Improved Support for Windows on ARM-based MacBooks

You can use the free ARM version of VMware to install Win 11 ARM in. It's not just a free download, the single user version is entirely free.

If you don't already have one, you need to first create an account at broadcom. Then you have to skip around as they don't make VMware easy to find.

1) Click the HERE link for free downloads.

2) A big list of headings will be shown. Click on VMware Fusion (the Mac version of VMware)

3) Download the current release, 13.6.3

Install VMware Fusion, then Win 11 ARM as a guest OS. Since both the VM software and Win 11 are both ARM, Windows runs at nearly native speed.

I use this setup on my M4 Pro mini.

Just to clarify, xWauwau, concerning "virtual machines that run certain versions of Windows that were written for Intel processors", no version of Windows written for Intel processors will work with M1–M4 processors. You are obliged to install Windows 11 Pro for ARM. Programs written for Intel, even 32-bit, have always worked for me since 2018, though you have to suck them and see if they produce the right results. (A 25-year-old copy of some programming software ran perfectly well but, as it preceded the first Intel Mac, could not compile for anything I had.) Within Parallels, for most devices such as printers, scanners, cameras, the Mac-based driver is "borrowed" for Windows. For new items where the driver is available, we have this dialog:

As you say, where we may well hit a brick wall is with equipment where there is no driver currently available. That is why the free tryout is worth the time, as well as a search in the Parallels support community.

Please submit your beloved feedback right here: Feedback - macOS - Apple

Also, as an extern, I don’t think either Microsoft or Apple will support your wish, unfortunately. Because Apple is objectively the better choice when it comes to work, it is more sad (from my perspective) that the developers ignore the obvious and continue to only support Microsoft Windows with important applications. Yet, quite some virtualization software options mostly offer at least sufficient performance for all applications I have on my mind right now. Just don’t think about gaming.

windows have traditionally been sold as a standalone product because some users would buy the parts and assemble their own computers so they had to purchase the operating system to install.

I have not yet seem Microsoft selling their arm windows version in other ways then preinstalled on computers with arm cpus (usually laptops and tablets)

which is why the first attempt to run windows arm in virtual machines on m based macs were using the Microsoft developer iso of the test windows 10 arm and these days it seems that with win11 on parallels and vmware looks to be some subscription model

What apple say: Apple: It's Really Up to Microsoft to Make Windows Work on M1-Based Macs | Tom's Hardware (tomshardware.com)

What Microsoft say:

Options for using Windows 11 with Mac® computers with Apple® M1® and M2™ chips - Microsoft Support

Further to the suggestions given, it may be worth posting on the Parallels Forum under Windows Virtual Machine to see if others have been successful with the relevant software. If you have the Windows software, it costs nothing to download a trial copy of Parallels, install the ARM version of Windows using New from the File menu, and see if it works. Don't pay for Parallels or Windows until you are sure. (I think you have a few days to decide.) There are some limits, e.g. programming software aimed at Intel processors may not compile.

Feel free to open a new case to potentially reach more users.

Yet if you’d ask me right now; I know someone which requires work-related solutions only running on Windows, yet who is done with Microsoft Windows PCs over approximately every aspect of them being different to macOS. He personally is using a virtualization solution as mentioned in your post which he seems to be completely fine with, on his M1 Mac Studio. If you’d like to know, he relies on Parallels Desktop, which by the general public seems to be considered one of the top solutions as well.

please don’t just rely on my limited perspective and experience, and feel free to research more by yourself, or as mentioned above, open a new community post.

Sincerely;

I feel like the last point you mentioned is important to note. Although Parallels Desktop version 20.2.0 seems to have introduced the limited ability to create virtual machines that run certain versions of Windows that were written for Intel processors, I still don’t think certain things like device drivers will work as intended, or, at all.

So, by saying

no version of Windows written for Intel processors will work with M1–M4 processors. You are obliged to install Windows 11 Pro for ARM.

you express that I have misread/misunderstood the claim made by parallels of “with Parallels Desktop 20.2.0 you can use x86 emulation on Apple silicon Macs”, right? So, “allows you to run some Intel-based (x86_64) virtual machines”?