Parallels Desktop 17.1 Adds Full Support for macOS Monterey and Windows 11

Parallels has announced the release of Parallels Desktop 17.1 for Mac, which adds full support for macOS Monterey and Windows 11.

“We’re very excited to announce Parallels Desktop 17.1 Update, which now fully supports macOS Monterey as a host OS and improves the user experience when running macOS Monterey in a VM on Apple M1 Mac,” Parallels’ Beatrice Vogel writes. “The latest update also includes improved Windows 11 virtual machine (VM) support and stability with the introduction of Virtual Trusted Platform Modules (vTPMs) by default for all future and past Windows 11 VMs.”

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That latter bit is important, because Microsoft started enforcing Windows 11’s TPM requirement after it finalized the original release of Windows 11, and M1-based Mac users with Parallels Desktop 17—the first to support Windows 11—suddenly found themselves in the lurch. Parallels quickly issued a patch, but now the latest release of the products includes this more sustainable solution. (That said, M1 users still need to use a Windows Insider Preview version of Windows 11 since Microsoft refuses to officially support the ARM-based version of this OS on M1-based Macs.)

Other new features in Parallels Desktop 17.1 include Parallels Tools support for macOS Monterey VMs with copy and paste integration between the host and guest environments, support for more Windows games (including World of Warcraft, Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition, Tomb Raider 3, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, World of Tanks, Raft, and others), and support for accelerated 3D graphics in Linux via VirGL.

You can learn more about Parallels Desktop 17.x for Mac from the Parallels website.

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Conversation 17 comments

  • jchampeau

    Premium Member
    16 October, 2021 - 10:07 am

    <p>I love my base model M1 MacBook Air….until I need to use Visio or my Windows-only wireless design software. I hope it becomes possible to run regular Windows on an M1 Mac at some point.</p>

  • kevin_costa

    16 October, 2021 - 10:10 am

    <p>Hey Paul. I know that the Insider Preview is the only official way to get an ARM64 installation, but you need an initial base ARM image to start the upgrade process, and that image you can get on the UUP Dump website (actually, any Windows ARM64 image you can get there, in an ISO format). Just a tip for you and other people that may not know about this way of clean install on ARM devices.</p>

  • kryptryx

    Premium Member
    16 October, 2021 - 10:48 am

    <p>Microsoft should support this, just like Apple supports macOS on a windows VM.</p>

    • Username

      16 October, 2021 - 5:36 pm

      <p>Not everyone will understand intended irony.</p>

    • spullum

      Premium Member
      18 October, 2021 - 3:23 pm

      <p>If you’re running bare</p><p>metal Windows or Linux on Apple hardware, you can run macOS in a VM. It’s tied to the hardware in the license.</p>

  • SvenJ

    16 October, 2021 - 12:04 pm

    <p>I understand not being able to use the ARM based Win 11, but why limited to an Insider Preview of the X86? Can’t you load the ‘release’ version, or is that not available yet. Thought it was. </p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      17 October, 2021 - 9:20 am

      <p>You’d have to activate the release version.</p>

      • SvenJ

        17 October, 2021 - 4:12 pm

        <p>Isn’t that a matter of buying it? You had to have a ‘license’ if you loaded a Win 10 VM too, technically.</p>

        • waethorn

          17 October, 2021 - 10:54 pm

          <p>Not an Insider Preview version.</p>

        • Josh

          Premium Member
          18 October, 2021 - 5:06 pm

          <p>It is, but Microsoft doesn’t sell it.</p>

  • Username

    16 October, 2021 - 5:35 pm

    <p>They’re too coy about requiring Intel Mac to run release Windows 11 VM. A naive M1 owner will assume it can.</p>

    • waethorn

      17 October, 2021 - 7:50 pm

      <p>If you’re one of the people that chooses to use a Mac, even though you still need to run Windows applications, you, or your IT staff, should be able to handle a developer build of Windows.</p>

  • waethorn

    16 October, 2021 - 7:55 pm

    <p>FYI: if you want to get past the Microsoft Account requirement for Windows 11 Home’s OOBE, here’s the instructions:</p><p><br></p><p>Hit Shift-F10 while on the MS Account screen and type this for a wireless connection:</p><p>netsh wlan disconnect</p><p>exit</p><p><br></p><p>Or if you’re on LAN, type </p><p>netsh interface show interface</p><p>Find the name of your Ethernet controller, and use </p><p>netsh interface set interface name=“Ethernetnamewithquotes” admin=DISABLED</p><p>exit</p><p>and hit back.</p><p><br></p><p>You’ll be prompted to create a local user account like on Windows 10 Pro.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

  • Brett Barbier

    17 October, 2021 - 10:04 am

    <p>Anyone know why Microsoft doesn’t want to sell Windows licenses and allow people to install Windows on ARM on the non-Intel Macs? It seems weird that they sell x86-based Windows licenses and support x86 Windows installations on the Intel Macs. Why the difference in philosophy?</p>

    • waethorn

      17 October, 2021 - 5:46 pm

      <p>OEM contracts.</p>

  • waethorn

    17 October, 2021 - 5:57 pm

    <p>BTW: The “requirements” are only in a detection routine in Windows Setup. Windows 11 will still run on “incompatible” hardware. It’s the same as Windows 10 as far as security goes on non-TPM hardware, and the NT kernel has NOT been expunged of older processor code. From what I can see of the newest Cumulative Update, the scheduler is far more aggressive with power scheduling of threads, meaning older chips actually stay cooler than on Windows 10 (an experience with a first-gen and fifth-gen Core i5 laptops on my lap while doing Windows updates after doing the same with Windows 10 can attest to this).</p>

  • hbko

    18 October, 2021 - 2:50 am

    <p>On one hand it’s kind of lucky that mostly very old or very specialised software is "Windows only". Nevertheless, there are still plenty of opportunities for people to want or need to setup a VM on their Mac and so it feels like a missed opportunity that the process is so cumbersome. A VM running Windows is one of few opportunities to appeal to macOS users with something tangible that could make them consider getting a stand-alone PC but if the experience leaves a bitter taste after every click that will never happen, of course. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">"Mac running on Intel" is a setup that’s still popular but with a very clear deadline, an opportunity for Microsoft to make ARM Windows easier to obtain and with a better ecosystem.</span></p>

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