How to get windows on your mac
get a VM, aka virtual machine
Which virtual machine to get?
Parallels is an option which is paid but is the best. It is optimised for Mac.
Vmware fusion is good and it is free of cost.
UTM is a newcomer in the market of VMs; it is ok if you are using for normal task and not heavy graphics app. It is free from the devs, but if you wish to get automatic update you can get from App Store too
Mac mini (M4, 2024)
Let's clarify your post.
I use Parallel's Desktop Pro (26.4.*) on my M4 Mac Mini Pro (14c20g 64 GB, 1TB) and the ARM version of Windows 11 Pro, Office 2024 Home for Windows, and macOS Monterey, Sonoma, and Sequoia guests that I keep on my OWC Thunderbolt 5 Envoy Ultra external drive. That drive is now 2x what it cost me in 2025. Parallel's is the only VM where Microsoft has approved running Windows 11 ARM.
Each of the guests above have 6 CPU and 8 GB of RAM assigned to them. Parallels costs me over $120/year renewed each April.
On my 2020 27-in Core i7 iMac with 8 processor cores (16 threaded), an 8GB GPU, 40 GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD. I have installed the free VMware Fusion 26.0 with Mojave, Windows 11 Pro, and Solaris 11 (OpenIndiana 26-04) all as native guests. Only OpenIndiana has 8 CPU and 16 GB RAM, the others 6 CPUs and 8 GB RAM. All the guests are stored on an external USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 SSD plugged into the other Thunderbolt 3 port.
I also had OpenIndiana running in UTM natively on the iMac, but stopped using it for VMware.
For anyone hoping to have performance in a VM, I would not configure anything less than 32 GB RAM on the host Mac, and ideally store the guests on a 1 TB or greater external USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 drive plugged into a Thunderbolt 3 or greater port. Any lesser configuration will be a compromise.
None of the VM guests should be backed up to your Mac's Time Machine drive.
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS simply will not finish the installation into Parallel's Desktop Pro 26.4 and an attempt to upgrade the Ubuntu 25.04 LTS guest to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS simply destroyed the older Ubuntu implementation. On my iMac, I was able to install Ubuntu 26.04 LTS into VMware Fusion 26.0, but it won't work in full screen and keeps reporting it has suffered an error. I am done with Ubuntu for now.
Let's clarify your post.
I use Parallel's Desktop Pro (26.4.*) on my M4 Mac Mini Pro (14c20g 64 GB, 1TB) and the ARM version of Windows 11 Pro, Office 2024 Home for Windows, and macOS Monterey, Sonoma, and Sequoia guests that I keep on my OWC Thunderbolt 5 Envoy Ultra external drive. That drive is now 2x what it cost me in 2025. Parallel's is the only VM where Microsoft has approved running Windows 11 ARM.
Each of the guests above have 6 CPU and 8 GB of RAM assigned to them. Parallels costs me over $120/year renewed each April.
On my 2020 27-in Core i7 iMac with 8 processor cores (16 threaded), an 8GB GPU, 40 GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD. I have installed the free VMware Fusion 26.0 with Mojave, Windows 11 Pro, and Solaris 11 (OpenIndiana 26-04) all as native guests. Only OpenIndiana has 8 CPU and 16 GB RAM, the others 6 CPUs and 8 GB RAM. All the guests are stored on an external USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 SSD plugged into the other Thunderbolt 3 port.
I also had OpenIndiana running in UTM natively on the iMac, but stopped using it for VMware.
For anyone hoping to have performance in a VM, I would not configure anything less than 32 GB RAM on the host Mac, and ideally store the guests on a 1 TB or greater external USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 drive plugged into a Thunderbolt 3 or greater port. Any lesser configuration will be a compromise.
None of the VM guests should be backed up to your Mac's Time Machine drive.
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS simply will not finish the installation into Parallel's Desktop Pro 26.4 and an attempt to upgrade the Ubuntu 25.04 LTS guest to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS simply destroyed the older Ubuntu implementation. On my iMac, I was able to install Ubuntu 26.04 LTS into VMware Fusion 26.0, but it won't work in full screen and keeps reporting it has suffered an error. I am done with Ubuntu for now.
As mentioned in the other reply, Parallels is the only way to get a Microsoft-supported version of Windows 11 for Arm64 running on Mac with Apple silicon.
UTM includes x86-64 emulation support, which makes Intel operating systems (potentially) easier.
UTM can use the Apple hypervisor framework as well, and ties into Apple Rosetta for x86-64 emulation.
Broadcom VMware doesn’t support emulation, which means only Arm64 guests will work.
Windows 11 for Arm64 does include emulation for Windows 11 x86-64 apps.
An alternatives to a hypervisor / virtual machine / VM / guest is a hosted Windows instance, either a dedicated server or virtual private server. Lots of vendors here, including Microsoft Azure Cloud PC.
Choosing a virtual machine to run Windows on Mac
