running windows vm on m1 mac

Having the same question, what is the most accessible VM app?

It can be done, but you're going to need a program called parallels and another one called VOcr.
Google those, and if you need help setting them up, I'll try to get back to you when I'm more awake

I also just started using parallels two days ago and i found a way around turning on the virtual machine but it is through a really a legit workaround. I am enjoying the 14 day trial I’m really considering purchasing the whole app for the annual subscription as I’m a student and I need some programs the run only on windows. The performance is great and the coherence mode between windows 11 and macOS is brilliant which makes it easier for screen readers and accessibility users. The only two problems I’m facing or that I cannot use caps lock with any other key which I really need for using NVDA screen reader. So I think I will be isolating windows from macOS but the overall experience is very good and the battery usage is low or negligible. The sound is synchronized between the two systems and there are no latency in the sound or the controls on windows.

I really hope for a definitive tutorial that puts an end to the hassle and confusion we are having for that application. People in this forum are very helpful and I think that one may help us in that so that we have a full guide with all the instructions needed

Hi. There's something called Fusion that may work for you. I've been curious about this because I may get an M1 Mac at some point. Anyone know about this?
Thanks

Ironically, I just through up my own forum topic regarding this. Now that this is up, looks like I will move all discussion over here. Like a previous poster, I am also a student. I know there are preview versions of VmWare fusion that are made for the M1s, but I know that Parallels is the best way to go since it offers the most support.
I can get sighted assistance installing Windows for the first time, but I would be curious as to how to best access and run the machine as well as do things such as pausing, resuming, and shutting down. Also how does one switch between Mac and Windows environments?
Thanks all,
Gus

Hello all,
There is a youtube channel with instructions on how to run windowss 11 on arm with a m1 mac. The channel is called Techopolis. The person doing the video is Taylor Arndt and she is totally blind. In the video she uses a VM called UTM to do the install and it looked to be very accessible.

I've heard UTM works, but it's not easy to configure, so definitely not for the faint of heart. It looks like this is your best bet until Fusion becomes natively compatible with M1. I wouldn't give Parallels your money, as it's an inaccessible piece of crap that requires hacky workarounds like OCR. Those developers shouldn't be rewarded for inaccessible software! You'll also need to download the ARM Windows Insider preview, as that's the only way currently to run ARM Windows.
https://mac.getutm.app

After digging around and searching the web it seems like there is no way to pass the caps lock key to any guest operating system on macOS which is very stupid but I don’t know any way around this problem other than remapping the key which is a big hassle on its own. Powered toys on windows can do that easily but power toys is not optimized most for ARM processors in the first place. It is still in development. Any help in that would be appreciated

You could try a program called sharp keys. I have not tried this yet. It is the program I have used in the past to remap keys on Windows.

You can use carabinerelements to remap a key to the insert key, personally, I used left option, it provides minimal hassle with minimum decrease of functionality, but, this is your choice, I’ve tried you TM and have not getting to work, it is stuck on Windows installation screen, I am currently using parallels desktop.

I tried sharp keys but it didn't do anything
so. I installed Carabinerelements but I was not able to operate it as I just want the keys to remap when I use parallels only
also I think that I will be using the right option since in windows it is not used much
if you can help with configuring Carabinerelements that will be helpful
P.S I will be trying UTM before buying parallels and will report here again

You could try using a profile, maybe make an AppleScript or troll activate this profile when you enter a specific application, in this case parallels? Anyway, that is all I know for the moment, of course there are more advanced rules, then the simple modifications tab, somebody else might help you

okay so...
I use paralleles, but in order to install it/get windows runnning on it. you need a program called VoCR.
https://github.com/chigkim/VOCR
Read teh Readme.md and download it. it's pretty straight forward.
You'll also need a version of windows that can run on ARM systems.
This will tell you what you need:
https://kb.parallels.com/125375
Before I got my m1, I used vmware fusion, but apart from setting up Parallels, I find Paralells easier to use than VMware.
For one, the ability to go to the control panel, file manager, shut down the system, etc, are all in the menu bar of the app, so if your brain's just in mac mode, you can do things that way.
Now to remapping keys... I use Karabiner. Can't remember if that's on the app store of if I downloaded it, but either way, google it.
If you have any more question, let me know.
HTH.

