Windows 11 may soon run natively on the Apple M1 thanks to this new project

If you want to run Windows 11 on Apple hardware, there are two main ways, either run it through Parallels or run it natively using a Windows 10 hack. If you know of other methods, please let us know in the comments. Last year, Microsoft had clarified that it was unlikely to support Windows 11 on the Mac or M1, meaning unofficial support is what enthusiasts can expect.

With that in mind, developer Arminder Singh says it may soon be possible to run Microsoft's Windows 11 natively on the Apple M1 and other Apple Silicon hardware, and he's working on a project to make it happen. But it's still early days and Singh has thrown caution to the wind, saying several challenges must be overcome. In his blog post, he said:

Contrary to what it may seem, Apple's chips are architecturally very different from standard ARM64 chips from the likes of Qualcomm or MediaTek, so there's a need for Lots of hardware support. Thankfully, a lot of work has been done in this area of ​​Linux through the Asahi Linux Project

This isn't going to be a trivial project, I have to take into account a lot of Apple-specific weirdness, and there are a few things I need to do to ensure that M1 can boot Windows in a stable manner.

For those wondering what the Asahi Linux project is, it is a similar project aimed at running Linux on Apple Silicon.

However, as mentioned above, there are specific challenges with Apple hardware. The main issue, Singh explained, has to do with Apple's proprietary interrupt controller known as the Apple Interrupt Controller (AIC). The second issue has to do with the M1's Input-Output Memory Management Unit (IOMMU), which only supports 16K pages and not 8K.

With these obstacles in mind, Singer reiterated that while he is actively working to get around them, the project may not succeed. Therefore, there is currently no ETA.

This project does not guarantee success. I'll do my best to make sure it gets done, but in the end, there's zero guarantee that I'll be able to get Windows to work in a good way when this is all over. But I will try my best.

I need time to make sure everything is working properly, so no ETA as of yet.

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