HOW TO RUN WINDOWS 11 IN MAC MINI M2

There are two other virtualization options (well actually 3).

VMWare Fusion is a commercial package that can run Windows 11.

Then there are two open source packages that can virtualize Windows 11. The first is QEMU and the second is a derivative of QEMU which is called UTM. QEMU does all its configuration and set up via command line which can be a bit daunting. UTM seeks to create a graphical interface wrapper around the base QEMU app. However, there were some graphical display limitations that I ran into, i.e. limited virtual display size, odd virtual display anomalies, etc.

Be aware of on very significant issue with running Win11 in virtualization on M1 or M2 Macs, if you have external devices that you want to use but can only work in Windows, the vast majority will not have any ARM64 support for Win11. While Win11 has an Intel or AMD translation layer, this does not work for device drivers as the device driver must be specific for the CPU that they will be running on.

I am using VMware Fusion on my M1 MacBook Air and have not had any real issues with any of the apps that I use, with the exception of hardware driver issues.

Can an iPad be used as a display monitor with a Mac mini M2 for travel?

Because M-family chips have a different architecture than Intel chips, you cannot use Boot Camp to install Windows on the M2 MacBook Air. The official Microsoft Support site offers two Options for using Windows 11 with Mac® computers with Apple® M1® and M2™ chips - Microsoft Support:

1. Windows 11 and Windows 365 Cloud PCs
2. Windows 11 and Parallels Desktop

These might not be the most cost efficient ways, but seem to be the only ones officially supported by Microsoft.

An iPad can’t be used as a portable hardware monitor for another computer or device.

Some Macs can use some iPads as second displays using Sidecar.

Use an iPad as a second display for a Mac - Apple Support

ekassos wrote:

Because M-family chips have a different architecture than Intel chips, you cannot use Boot Camp to install Windows on the M2 MacBook Air. The official Microsoft Support site offers two Options for using Windows 11 with Mac® computers with Apple® M1® and M2™ chips - Microsoft Support

1. Windows 11 and Windows 365 Cloud PCs

I.e., you rent time on a (virtual) Windows-based PC that's running on a Microsoft server farm, and stream output back to your computer.

2. Windows 11 and Parallels Desktop

Parallels virtual machines on Apple Silicon Macs can't run versions of Windows built for AMD/Intel architecture. They can only run Windows for ARM. Windows for ARM has Intel emulation/translation code to let it run some Wintel application binaries (with overhead), but there are limitations.

Parallels Knowledge Base – About Parallels Desktop for Mac with Apple silicon

Parallels Knowledge Base – Parallels Desktop for Mac with Apple silicon limitations

Microsoft Support – Windows Arm-based PCs FAQ

From a Virtual Machine standpoint, I believe Microsoft has only officially endorsed support for Windows 11 ARM using Parallel's Desktop. The latter is a $120/yr subscription, and even with Windows 11 ARM, I haven't seen a stampede of vendors (including Microsoft) offering compatible ARM applications for it.