Now to remapping keys... I use Karabiner. Can't remember if that's on the app store of if I downloaded it, but either way, google it.

can you tell me how to do that in steps. I open the application and find a table then I choose the key and the other key to remap but nothing happens

So I have done the same as you did with no luck VoiceOver keyboard help sees the character after remapping correctly but windows does not seem to have any sense.
this really frustrates me.
nam using an M1 MacBook. but the remapping app is fully compatible. nam starting to lose hope here.

Looks like Parallels desktop is the way to go. A few questions for those who have used it.
Have future MacOS updates broken the stability of being able to boot into the VM as well as the host machine? I thought I saw something regarding this earlier on in this thread or somewhere else on the site.
How accessible are things after the initial installation of Windows? I can get sighted help for this as it will likely take a shorter amount of time rather than trying to mess with VO OCR.
Regarding, Karabiner, would someone be willing to write up a guide as to how this is supposed to integrate with Windows such as mapping the right option key to Insert?
Lastly how does one switch between their host and virtual machines? I know with VmWare it's CTRL + CMD; I would assume something similar for Parallels?
Thanks all,
Gus

First:
I downloaded and successfully installed UTM and windows 11 on my MacBook Airm1. I used the tutorial linked by one of the commenters.
it was smooth and didn't take more than 1 unite to boot. I was actually surprised but it works flawlessly

second and most important
I can also remap the right shift key to caps lock or any other key for that matter. also using one of the apps recommended by one of you guys.
it also works smoothly
only thing is that I have to disable voice over to use windows as I remapped to caps lock instead of insert since it doesn't work
now I will be trying to remap the key from the windows side not from Mac OS it self

finally
UTM is free, fully accessible and have similar functionality to parallels in the productivity side of things. which we need regardless of how it preforms with gaming and other stuff

that sounds cool. I used to use fusion for installing windows 10 on my previous Mac, but now hearing this as an option for installing either windows 10 or windows 11 sounds interesting.

Does NVDA work on the ARM version of Windows 11? This is something I"m interested in but I don't want to have to use narrator as my only screen reader.

It is very compatible with arm 64 but you have to stick to the windows voices for now. I didn’t give the other voices a try but I don’t think that they will work because they depend on 64-bit emulation which takes a lot of time. All add-ons are compatible also so that is very good

I wonder if the same method could be used to install Windows 11 on an m1 iPad Pro or iPhone, and whether VoiceOver would work.
also, how much does running a virtual machine drain the M1 Mac battery, essentially if it doesn’t drain too much then you could have a Windows machine that has the 19 or 20 hours of battery life that the M1 Max can get up to.

It's possible to install UTM on iOS, but last I checked, it needs to be sideloaded and you must be jailbroken on modern versions. The only device I'd even consider trying this on is the latest iPad Pro with the M1 processor and 8 GB RAM. Windows needs at least 4 GB to function reasonably well. It might not even work due to the many restrictions Apple imposes with iOS. I was reading the system will force quit any process that uses more than a third of the RAM. Get a Mac and don't waste your money on the inferior iPad Pro that's not at all pro!

Does Jaws work on the ARM version of windows 11?

I finally had some time to sit down and see if I could get this all up and running on my 2020 MacBook Air with 16 GB of ram. I downloaded the free trial of Parallels, even with the help of VO OCR and sighted help, it was off of my system within 2 hours.
UTM seems to be a much better and accessible alternative as a previous poster has suggested. You likely won't be doing much gaming on it, but for productivity it seems to be the winner. A couple of things.
Has anyone noticed that when loading things from a shared directory, it takes a very long time for things to initialize? I loaded my portable of NVDA up and it took a good 5 minutes for things to run. Once installed, things ran smoothly for the most part. Speaking of NVDA, I was able to run everything specific to the screenreader with no loss of functionality from add-ons and voices I have.
Second, has anyone had issues where the Capslock key gets stuck? I have my NVDA key mapped to it. It does work, however I do have issues where the key does get stuck and I have to press and release it a couple of times for it to release. Not sure if mapping the insert key to right option would fix.

I'm not sure what others' experiences have been, but I've found that turning off VoiceOver while in the window helps tremendously, and using the Touch ID button to turn on and off VoiceOver rather than command F5 works much better. I have found that if you hit a key such as command anytime you are in the Virtual Machine window, that key, will, get passed onto the VM itself. This is unlike VmWare where there is a specific key combination to start and stop sending keys to the virtual machine. If anyone knows if this actually exists in UTM, I would be curious.
Hope this helps! I would be curious to here others' experiences.
gus

First of all regarding the battery situation. It’s very good and it does not take much battery it’s good if you are going to use it for a long time but it’s just another application so it’s taking the normal battery to take. I used it for 30 or 40 minutes and it drained 2% of the battery. I think that’s great.

