Microsoft officially announced Windows 11 support on Apple computers with M3 family processors and expanded the limits of compatibility between the two operating systems. This is made possible by Parallels Desktop, an advanced virtualization solution designed specifically for Mac users who want to integrate Windows 11 into their work environments.

Originally, Boot Camp, Apple’s official tool for running Windows on a Mac, did not support Apple’s new Silicon processors. With all this, developers have found alternative ways that give Mac two options to work with Windows: the Windows 365 cloud platform or Parallels Desktop software.

Parallels Desktop versions 18 and 19 have received official approval to run Windows 11 and Windows 11 Enterprise for ARM on Macs equipped with Apple M1, M2 and M3 processors, according to a Microsoft support document. This solution allows users to take advantage of a wide range of features of Windows 11, including access to multimedia technologies, hardware acceleration, DirectX 12 and other features of the popular operating system.

More importantly, some Windows functions are still unavailable in Parallels Desktop due to a lack of support for nested virtualization technology. This technology allows one virtual machine to run inside another, which significantly expands the scope of virtualization applications. It allows you to safely test and develop in virtualized environments without affecting the main operating system.

These unavailable features include Windows Subsystem for Android, Windows Subsystem for Linux, Windows Sandbox (the ability to run applications standalone without compromising the host operating system), and Virtualization Based Security (VBS). Users who need access to these features are recommended to use Windows 365 or purchase a separate native Windows 11 device.

It’s also worth noting that Parallels Desktop for Mac does not support 32-bit Windows applications for ARM. Microsoft ended support for 32-bit UWP apps for Arm in January 2023, and given that Apple has long dropped support for 32-bit apps, it is not possible to restore such support in current versions of macOS.