Development in Windows 11 on M1 Mac Mini
So as a web developer who works with Windows technologies, how is it even possible to develop on an M1 Mac mini? That is what I decided to attempt to figure out.
Now you may be aware, as I have mentioned in my previous post about my M1 Mac Mini, I currently use my Acer Predator Helios 300 through a remote desktop connection from my M1 Mac Mini. For what I need it works great, but this laptop is getting old and is not upgradeable to Windows 11. It’s a shame, as this gaming PC certainly has the horsepower, an i7 with 16Gb of RAM, and a 1060 GPU with 6Gb of VRAM. It runs everything I throw at it, but the 7th generation intel chip is not supported by Windows 11. So my dilemma is this, do I save for a new PC, or do I try and use a virtual machine.
Before I get into my experiences with this, I should first mention Boot Camp, which allows you to boot your computer into either macOS or Windows. This was also considered, but unfortunately Boot Camp requires a Mac with an Intel processor. So this won’t work on an M1 Mac.
So in the interest of exploring all my options, I thought I would try virtualization. I have watched many a video about virtualization on Mac and I was pretty confident that I could use Parallels software. You may not be aware, Parallels allows you to create a virtual machine on your Mac that will run windows without any rebooting required or even Linux if you desire.
To install Windows 11 on the M1 Mac Mini with Parallels, follow these simple steps. This is also documented in the following excellent YouTube video: How to Install Windows 11 on Apple M1 Pro/Max MacBooks!
- Go to Parallels.com and install the free trial.
- Go to the Windows Insider Program site and register as an insider.
- Download the Windows 11 for Arm from the Microsoft Insider Preview website. This file will be of significant size and will take some time to download.
- On the Parallels application, use Installation Assistant and configure the virtual machine with the maximum number of CPUs and RAM available for a Standard Edition of Parallels, you will need to upgrade to use more than 8Gb of RAM. Also use the downloaded file of Windows 11 for ARM, as part of this process.
- Allow this installation to complete, which may take some time. Afterward, you will have Windows 11 for ARM installed in a virtual environment on your M1 Mac.
Now, the installation of IDE and other parts is fairly simple at this point. I use Microsoft Visual Studio Community Edition and also Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. However, I ran into my first issue. Whilst installing MySQL some of the components do not install. Now, I didn’t realize it at the time, but there is a BIGGER issue causing this, an issue that will block my ability to develop in this environment. However, for the sake of completeness, let’s continue. The ODBC Connector Drivers would not install on Windows 11. So I moved on, I installed Notepad++ which is always useful.
Now on to IIS, and BOOM..! there is no IIS for Windows for ARM… Wait, what..? How is this even possible? the final piece to make this work… Microsoft has the Surface Pro X, which runs on an ARM processer, and you can’t install IIS… Take a look at this article. See the image below, there is no option to install IIS.
So despite my hopes of having a Windows virtual machine on my M1 Mac, and after spending the money to get a Parallels subscription, I am prevented from realizing that dream because IIS is not available for this version of Windows. I am utterly disappointed by this shortcoming, and I hope Microsoft decides to add this feature in the near future. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this going forward.
Now, there may be other alternatives, you could get a Microsoft Azure virtual machine, or set up one in AWS, that’s if you have the know-how and the available budget, and remote into that. Also, you could potentially use Windows-365, which, at the time of writing is only available for businesses. If you can think of other solutions, let me know in the comments section below.
So, at this time, I’ll be saving my pennies to buy a new Windows laptop, either until Microsoft introduce IIS for Windows on ARM, or until I have enough to buy a new computer.
Paul Jacobs — January 10th, 2022