Second regarding the caps lock situation. Remapping caps lock to the right command key is the most beneficial thing that works for me. I used sharp keys on the windows virtual machine itself to remap all the keys and it worked flawlessly.
Third regarding jaws. I don’t know if it really works or not but I will be trying to install it and see how it goes

Greetings,
I am having trouble getting wifi connected. When I get to the screen to put in my microsoft account, it won't see my network. Can I just skip this part for now?

Hello all,
I finally got Windows 11 on arm up and running on my Mac. I had to install the spice guest tools to get my network up and running on the VM. Once I got it installed it came up working fine. I have installed NVDA on it so far. I have a Logitech Ergo K860 connected to my mac so when I have the VM up and running I am able to use the numpad insert. I am going to install sharp keys though so I can use my macbooks keyboard.

I’ve been able to use third-party vocalizer voices, IBM text to speech, as well as NVDA add-ons, flawlessly in fact, they have worked amazingly.

For those using sharp keys to emulate a key to be used as insert such as the right command, or right option keys, are you all installing this on the windows VM, or Mac side of things? Would someone be willing to provide instructions on how to do this after installing the software?
Also been noticing the read/write issues as well through shared directories.
Would also be curious how those who are using Parallels are getting past things and are able to change configuration settings. I know there is an Alias that is on the desktop that when hit actually starts up the VM, but how exactly does one go about configuring the VM settings, coherence mode, etc?
I was able to get VO OCR going but not sure how to actually route the cursor to click on things.
Thanks,
Gus

Hi all.
I have been following this thread and this has been quite interesting to read.
Just wondering is UTM free or is it payed?
And does it work with the intel based mac?
I know the bootcamp option is there on intel based macs but it would be good to flick back and forward from the mac system to windows system seemlessly.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Hi.
This may be off topic be can anyone explain how to download windows 11 or windows 10 with UTM on a intel based mac.
I have downloaded the ISO file and every time I try to run it it loads the command line interface.
Is there something I am doing wrong?
The reason I want to run windows on UTM is to play around with it.
Bootcamp would require partitioning the drive and all that hassle.
This is a macbook pro 2019.

So where can you download the VHDX file?

Sharp keys is only on windows, not on the Mac Side, and parallels has been inaccessible, but usable, it has not been ideal, but that’s what I can use for now at least, I can boot it up and shut it down using the menu bar, as well as enter and exit coherence mode and such, I can configure the VM by pressing the configure VM button, and move with the VO+ left and right, and when I land on something I want to press, route the mouse to it by pressing VO command F five, and double-clicking it by pressing VO shift space two times.

There might be certain apps or games that you need to use daily, or every few days or so, or your enterprise could have you use an app that’s not available on the Mac App Store, or for macOS, that’s why you use a Windows virtual machine

There are drivers that you need to download and install. I would encourage you to look at the web site where it talks about it more.

Hi,
Thank you for the great information posted here. Glad to see this works well and looking forward to giving it a try on my new 14 inch MacBook Pro. A few quick questions:
1. NVDA seems to work well, and I am glad to hear it. However, has anyone tried running Jaws and if so, did it run?
2. Has anyone tried running some older audio games, such as those from Jim Kitchen?
Again, thanks for the fantastic info here.

I've heard from some other people that JAWS has major issues, but this is mainly due to FS ignoring ARM from what I can tell.

To run Windows 11 on my 14 inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip, I use VMWare Fusion.
I prefer it over UTM because it has almost no keyboard lag when playing audio games.

Hello everybody

I just create an AppleScript to change the caps lock key for other key in MacOS.

You can find the script in my Github Page in the ChangeKeyboardForVM repository

Any feedback is welcome.

Regards

I'm currently running parallels, and jaws is completely broken outside of its main app/launcher. NVDA and narrator seem completely fine.

vmwaare fusion on m1 mac dont support win 11. there is no sound drivers

Hi, regarding the issue of the command key getting past to both Mac and the VM, when I used VMware fusion on an older MacBook I used to exit the VM by using the window chooser which I activated on the trackpad - two finger double tap on the left of the trackpad.

HTH