Buying guide · Updated September 5, 2026
A virtual machine for Mac to run Windows:
how to pick the right one
Boot Camp is gone, every Mac worth buying is Apple Silicon, and the Windows you can actually run is the ARM edition. That single fact rules out some approaches, makes others slower than people expect, and changes which app is worth paying for. This guide walks through the constraint first, then the five real options, and ends with a table you can decide from.
The short version
- Yes, a Mac can run Windows in a virtual machine. Every Apple Silicon Mac from M1 to M5 can boot Windows 11 on ARM in a VM. You supply Microsoft’s official ARM64 image and your own Windows licence.
- Windows 11 on ARM is not a compromise edition. It ships with Microsoft’s own x86 and x64 emulation, so most ordinary Intel-built desktop applications still install and run inside it.
- Four desktop apps and one cloud option cover the field. Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, UTM, Kyvenza, and a Windows 365 style cloud PC. Two of them cost nothing.
- The deciding question is what the Windows app needs. Graphics, USB devices, and constant file-dragging point at Parallels. A plain business application points at anything on this list. An x86-only image points at UTM.
- Kyvenza is the $49 one-time option for a Windows 11 ARM desktop that sits alongside your macOS and Linux VMs — with no 3D acceleration and no host integration, which is the trade we are explicit about below.
Start with the constraint, not the app
An Apple Silicon Mac has an ARM processor. A virtual machine runs guest code on the real processor, which means the guest has to be built for ARM. That is why an M-series Mac can virtualize Windows 11 on ARM at full speed and cannot virtualize the x86 Windows that used to run under Boot Camp. Anything that claims otherwise is emulating an entire x86 machine in software, and emulation costs what it costs.
The good news is that the ARM edition of Windows 11 stopped being a curiosity some years ago. Microsoft ships an emulation layer inside it that translates x86 and x64 applications on the fly, so Office, browsers, accounting packages, vendor utilities, and the bulk of ordinary line-of-business software install from their normal Intel installers and run. Microsoft publishes the Windows 11 ARM64 disk image for direct download, so getting the guest is no longer the obstacle it was in 2021.
What does not survive the translation is anything sitting close to the hardware: device drivers written for x86, kernel-level anti-cheat, older virtualization software you wanted to nest, and a few security products. If your reason for running Windows is one of those, no Mac VM app will fix it and a real PC is the honest answer.
And Boot Camp?
Boot Camp worked by starting an x86 copy of Windows on x86 hardware, which is exactly the thing an Apple Silicon Mac cannot do. It has been unavailable since the M1, and Parallels removed its remaining Boot Camp integration in Desktop 27. On an Intel Mac still running a supported macOS version, Boot Camp is there; on anything M-series, virtualization or a cloud PC are the choices.
What you need before any of this works
- Microsoft’s official Windows 11 ARM64 image. No reputable Mac VM app bundles or redistributes Windows. You download the image from Microsoft yourself, and the app points you at the right page.
- Your own valid Windows licence. The same rule as on a PC. Nobody in this comparison sells, supplies, or activates Windows for you, and an app that offers an activation workaround is telling you something about how it handles everything else.
- Room on the Mac. A Windows VM is a large file that grows as you use it. Assume 64 GB of disk to begin with and keep real headroom beyond that on the Mac’s own drive.
- Memory you can spare. Whatever you assign to the VM is taken from macOS while the VM is running. On a 16 GB Mac, 8 GB to the guest is comfortable and 4 GB is workable for a single application; on an 8 GB Mac, expect the host to feel it.
On licensing specifically: Microsoft’s own guidance names Parallels Desktop as an authorized solution for running ARM versions of Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise on Apple Silicon — naming Parallels Desktop 18, 19, and 20 specifically — and puts a Windows 365 Cloud PC ahead of it as the fully compatible route. The same page spells out that every instance needs its own Windows 11 Pro licence, whether it runs on hardware or in a VM. Other apps boot the same official image without appearing on that list; if your employer’s compliance team cares about the distinction, ask them before you choose, not after.
The five ways to run Windows on a Mac
Four of these put Windows on your own machine. The fifth puts it in a data centre and is on the list because for some people it is genuinely the right answer. Prices change; check each vendor before you buy.
