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Benjaminbatwing
Contributor
Contributor

Does VMware fusion pro run on Mac M1 chip?

I recently purchased VMware fusion 12 pro and when I got the download link it was for intel based Macs. I have the new MacBook Pro M1, so do I need to return the software and purchase something else or will it run on my M1? Thanks

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

They have been clear actually.   There is no way to license Windows 11 on a Mac.    That's why VMWare hasn't delivered VMWare tools for Windows ARM guests.  Because they can't license it to do the development.  

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gringley
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I agree the PC Health Check app is meant to be run in Windows 10.  Well anyway I realized I am missing out on all this fun so I got a M1 MacBook Air so I can explore all this first hand and play with the shiny new toy (and have a laptop in the house again.)

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gringley
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

"...but I still question why Microsoft can't be clear about this?"

As Private Gomer used to say "Surprise Surprise Surprise" - The competition no longer signs you up for Windows Insider.  They download the Retail ISO for Windows 11 from Microsoft and install it while you watch!  They leave the ISO in your downloads folder too so will be interesting to see if it works with the Fusion preview rather than all that uucp vcdx stuff?!?  So yes Microsoft is building and providing an Retail copy of Windows ARM and just not talking about it - or supporting it?!?  Ridiculous...

So I ran the PC Health Check app on my new Windows 11 installation -  and sure enough it told me I did not meet Windows 11 system requirements as the processor (Apple Silicon) isn't currently supported for Windows 11.  So there! 

Now that I know what an "legit" retail ARM64 ISO looks like from Microsoft I can poke around my various Microsoft accounts and see it is tucked away somewhere.  

The Windows Home instance is not activated, but its quite accommodating to old activation keys.  So my toy is up and running.  Arguably to get to my Microsoft 365 Business Premium account I need to upgrade my edition to Pro, then the instance is "full power."  

So I agree the toy is quite usable from the competitor.  We are still faced with the icky issue that Microsoft will not support this and seems to pretend it does not really exist while clearly building for it and turning profit from it.  Hmmm....

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lensv
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Yeah, crystal clear! 😅

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Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

I’m curious. What release/build of Windows 11 are they downloading for you?

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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gringley
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

22000.318.211104-1236.co_release_svc_refresh_CLIENTCONSUMER_RET_A64FRE_en-us.iso

Its 4.5GB so fast Internet connection helps.  This is a January 2022 build.  The filename has like 5 Google search hits so clear this is not well known at this point.  Looks like a previous release existed from November 2021.  Microsoft clearly has "Retail" Windows ARM64.

P.S.: Don't forget to turn off Private Relay before downloading large files 😞

 

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gringley
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I misspoke about the ISO.  The contents are all dated 11/4/2021 - except for boot.wim which is dated last night when I downloaded the ISO.  Fusion Preview cannot boot from it.  Looks like a project for the weekend...

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Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

I looked up that build number in uupdump.net. It's confirmed from the Retail channel, although it's interesting that it's marked "Upgrade to Windows 11" which to me seems to indicate that it's supposedly to be applied to an existing system. Not sure though. 

I've (and others) had problems in the past dealing with builds other than the beta channel not booting in the tech preview. If you find a way to get it to boot, please let us know. 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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telecastle
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Or just buy Parallels and enjoy your weekend doing something fun. 

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

As long as you're willing to accept the license risk, that's certainly an option.  Before doing it as part of a business, checking with your legal department might be appropriate.

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gringley
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I think that clarifies some things.  Looking back on what I saw and what you are seeing, they are downloading a retail upgrade ISO from Microsoft, then replacing or adding their own BootWIM file (which would get them around the upgrade requirement) and then installing that.  So what I really have is a ISO that has been tampered with in at least one obvious way.  I have factory erased the competition to get it out of my environment and thus will not look at that any further.  Given the ISO is tampered I will not use it any further either.

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Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

@gringley , FYI

I have just downloaded the latest "Retail" release I could find "Upgrade to Windows 11 (22000.493) arm64" from uupdump.net (I did it through my existing Windows VM)...

This does seem to boot and will do a full install- I guess the name "Upgrade to Windows 11" is a bit misleading. However the registry edits for DisableTPMCheck and DisableSecureBootCheck are still required, as is the enabling of the debug NIC.

 

 

 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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gringley
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Thanks with your guide I got the 22000.493 up and running in Fusion.  One issues that arose is my reboots did not prompt for region, so I went to enable the debug NIC after a normal boot.  I had set Secure Boot in the Fusion settings, and bcdedit returned an error that secure boot policy prevented it from running.  So even though Secure Boot does not appear to function the VM does see the setting from Fusion?  But it does not see the setting while installing?

The other observation is that in bridged mode, my home router is seeing the traffic from the MacBook WiFi MAC address, not the VMs MAC address.

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Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

I suspect that the debug NIC  settings are not honored by Windows if secure boot is enabled. You certainly can not set them while Secure Boot is enabled. (That’s something I’ve seen as a general Windows behavior after researching thevMicrosoft boards, bcdedit does not work when Secure Boot is set).

I’ve seen that if you disable Secure Boot you can run bcdedit and enable the debug NIC and if you reboot networking is enabled. But the minute you re enable Secure Boot, the adapter disappears.

It’s not surprising that a bridged network adapter has the MAC address of the host. That may be expected behavior. There have been posts in the “regular” Fusion boards that some routers can refuse to give out DHCP addresses to a guest with bridged networking and it turns out that they know they gave out an IP to the same MAC address for the host. 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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gringley
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

"It’s not surprising that a bridged network adapter has the MAC address of the host. That may be expected behavior."  

Oh no it is not!  I have in my drawer of dongles a Thunderbolt 3 to 2, and Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter.  I added those to the M1 MacBook and Monterey does put the Thunderbolt Ethernet ahead of the WiFi.  Fusion thus starts using the Thunderbolt Ethernet and tada the VMs MAC address is now seen on my network.  WiFi in Fusion 12 has not been good, and what appears to be a "bridging kludge" in the WiFi connection here is another example. I realize though this is better than the Intel side in that on the Intel side my Windows 11 VMs do not work if I bridge them to WiFi - and I see now it is the shared MAC address problem.  Sharing the MAC address between the guest and the host is a solution that I DO NOT WANT.

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Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

I'll defer to you on that, but difficulties with networking aren't surprising.

I don't do much with bridged networking. All I know is that networking in Fusion in general has been very wonky since the shift to Apple frameworks (and not just on the Tech Preview). My particular beef is that NAT networking just stops working from time to time (especially if I'm creating new virtual machines). One minute the networking is working fine, the next minute the guest no longer is able to communicate with the outside world. The only way to get NAT networking back when that happens is to shut down the VM, quit Fusion, then restart Fusion and the VM. 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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gringley
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

As an update the 22000.493 image I got running does not have a Working Microsoft Store.  The Store app appears to simply not run, and wsreset fails when it is run. 

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Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

That’s not only a problem with that image. I have been unable to get the Microsoft Store to work with any Windows 11 build running on the Tech Preview. 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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gringley
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I checked and the event logs indicate the ARM Microsoft Store is unable to acquire a license.  So I wonder what the competition does to fix that?

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coffeekomrade
Contributor
Contributor

You can run x86 via qemu on M1 using UTM. 

VMWare should be ashamed of themselves for this taking so long to release a non-test version with M1 support. Parallels beat them to the market.

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