Do you remember the days when we all installed Bootcamp on our Macs to get a taste of the Windows OS? Just to see how the other side of the world lived? Well, Apple and Windows have worked together to make Windows 11 installation possible on M1 and M2 chip-equipped MacBooks. It comes courtesy of Parallels, an “authorized solution” to run the program without going through dangerous or unnecessary loopholes.

Okay, hold your horses. The Windows software won’t be running natively like magic on MacBooks. It will still have to go through a “virtual machine” like before. Optimization may be a bit limited, but at the very least it’s been advertised to be safe and effective. Official support should improve as time goes by – especially for plugins and other complex graphic demands. As such, playing games or doing intensive work right now might not make the best use of the powerful chips on these devices.

For those who prioritize application compatibility over anything else and have speedy reliable internet connectivity, then cloud computing is also an option. Windows 365 Cloud PCs offer the same functionality but with a fuller range of supported apps. The downside for this is that it’s designed more for business and enterprise use than anything else.

While you could find workarounds for installing Windows on M1 and M2 MacBook laptops before, this has been the simplest one-click option. It’s still not perfect but it’s a move in the right direction.