The table below scrolls sideways on a phone.
| Option | Cost | What it is good at | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parallels Desktop | Yearly subscription, or a higher-priced perpetual Standard licence | The most complete Windows experience on a Mac, and the one Microsoft lists as an authorized solution. 3D acceleration, clipboard sharing, shared folders, printers, USB devices, and Coherence mode that puts Windows apps in the macOS Dock. | It is the only option here that renews. If your Windows VM boots twice a month, you are paying every year for integration you rarely touch. |
| VMware Fusion | Free from Broadcom for personal and commercial use | A capable, free hypervisor with Windows 11 ARM support and VMware Tools for shared folders and clipboard. A reasonable default if the price matters more than the setup time. | Distribution moved to the Broadcom support portal and the account flow is aimed at IT departments, not individuals. macOS guests are not supported on Apple Silicon at all. |
| UTM | Free and open source (paid Mac App Store build is a convenience) | The only mainstream Mac option that can emulate x86, which is what you need for an old x86 Windows image or an installer that refuses to run on ARM. | Emulated x86 is slow — that is physics, not a defect. The interface exposes QEMU’s configuration surface, so a first Windows VM takes reading. |
| Kyvenza | $49 one-time, 7-day free trial, optional $19 renewal for another year of updates | A Windows 11 ARM VM that boots with TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot already configured, in the same library as your macOS and ARM Linux VMs. No account, no subscription. | No 3D acceleration, audio, or USB passthrough in Windows guests; text clipboard sharing arrives in the next release and shared folders are in development. Windows guests get NAT networking only, though macOS and Linux guests can use bridged. Wrong tool for games, CAD, or GPU work. |
| A cloud PC (Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop) | Monthly per user | Not a virtual machine on your Mac at all — a Windows desktop running in Microsoft’s data centre that you connect to. Useful when the Windows work is occasional, corporate, or needs x86 Windows specifically. | Everything depends on the connection, nothing works offline, and the monthly cost passes a one-time desktop app’s price quickly. |
Parallels Desktop: the one to beat for Windows
Parallels has spent more than a decade on the parts of Windows-on-Mac that are tedious to build: a graphics stack, guest tools, printer and USB plumbing, and Coherence mode, which hides the Windows desktop and puts the individual applications in the macOS Dock. Version 27, released in August 2026, added a Metal-based OpenGL 4.3 driver for Windows guests and Apple SME2 pass-through on M4 and M5 hardware. If your Windows work touches the GPU, this is the product, and the rest of this page is not going to argue otherwise. We went through the 27 release in detail in a separate article.
The cost model is the thing to think about. Parallels is sold as a yearly subscription across Standard, Pro, Business, and Enterprise editions, with a higher-priced perpetual licence available for Standard. That is good value if you live in Windows daily and poor value if the VM boots when a supplier sends you a file that only opens on Windows.
VMware Fusion: free, and often overlooked
Broadcom made VMware Fusion free for personal and commercial use, which makes it the strongest zero-cost option for a Windows 11 ARM VM with proper guest tools. Shared folders, clipboard sharing, and drag-and-drop all work through VMware Tools. Two caveats: downloads run through the Broadcom support portal, whose account flow was designed for IT departments rather than individuals, and Fusion cannot run macOS guests on Apple Silicon at all — so if your VM library needs a macOS machine too, Fusion is only half the answer.
UTM: the only one that emulates x86
UTM wraps QEMU, so it can do the two different jobs QEMU does: virtualize ARM guests at native speed, and emulate an x86 machine in software. That second mode is why UTM belongs on this list. If you have an old x86 Windows image, a vendor installer that refuses ARM outright, or an application whose licence is pinned to x86 hardware IDs, UTM is the option that can boot it. Expect it to be slow — you are simulating one instruction set on another — and expect to read a bit before your first VM works. It is free and open source, and the paid Mac App Store build is a way to support the project rather than a different product.
We have a longer comparison with UTM that is honest about where each tool wins.
Kyvenza: one purchase, three kinds of guest
Kyvenza is our app, so read this section with that in mind. It runs macOS and ARM Linux guests on Apple’s own Virtualization framework, and since version 2.0 it runs Windows 11 on ARM on a second engine built from QEMU on Apple’s lower-level Hypervisor framework. A new Windows VM comes up with an emulated TPM 2.0 and UEFI firmware carrying Secure Boot keys, so the Windows 11 setup check passes without registry edits, and the network and display drivers are on a disc already mounted in the machine. It costs $49 once, with a 7-day trial and no account.
