Thanks to Parallels Desktop 17, the latest version of Parallels' virtualization suite, both Intel Macs and M1 Macs can now run Windows 11.

Parallels announced Windows 11 support for M1 Macs earlier this year, and now the final release allows Windows 11 to run (in a window) on both Macs. The final release now supports Windows 11 (in a window) on both Macs, as well as the Windows 11 Insider Preview build, and is ready for the macOS 12 Monterey coming this fall.

Parallels Desktop 17 takes a different approach than Boot Camp, Apple's method for running both macOS and Windows on a Mac. Instead, Parallels Desktop creates a virtual machine (VM) and installs Windows in it. This allows you to efficiently run both operating systems simultaneously, macOS and Windows ... You can even drag and drop items between windows.

However, there is a problem for M1 Mac users: since the M1 chip is ARM-based, you are essentially installing a version of Windows 11 emulated by ARM. Some apps will not work as well as they do when running natively on Intel hardware, and some apps are not compatible at all.

Nevertheless, Microsoft is working to improve compatibility and has released a native 64-bit ARM version of Office. This may make it even easier to run Windows 11 on M1 Macs. Parallels Desktop 17 offers various performance improvements specifically for M1 Macs: Windows runs M1 compared to Parallels Desktop 16 hardware, DirectX11 runs up to 28% faster, and storage performance is up to 20% faster.

However, there is a fee to take advantage of the benefits: a VM with more than 8GB of virtual memory requires the Pro Edition or Business Edition, both of which are $99 annual subscriptions.