You Can Now Run Windows 10 ARM on MacBooks with Apple M1

parallels desktop 16.5 apple m1 windows 10 on arm

Parallels has today released a new version, enabling Apple fans to run Windows 10 on their M1 Macbooks. Parallels Desktop 16.5 is now out, featuring full native support for Macs with Apple M1 or Intel chips. The latest version promises to deliver even better performance and battery improvements on M1 Macbooks when compared to Intel-based MacBooks.

Parallel maker Coral says that over “100,000 M1 Mac users tested the Technical Preview of Parallels Desktop 16.5 for M1 Mac and ran Microsoft’s Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview, as well as tens of thousands of different Intel-based Windows applications – including Microsoft Office for Windows, Microsoft Visual Studio, SQL Server, Microsoft PowerBI and MetaTrader.”

“The virtualization approach for Parallels Desktop 16.5 for Mac enables users to benefit from Apple’s M1 chip performance advancements – applications run faster and more efficiently.”

If you are a subscriber of this desktop virtual machine software, you can now upgrade to Parallels Desktop 16.5 to run Windows 10 on ARM without any additional cost. Some of the highlights of Parallel Desktop 16.5 include:

Up to 250 percent less energy used: On a Mac with an Apple M1 chip, Parallels Desktop 16.5 uses 2.5 times less energy than on a 2020 Intel-based MacBook Air computer.

Up to 60 percent better DirectX 11 performance: Parallels Desktop 16.5 running on an M1 Mac delivers up to 60 percent better DirectX 11 performance than on an Intel-based MacBook Pro with Radeon Pro 555X GPU.

Up to 30 percent better virtual machine performance (Windows): Running a virtual machine (VM) of Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview on Parallels Desktop 16.5 on an M1 Mac performs up to 30 percent better than a Windows 10 VM running on Intel-based MacBook Pro with Intel Core i9 processor.

All the goodness of Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac has now been re-engineered for the Apple M1 chip, including Coherence Mode, Touch Bar controls, Shared Profile, Mac keyboard layouts, macOS Big Sur in a VM, and more.

All editions of Parallels Desktop 16.5 update for Mac support both M1 and Intel Mac computers (Standard Edition, Pro Edition, and Business Edition), the company clarified. You can get a subscription through the official site with a 14-day trial offer.