Testing Windows 11 under Parallels 18 on MacBook Air M2
I recently purchased a new MacBook Air M2 with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The last Air I had the pleasure of using was back in 2011/2012. I loved the form factor even back then, but with Apple’s new M1 and M2 series CPUs, this is an entirely new experience for me.
I own a few Apple devices (i.e. iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, etc.) but my daily driver has been a Windows laptop or Windows PC because most of my clients (practically all of them) use Windows and Windows PCs for their jobs. I read all the reviews and watched all the videos on the hot take issues of the M2 Air, but I was sure it was the right laptop for me to get back into the Apple computing ecosystem.
After getting the new Air setup, one of the first things I did was install Parallels v18 because I wanted to test the ARM version of Windows on the M2 CPU. Microsoft doesn’t support running the ARM version of Windows natively on the M1 or M2 CPUs, but as I discovered, it works really freaking great under virtualization! I’m not a huge fan of Parallels, having had some real negative experiences of running Windows 10 under Parallels on an Intel Mac in the past, but this time I was totally surprised…possibly even shocked at how performative it was under virtualization on the M2.
Here’s a quick video that I took to share with my son and now I’m sharing it with you.
Donovan was born and raised in the deep south of South Central Georgia, roughly two hours from the Georgia-Florida line. His father was a guitar player, farmer, and eventually blue color worker for GM. His mother suffered from Scleroderma starting a few years after he was born, so she became a home maker. Growing up as an only child, Donovan’s interest included music (though he really never learned to play anything) and anything dealing with technology, but specifically computers.
He has spent his entire life involved with computer technology either as a hobby or as a career. In his middle to late teens, he ran a BBS (electronic bulletin board system – the precursor to the modern day Internet). He learned about networking computer systems, building computers, and communication technologies as part of his career.
Later in life, he fulfilled his dream of running his own ISP (Internet Service Provider) when he was hired first as the Network Manager and eventually the General Manager of the Telecommunications Department for the City of Tifton, known as CityNet.
Today he runs his own IT business and has been podcasting in some form or fashion since 2011.