Windows 11 on M1 Mac for free in 30 minutes. (without Parallels)

If you have an M1 Mac and you want to run a software that requires Windows, and you don’t want to pay ~80€/year just for a virtualization software (like Parallels), this article is for you. It will guide you step by step how to install, configure and run Windows 11 for free, no technical knowledge required.

Just to be clear, Parallels is a great software and they take virtualization to the whole new level. Yet if you just occasionally want to use an application that doesn’t run on a Mac, you don’t always need all those shiny features.

However, if you hope to run some video games I must disappoint you. You need to wait for BootCamp to start supporting Windows on M1 or use Parallels, Crossover, Wine or some other solution. There are tons of articles and videos about it.

What do you need?

• ~30 minutes (depending on your network connection)
• M1 Mac ;)
• A web browser

What virtualization tool did I chose and why?

If you want to see the installation steps already you can skip reading this paragraph.

TL:DR — I chose UTM as it’s easier (has fewer steps) and makes changing screen resolution possible, while VMware doesn’t.

There are two tools I know of that make running Windows possible for free on M1 Mac.

• VMware Fusion (Tech Preview)— A tool provided by VMware corporation noted on the NYSE and employing ~34k employees (as for 2021)
• UTM — An open source tool maintained by few enthusiasts

There is a third popular tool, Oracle VirtualBox but at the moment they are not supporting M1 Mac, only the Intel one.

I tested both of them and I decided to use UTM. Why? There is a couple of reasons.

1. UTM is designed and created exclusively for Mac OS, which means that it’s well optimized as people creating that app don’t have to make any compromises.
2. VMware can create a Windows virtual machine only from an ISO file, which at the moment needs to be manually created. It’s not that difficult for technical people, however it might be a deal breaker for less technical ones. UTM can create a virtual machine from a VHDX file format, which is a Microsoft file format and it’s obtainable from their official website (no converting is needed).
3. At the moment, UTM has slightly better tooling. For example they provide drivers that let you change the screen resolution in the VM, while on the VMware you are stuck with 1024x768 screen resolution. Though it might change in the future.

As I mentioned before, I did set up Windows using both tools. So if anyone wants to see the instructions on how to set it up on the VMware, let me know in the comments and I will share a link, or create an article if I don’t find any comprehensive instructions.

Step 1: Download all required files

1. UTM — Can be downloaded from the official page for free, or optionally from the App store, but over there it costs $10. Both versions are the same, you can purchase the App store version if you want to support the creator.
2. SPICE guest tools — those are the drivers that will be needed to change the screen resolution and to have the network connection. Download the ones for Windows obviously.
3. Windows 11 insider preview for M1 — can be downloaded from the official Microsoft page.
   You need to be a member of “Windows Insider program”. Fortunately, anyone can join. All you need is a Microsoft account (Skype, Xbox account, etc., they’re all Microsoft accounts). If you don’t have it, you can just quickly create one.
   I created a short video, when under 2 minutes I created a new Microsoft account and joined the “Insider program”.

You can easily create a new account and download the file

Step 2: Install UTM

That’s pretty straightforward, just install UTM from the downloaded UTM.dmg file.

Step 3: Create a Virtual Machine

Once the UTM is installed and running, we need to create the actual Virtual Machine. It’s pretty simple, just follow the steps. See the animation below the steps in case of doubts.

1. Click on “Create a new Virtual Machine” button
2. Chose Virtualize
3. Select Windows
4. Click on “Browse” and select the VHDX Windows image downloaded in the first step
5. In the Hardware section, select amount of memory and cores to use. I recommend to use 8GB and 2-4 cores. You can change it later too if you need to.
6. Chose a Shared Directory (optional step). This is a directory that will be visible as a network drive for your VM if you want to share some files between your Mac and Windows systems.
7. Summary — name your Virtual Machine as you like, take a look at all the settings if you need to click next.

Step 4: Install Windows without a Microsoft account

There is a way to install Windows with the network connection and a Microsoft account, however I won’t cover it here. If you want to, you can always add your Microsoft account once the system is installed. If interested, please write a comment and I will extend this article with this optional step.

To install Windows you need to go through the following steps:

1. Click on the big “Play” button to start the VM and wait until you see the Windows installation screen.
2. On the screen where you can chose your country, press the keys combination fn + shift + F10 to open the terminal. Type oobe\bypassnro and press enter. Your virtual machine will restart. This step is required to bypass the network check by the Windows installer and continue the installation without the Microsoft account.
3. After the VM reboots, continue through the installation steps. Select a language and a keyboard layout. When reached the network page, click “I don’t have internet” and then “Continue with limited setup”. Just follow the following installer steps to set up your name and password and that’s almost it.

Step 5: Install the drivers (network and display)

Remember the SPICE guest tools you downloaded in step 1? Now it’s time to use it.

1. Click on the little CD image in the top right corner of your VM, select “browse” and select the SPICE Guest Tools .iso file. It will mount that file as a CD in your VM’s drive.
2. Navigate to the CD drive in the file explorer and double click on the spice-guest-tools.exe file to install the tools, follow the instructions and let the system reboot.

After that step you should have a network access, you should be able to change the screen resolution and use a shared folder.

If you don’t have a network access, you need to go through one extra step.

1. Close your virtual machine
2. In the UTM screen click on “Edit selected VM” (settings icon in the top right corner)
3. Select Network
4. Chose the Network Mode to Bridged (Advanced)
5. Chose the Emulated Network Card to be virtio-net-pci

Congratulations, that’s it. You now have a fully working Windows system on your M1 mac.

Bonus — file transfer

To transfer files between your Mac and Windows machine you just need to add a directory in the VM and it’ll be visible as a network drive for your Windows.

1. Click on a folder icon in the top right corner of your VM
2. Select a directory you’d like to share with your VM
3. In the VM, go to the file browser and open “This PC”
4. You should see a Network Drive from which you can copy shared files to your VM.

I hope the instructions were clear enough for anyone to follow. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me or write a comment.