The trade is real and we would rather you read it here than discover it after paying. Windows guests in Kyvenza get no 3D acceleration — the desktop renders in software on the CPU — and no audio or USB passthrough. Host integration is mid-build: text clipboard sharing is finished and arrives in the next release, with shared folders in development behind it, so for now moving files means a network share, cloud storage, or an attached disk image. Windows guests also get NAT networking only: the VM reaches the internet, but other machines on your network cannot reach it. Bridged networking does exist in Kyvenza — it is available to macOS and Linux guests on the direct-download build — it just does not extend to the Windows engine. The display resolution is chosen before boot from five verified modes up to 2560×1600 and does not follow the window as you resize it, and snapshots of a Windows VM require it to be shut down. All of that is laid out, with nothing left off, on our Windows support page.
A cloud PC: when the answer is not a VM at all
Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop give you a Windows desktop running in Microsoft’s data centre, reached from a Mac client. Nothing installs locally, nothing eats your disk, and you get x86 Windows rather than the ARM edition, which settles the compatibility question outright. It is a monthly per-user cost, it needs a decent connection, and it does nothing on a plane. For occasional corporate Windows — especially where IT already owns the image — it is frequently the least painful route, and it is worth pricing before you buy a desktop hypervisor.
Pick by what you need, not by what is popular
Write down the actual reason you want Windows before you look at any pricing page. In our experience, most people find their reason in one of these six rows, and the row settles the choice faster than any feature list.
| You need | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Windows games, CAD, 3D, or anything that wants a real GPU | Parallels Desktop | It is the only option that gives a Windows guest graphics acceleration. Even there, check the title: kernel-level anti-cheat in many multiplayer games refuses to run in a VM. |
| One line-of-business Windows app with no Mac version | Kyvenza, or VMware Fusion | Ordinary desktop applications are exactly what a plain Windows 11 ARM VM handles. Pick on price and how much you care about dragging files across. |
| An old x86 Windows image or an x86-only installer | UTM | This needs emulation of the whole machine, not virtualization. UTM is the mainstream Mac app that does it. Set expectations low on speed. |
| Windows plus macOS and Linux VMs in one place | Kyvenza or Parallels | VMware Fusion cannot run macOS guests on Apple Silicon. Kyvenza runs macOS and ARM Linux on Apple’s own Virtualization framework and Windows on a second engine. |
| Corporate Windows, managed by someone else | A cloud PC | If IT owns the image, the licence, and the compliance rules, running it on your Mac is usually the harder path, not the easier one. |
| A single Windows app, not a whole Windows desktop | CrossOver, or check for a Mac build first | CrossOver is a compatibility layer, not a VM: no Windows licence, no guest OS, and a compatibility list you should check before paying. Worth ten minutes before you build a VM at all. |
Three of those rows send you somewhere other than Kyvenza. That is deliberate: a refund from someone the product could never serve is worth less to us than a recommendation you can trust.
How much Mac you need
Any Apple Silicon Mac can do this. What changes with the machine is how pleasant it feels. Memory is the binding constraint: whatever you hand the VM is unavailable to macOS while it runs, so a 16 GB Mac giving 8 GB to Windows leaves a workable 8 GB for everything else, while an 8 GB Mac giving 4 GB to Windows will have both sides swapping.
Disk is the constraint people underestimate. A Windows 11 install is large before you add anything, VM disk images grow as you write to them, and macOS itself wants free space to stay healthy. Kyvenza defaults a new Windows VM to 4 virtual CPUs, 4 GB of memory, and a 64 GB disk — enough to install and boot, tight once real applications arrive. Snapshots are the pleasant surprise here: on APFS they use copy-on-write, so a snapshot of a shut-down VM is effectively instant and costs almost no extra space until the machine diverges from it.
Processor generation matters less than the marketing suggests for this workload. Ordinary Windows desktop applications in a VM are bound by memory and disk long before they are bound by an M1 versus an M4. The exception is the GPU-heavy work that only Parallels serves, where the newer chips and that product’s graphics driver genuinely change the outcome.
What the setup actually looks like
The shape is the same in every app on this list, and knowing it in advance removes most of the surprises:
- Download the ARM64 image from Microsoft. It is a large file; start it before you do anything else.
- Create the VM and point it at the image. Accept the defaults unless you know why you are changing them. In Kyvenza this is also where you choose the display resolution, because it is fixed for the boot.
- Install the guest drivers when Windows setup stalls. Windows setup stops at the network step because it does not recognise the virtual network adapter. Every app on this list solves this the same way — point the installer at the driver disc it has already mounted for you.
- Finish installing, then shut down once. Most of these apps do a post-install pass that switches the display over and detaches the installer image. After that it behaves like any other VM: start, stop, snapshot, clone.
- Install your actual application and test it properly. This is the step people skip. Every one of these tools has a free trial or is free outright, so find out whether your application works before money is involved.
