Back when Apple’s Mac computers had Intel processors, it was pretty easy to install Microsoft Windows on an Apple laptop or desktop computers using Apple’s Boot Camp feature which allowed users switch between macOS and Windows on startup.

But that ended when Apple began shipping Macs with Apple Silicon processors because Windows doesn’t include native support for the processors. The only official way to run Windows on a modern Mac is to do it in a virtual machine running within macOS. But unofficially? The developer behind the M1 Windows project is working on software that would allow you to boot Windows on Macs with Apple Silicon.

The Apple M1 processor was the first Apple Silicon chip for Macs

The project is still in its early stages and there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done before users will be able to install Windows on a Mac with an M1 (or later) chip as easily as they could on a Mac with an Intel processor. But developer Arminder Singh isn’t starting entirely from scratch: his project builds upon the work of the Asahi Linux project, which has already made quite a bit of progress booting a Linux-based operating system on Macs with Apple Silicon.

It also helps that after decades of existing as an x86-only operating system, Windows 10 and Windows 11 do include native support for ARM processors. But Singh notes that Apple’s processors are very different from other ARM-based chips from companies like Qualcomm, Samsung, and MediaTek.

All of which is to say that it’s unclear if the M1 Windows project will ever be entirely successful. But if you want to track its progress, you can check out the project website and Singh’s GitHub page, or follow Singh on Twitter.

via Neowin and Deskmodder

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One reply on “M1 Windows project aims to bring Microsoft’s desktop OS to Apple Silicon (unofficially)”

  1. FYI Windows NT was created on and for MIPS based workstations initially, it has always had and retained support for RISC systems, there were RISC based Windows NT 4 systems available for sale in the mid/late 90’s with x86 emulator (that was awful performance wise).

    But again like the Raspberry Pie windows project these are just not useful without full windows driver support which will simply never happen, so its just a novelty.

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