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There has been a lot of confusion and misinformation regarding Windows X86 software running on Apple's M1 Macs. I recently wrote up a summary to help people over at Apple's Discussions:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252121081?page=3
I decided to post my summary here as well for those concerned:
Q: Will Boot Camp Assistance ever become available for M1 Mac Computers?
A: There will never be Boot Camp for Windows x86 on M1 Macs. This is because the M1 processors offer no ability to virtualize Windows x86, as opposed to modern Intel x86 processors which do. It's that simple. (And note that, despite confusion on the Internet, Boot Camp specifically made use of Windows virtualization, not emulation).
M1 processors are able to virtualize operating systems written to run on ARM architecture processors. As such, M1 compatible virtualization software, such as Parallels for M1 processors, can run Windows 10 for ARM and Linux for ARM. The list of currently compatible operating systems using Parallels virtualization can be found on this page:
https://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/resources/#requirements
Compatible operating systems include:
- Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview
- Ubuntu 20.10, 20.04
- Fedora Workstation 33-1.2
- Debian GNU/Linux 10.7
- Kali Linux 2021.1
At this time, Microsoft is not making Windows 10 for ARM architecture available to the public except as a preview. The general consensus is that Microsoft are not going to put much further effort into Windows 10 for ARM, such as providing further drivers or software. (Note that Windows 10 for ARM cannot run Intel x86 software).
WINE, such as CodeWeavers CrossOver, has been updated to run WINE compatible Windows applications on M1 Macs. You can search the CrossOver compatibility Windows software list here:
https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility
You're going to find that a great many Windows programs are not WINE compatible, most particularly those that use Microsoft proprietary APIs such as DirectX. You'll also find compromised compatibility in many cases. IOW: WINE is no replacement for virtualization but may work great in some cases. Check the compatibility list linked above to be sure. (Note that both Homebrew and MacPorts, using the X11 system, may be able to run WINE compatible Windows x86 apps for free. But they require use of the Mac Terminal CLI to run).
There is a fairly large and growing number of emulators that run alternative operating systems on M1 Macs. Keep in mind that running software in emulation is comparatively slow.
With the help of Loner T at Apple Discussions I learned about the free QEMU emulation software that can be compiled for M1 Macs.
https://www.qemu.org
Digging around further, I found the following recent article instructing how to obtain and run the Windows 10 ARM Preview in virtualization (vs emulation) for free using QEMU on M1 Macs with at least 32 GB of free space:
Running Windows 10 on M1 Mac with QEMU & Hypervisor.Framework
https://randomblock1.com/blog/qemu-windows-mac/
It uses Homebrew via the Terminal CLI for downloading, building and installation.
To quote:
"M1 Macs don’t have support for Bootcamp. So, in order to have a working Windows environment, you have to do it all in a virtual machine. The problem is that QEMU isn’t optimized for M1 Macs, and virtualization is very slow… unless it uses MacOS’ Hypervisor.Framework. While this isn’t quite as performant as paid solutions (like Parallels), it works ‘fast enough’ and is completely free…. It’s not terribly fast, but it works well and is fast enough to do most things."
But again note that Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview is limited to running only Windows 10 ARM native software, not X86 software.
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