For the Kyvenza-specific version with the exact clicks, see how to create a Windows 11 ARM VM on a Mac.
Frequently asked questions
Can a Mac run Windows in a virtual machine in 2026?
Yes. Every Apple Silicon Mac — M1 through M5 — can run Windows 11 on ARM inside a virtual machine, and several apps do it: Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, UTM, and Kyvenza. What no longer exists is Boot Camp: Apple removed it with the move to Apple Silicon, so a virtual machine (or a cloud PC) is the only way to run Windows on a modern Mac.
Do I need Windows 11 ARM, or can I run normal x86 Windows?
On Apple Silicon you want the ARM64 build of Windows 11. It is the only edition that can be virtualized at native speed, and Microsoft publishes the ARM64 disk image for free download. Windows 11 on ARM includes Microsoft’s own x86 and x64 emulation layer, so most ordinary desktop applications built for Intel still install and run. Running an x86 build of Windows itself requires whole-machine emulation, which UTM can do and which is slow enough that most people abandon it.
Is it legal to run Windows 11 ARM in a VM on a Mac?
You need your own valid Windows licence, exactly as you would on a PC. Microsoft’s own guidance names Parallels Desktop 18, 19, and 20 as authorized solutions for running ARM versions of Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise on Apple Silicon; other virtual machine apps boot the same official image without appearing on that list. No reputable Mac VM app supplies, sells, or activates Windows for you, and any that offers an activation workaround should be avoided.
Which virtual machine app is best for running Windows on a Mac?
It depends on the workload. Parallels Desktop is the most complete Windows experience and the one to pick for games, CAD, GPU work, or heavy drag-and-drop between macOS and Windows. VMware Fusion is free and capable if you are comfortable with a more technical setup. UTM is free and open source, and the only option that can emulate x86. Kyvenza is a $49 one-time app for people who want a Windows 11 ARM VM alongside macOS and Linux VMs and can live without graphics acceleration or host integration.
Can I play Windows games in a VM on a Mac?
Only with an app that gives the Windows guest 3D acceleration, which in practice means Parallels Desktop, and even then expect compatibility gaps: many multiplayer titles use kernel-level anti-cheat that refuses to run inside a virtual machine. Kyvenza gives Windows guests no GPU acceleration at all — the desktop renders in software on the CPU — so games, CAD, and GPU compute are out of scope for it.
Is there a free way to run Windows on a Mac?
Yes, two of them. VMware Fusion is free from Broadcom for personal and commercial use, and UTM is free and open source (the Mac App Store build is a paid convenience; the download from the project site is free). Both still require your own Windows licence. Paid apps buy you polish, support, and guest integration rather than the ability to boot Windows at all.
How much memory and disk does a Windows VM need on a Mac?
Plan for 8 GB of memory assigned to the VM and 64 GB of disk as a comfortable starting point, on a Mac with at least 16 GB of memory total so macOS is not starved while the VM runs. Kyvenza defaults a new Windows VM to 4 virtual CPUs, 4 GB of memory, and a 64 GB disk, which installs and boots fine but is tight once you add applications. Disk images grow as you use them, so leave real headroom on the Mac’s own drive.
What happened to Boot Camp?
Boot Camp only ever worked on Intel Macs, because it booted an x86 copy of Windows directly on x86 hardware. Apple Silicon Macs cannot do that, and Parallels removed its remaining Boot Camp integration in Desktop 27. If you have an Intel Mac still running a supported macOS version, Boot Camp remains available there; on any M-series Mac, virtualization or a cloud PC are the options.
Can I move files between macOS and a Windows VM?
In Parallels and VMware Fusion, yes — both ship guest tools with shared folders and clipboard sharing. Not yet in Kyvenza: Windows guests in Kyvenza 2.0 have no audio and no USB passthrough, and host file and clipboard integration is mid-build — text clipboard sharing is finished and arrives in the next release, with shared folders in development behind it — but today it means moving files through a network share, cloud storage, or an attached disk image. Networking for Windows guests is NAT only, so the VM reaches the internet but is not reachable from other machines; bridged networking is available for macOS and Linux guests on the direct-download build. Those integrations already work in Kyvenza’s macOS and Linux VMs — the gap is specific to Windows guests.
If a plain Windows 11 ARM desktop is what you need
The 7-day free trial unlocks the whole app, Windows VMs included, on any Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 14 or later. No account, no card. Install your own Windows image, run the application you actually care about, and decide from the result rather than from a feature table.