Let’s start this post with a discussion of why people want to run Windows on Mac. Well, there are many reasons for this. Apple is known for its quality products, and MacBooks are considered the best available laptops in the market. When it comes to the operating system, Mac is popular, but what about Windows? Windows is dominating. Windows has a larger community than any other operating system, especially in the gaming landscape. As per the report, more than 96% of gamers use Windows. In general, Windows tops the list. It has taken more than 76% of the market. Mac is ranked second with 17% of the market share. There are many people who want to buy a MacBook with Windows 11, the latest Windows operating system for desktop users. That is just possible only in dreams at this point in time. However, we are here to help you succeed in your dream. Well, there are many ways to run Windows 11 on a Mac. Don’t worry. We are here to show you how to run Windows 11 on Mac using VMWare Fusion. Let’s get started.
Microsoft introduced lots of security features to make Windows 11 secure more than any other Windows operating system. One such security feature is TPM. To run Windows 11, it is necessary to have a TPM v2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) hardware module on your computer. Since we are dealing with a Virtual Machine in this scenario, no need to worry so much. VMWare has a couple of workarounds to run Windows 11 on Mac using VMWare platforms like VMWare Fusion. Thanks to VMWare for this wonderful workaround.
If you’re a Mac user, there are plenty of reasons to run Windows on your Mac. Whether you need to use specific Windows-only software for work or you want to take advantage of the stability and performance of a Mac, running Windows 11 on your Mac is a great solution. Here are five reasons to do it.
There are users who need both Mac & Windows to manage their work.
Newly migrated users from Windows to Mac or Mac to Windows want to run Windows on Mac.
Mac provides the best hardware, but Windows is the most popular.
Gamers may want to run Windows on Mac as most games support only Windows.
You can get the best of both worlds with a Mac/Windows hybrid.
Basically, you need a Windows 11 ISO image, VMware Fusion with a free license, and of course a MacBook. That’s all.
Windows 11 ISO image: It is a must to have a Windows ISO image. Visit the Microsoft web page to download the Windows 11 ISO image. Click here to download.
VMware Fusion player: The VMWare team is offering a free license for personal use. Click here to register and download the VMware Fusion player with a license. Please don’t ignore to verify the compatible version of VMware Fusion.
MacBook: A MacBook with a minimum of 8GB of RAM and 250 GB of storage disc is required. We recommend having 16GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. Because you may need 4 GB of RAM and 100 GB of storage to run a VM (Virtual Machine). There is a dependency on Intel processors, you can’t run Windows x86 on an M1 chip.
Let’s begin the actual post for which you are here. Let’s see how to run Windows 11 on Mac using VMWare Fusion. We presumed that you have installed VMWare Fusion on your Mac. If you feel you need assistance in installing VMWare Fusion on mac, please visit this post.
Let’s create a new Virtual Machine on VMware Fusion.Open Virtual Machine Library –> Click on ‘+‘ –> In the drop-down list Click on ‘New‘.
New VM Installation Wizard opens and Lists of Installation Methods. Click on ‘Create a custom virtual Machine‘ and click on ‘Continue’.
Select ‘Microsoft Windows’, since Windows 11 is not made available in VMware, select the latest Client Operating System ‘Windows 10 and later x64‘ and click on ‘Continue‘.
Select the Boot firmware as ‘UEFI‘ and select ‘UEFI Select Boot‘. Click on ‘Continue‘
Select ‘Create a new virtual disk‘ and click on ‘Continue‘.
For Modification, Click on ‘Customize Settings’.
Rename the VM as ‘Windows 11’ and click on ‘Save’ again click on ‘Finish’ to complete the wizard
Open for VM settings, and click on ‘CD/DVD(SATA)‘ to import the downloaded Windows 11 ISO image.
Select ‘Connect CD/DVD Drive’ and browse the ISO file. Click on ‘Show All’.
Click on ‘Startup Disk’ to change the Startup Disk of the VM.
Select ‘CD/DVD’ and click on ‘Restart’ to Start the VM with mounted ISO image.
As soon as the VM is powered on Windows 11 Installation will get started from the ISO image stored on CD/DVD. Select Language, Time Zone, and Keyboard, and click on ‘Next‘.
Update the valid Product Key (if you have one). You can Activate Windows with Product Key even after OS installation. Click on ‘I Don’t have a product key‘ if you want to continue without the product key.
Select the Version of Windows 11 to install and click on ‘Next‘.
This error will appear due to System Requirement Failure and get the below message. Click on ‘Back‘ to go back to the OS Versions selection window.
Click on the ‘Shift + fn + F10′ keys simultaneously on the keyboard to open the CMD window. Type ‘regedit‘ and click on ‘Enter‘ to open Registry Editor.
To create a New key, Right click on ‘Setup‘ –> Select ‘New‘ –> Select ‘Key‘ –> Rename to ‘LabConfig‘
Right-click on the newly created ‘LabConfig‘ key and select ‘New‘ –>DWORD (32-bit) Value –> Rename to ‘BypassTPMCheck‘.
Double click on ‘BypassTPMCheck‘ and change the Value date to ‘1‘ and select Base as ‘Hexadecimal‘ –> click ‘OK‘.
Note: By Enforcing the value to 1, we have disabled the TPM check successfully.
To enforce Secure Boot check, create a New DWORD (32-bit) Value ‘BypassSecureBootCheck‘ and set Value data as ‘1‘To enforce CPU check, create a New DWORD (32-bit) Value ‘BypassCPUCheck‘ and set Value data as ‘1‘To enforce RAM check, create a New DWORD (32-bit) Value ‘BypassRAMCheck‘ and set Value data as ‘1‘
Now we can continue to install Windows 11 without any roadblocks. Accept the Licence Agreement and click on ‘Next‘.
Click on ‘Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)‘ to make changes in the Drive Partitions. It is up to you how you want to install Windows 11.
Selecting complete 60 GB for OS drive and click on ‘Next‘. Based on requirement you can change the Drive Partitions.
After Windows 11 Installation, configure with profile with Microsoft account / Local account.
We hope this post will help you know how to run Windows 11 on MAC using VMWare Fusion. Please share this post if you find this interesting. Visit our social media page on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Telegram, Tumblr, Medium & Instagram, and subscribe to receive updates like this.
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Arun KL is a cybersecurity professional with 15+ years of experience in IT infrastructure, cloud security, vulnerability management, Penetration Testing, security operations, and incident response. He is adept at designing and implementing robust security solutions to safeguard systems and data. Arun holds multiple industry certifications including CCNA, CCNA Security, RHCE, CEH, and AWS Security.
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