One of the things I missed when upgrading my MacBook Pro was the ability to run Windows natively. on my laptop Intel processor To install the Microsoft operating system on a special partition, it was enough to launch Boot Camp Assistant. I just needed a little patience, an ISO system image, and a valid license.

This procedure worked perfectly in reverse. If you wanted to go back to macOS as your only option, simply use Boot Camp to uninstall Windows and recover disk space. All of the above is no longer possible with the advent of Apple Silicon chip computers, but some options remain on the table.

When virtualization is the only option

Since 2020, Apple computers have had an ARM heart; I believe this move is correct, and it is magnificently depicted in my colleague Javier Pastor’s article ‘Apple M1: anatomy of a revolution’. HE architectural change This meant the end of support for x86 versions of Windows, but virtualization remained a possible alternative.

I basically had three options for using Windows on my Apple Silicon Mac: two paid and one free, but in preview. I’m talking about Parallels, VMware and VirtualBox respectively. I wasn’t really sold on the idea of ​​paying, and neither was using the development version. This changed a few days ago when one of the alternatives became free.

Broadcom announced this week that VMware Fusion Pro will be free for personal use. This news seemed like a great opportunity for me. Restore Windows to my Mac. So if you find yourself in a similar situation, this may be an opportunity to use the Microsoft operating system on your computer again. Now let’s see how to do it step by step.

Get VMware Fusion 13 Pro for macOS

• Create a Broadcom account. To do this, enter this link and follow all the steps mentioned on the page.
• Enter the Broadcom download portal from this other link and sign in with the account you created earlier.

• Search for “VMware Fusion 13 Pro for Personal Use.” In this section you will find several versions. I recommend choosing the latest one, which is 13.5.2 at the time of writing this article.
• If you agree, select the “I agree to Broadcom Terms and Conditions” box.
• Hit the download button to the right of “VMware Fusion 13.5.2 (For Intel-based and Apple silicon Macs).”
• Double-click the relevant .dmg file and then install the application. You may see a warning message that this is an application downloaded from the internet. click Open.

Installing VMware Fusion 13 Pro for Windows 11

• Open VMware Fusion 13 Pro

• Click Cto continue In the window that invites you to download Windows 11 (Download and Install Windows 11).
• Choose a Windows 11 ARM version and language. click To continue.
• Choose an encryption system for TPM virtualization and set a password. click To continue (in my case I chose Partial Encryption).
• Select a boot firmware type and click it. To continue (in my case I chose UEFI only).
• Create a virtual disk with the capacity you need. The minimum space required in Windows 11 is 64 GB.

• Review the resource allocation recommended by VMware Fusion 13 Pro and click Continue (I didn’t change anything).
• Press Finish and wait for the virtual machine to start running.

Install Windows 11 from VMware Fusion 13 Pro

• VMware Fusion 13 Pro will mount the previously downloaded installation disk.
• At this point press a key to start the installation program.
• Follow all steps of the setup wizard (language, time format, input method, etc.).

• Enter a Windows product key. If you have a digital license or plan to purchase it later, I don’t have a product key.
• Accept the terms and conditions and select Custom installation in the next window.

• Enter the information requested by the system and log in with your Microsoft account if you wish.

Ready. You already have Windows 11 on your Apple Silicon Mac.

Improve experience and performance with VMware Tools

If you want your virtualized operating system to have better performance and be able to interact with macOS, you will need to install a program called VMware Tools. To do this, follow these steps.

• Open VMware Fusion 13 Pro.
• Log in to Windows.
• Click Virtual Machine in the VMware Fusion 13 Pro menu bar
• Click Install VMware Tools.

• Immediately after that, you will find a virtual CD/DVD drive called “VMware installation launcher”.
• Install the program like any other and restart the operating system.

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