Recommendation for virtual machine. I use utm qemu virtual machine for the original website UTM | Virtual machines for MacUTM | Virtual machines for Machttps://mac.getutm.app and use windows 11 but with nothing in the virtual machine it uses 23 gb which makes the app unusable for it. I am asking this for a small amount taking virtual machine. I have a Mac mini m4 (2024) 256 gb Tahoe 26.5
Mac mini, macOS 26.5
Virtual machines are not small and do not sip storage or memory or processor resources. Virtual machines with emulators are yet less small, as they add the ability to (for instance) run Microsoft Windows for Intel x86-64 architecture processors on macOS on Apple silicon Arm architecture processors.
Parallels provides a supported means of running Microsoft Windows 11 for Arm (not Intel) processors, which doesn’t need architecture emulation.
Beyond the storage for actual virtual machines themselves, the files containing the operating system and user files for each guest operating system are also not small.
The least overhead approach is to host Windows 11 on Azure or elsewhere. There are various offers, including Azure Virtual Desktop.
This 256 GB Mac is very much under-purchased for many operations, including this usage. If still within 14 days of its original purchase from Apple, return it for a full refund and get a Mac mini with something more reasonable, like a 1 tB Mac.
I’d consider this Mac under-purchased for normal operations (photos, email, Messages, Pages/Numbers/Keynote, etc), much less for use with hypervisor guests or for software development or ML or such. I’d expect ongoing storage management with this storage choice, or having to go on a severe reduction of my existing usage and typical usage trend.
Virtual machines are not small and do not sip storage or memory or processor resources. Virtual machines with emulators are yet less small, as they add the ability to (for instance) run Microsoft Windows for Intel x86-64 architecture processors on macOS on Apple silicon Arm architecture processors.
Parallels provides a supported means of running Microsoft Windows 11 for Arm (not Intel) processors, which doesn’t need architecture emulation.
Beyond the storage for actual virtual machines themselves, the files containing the operating system and user files for each guest operating system are also not small.
The least overhead approach is to host Windows 11 on Azure or elsewhere. There are various offers, including Azure Virtual Desktop.
This 256 GB Mac is very much under-purchased for many operations, including this usage. If still within 14 days of its original purchase from Apple, return it for a full refund and get a Mac mini with something more reasonable, like a 1 tB Mac.
I’d consider this Mac under-purchased for normal operations (photos, email, Messages, Pages/Numbers/Keynote, etc), much less for use with hypervisor guests or for software development or ML or such. I’d expect ongoing storage management with this storage choice, or having to go on a severe reduction of my existing usage and typical usage trend.
weeklycod wrote:
so there is no less space taking vm
The only supported mens to boot Windows Arm on Apple silicon is via Parallels virtual machine; as a guest.
There is no native boot support for Windows Arm on Apple silicon, nor is there Linux native boot support for M4.
Booting a Windows x86-64 guest requires a virtual machine with emulation support, and performance suffers.
The virtual machine itself requires storage, as does any guests present, though the virtual machine may allow those to reside on external storage.
A Mac with 256 GB can and variously does require ongoing storage management.
so there is no less space taking vm
Mac mini M4: Virtual machine for Windows 11 storage
