ARM BootCamp

Hello, Apple Community and Staff. I have a little concept - ARM BootCamp.

So, it's only available at ARM Macs, but not X64 ones. Its only available at macOS Big Sur and above.

And, it can run OSes like: Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11.

Thanks.

Mac mini, macOS 26.1

Posted on Oct 30, 2025 2:14 PM

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Posted on Oct 30, 2025 2:23 PM

It won't happen and doesn't need to. I use the free version of VMware to run Windows 11 ARM on my M4 Pro mini. It runs essentially at native speed and has the ability to share the video hardware instead of emulating something much slower.

5 replies

Oct 30, 2025 2:55 PM in response to Tester_MeowYT

I also have the free UTM. I use it to run Windows XP on the same M4 Pro mini. Necessary (so I don't have to purchase an old, separate PC for a single purpose) for running ProfileMaker5. There's still no modern replacement software like this for editing ICC profiles.


Despite being an Intel based OS, it runs fairly well on an ARM computer. Probably because compared to later Windows releases, XP needs pretty minimal resources. The entire install, along with the profiling software is only 2.7 GB.


I think I did try installing Windows 11 ARM in UTM since it would also use the available hardware (CPU, GPU and such) instead of emulating another computer. But Win 11 ARM runs much better in VMware.


But yes, both VMware and UTM will share USB devices, and most any other devices you could connect. The VM takes care of the otherwise incompatible crossovers. Such as, Win XP would never directly know what to do with an APFS formatted drive. Nor would Windows 11. But I can still write to such a USB drive through the VM.

ARM BootCamp

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