It's there and it ... starts. But yes, it's way way too slow for daily use. If you just have an occasional task like document conversion once in a while, i guess you could.

That's the issue - you can not run Big Sur on macOS 14 on an ARM Mac - from what I know, this is only possible on an Intel machine. Perhaps also on the very first M1 Macs, though I'm not sure about that one. Or am I wrong?
I’m even less, what’s nested virtualisation?
Nested virtualization is running virtual machines inside other virtual machines. Like the movie inception
For a practical example: running WSL in Windows in macOS.
thank you, I am a noob. This sound like an amazing addition. Would this mean I could run a linux distro on an ipad which has M3 chip?
No, iPadOS doesn’t have virtualization support, only macOS does.