Exciting news out of Redmond today as Microsoft has expressed commitment to fully support Windows on Arm in virtual machines on Apple hardware.
After years of development and effort to make Fusion support Windows on Arm _without_ explicit support, and even in the face of ambiguity in several areas, we recently released VMware Fusion 13 with improvements to specifically support Windows on Arm with Fusion on Macs with Apple silicon.
While we’re proud that we delivered multiple new technologies such as Fast Encryption, a new Virtual Trusted Platform Module, re-built network adapter and other device drivers, and more, we’re still left with some items that need work.
With today’s announcement from Microsoft, we’re thrilled to finally be able move full-speed ahead in offering world-class support for Windows on Mac computers with Apple silicon with VMware Fusion via a new partner program to help us along the journey.
Going forward we’ll be able to get insight and development guidance directly from Microsoft to help us leapfrog the competition and deliver the type of Windows-on-Mac experience that our users would expect from the worlds leader in virtualization.
With millions of worldwide Fusion installations and growing, the momentum for users needing a desktop or laptop solution that is compatible with the Arm ecosystem isn’t slowing down any time soon.
New System Ready Certification
While things have been a tad slower than we were hoping to see on the Windows on Mac computers with Apple silicon front, we haven’t been just resting. Instead, we used this time to work with Arm, Inc. in certifying VMware Fusion 13 with the Arm System Ready certification program.
Arm System Ready is a certification program offered by Arm that ensures platform compatibility across physical and virtual hardware environments.
This means that an Operating System that is certified as System Ready will also be able to be ran in a Virtual Machine on VMware Fusion for Apple silicon, as well as other System Ready certified hardware. Users can build applications and more that are destined for a physical device before even having one by using a virtual machine on Apple silicon with Fusion.
Check out our official certification document here
Our system ready certification is a meaningful step in providing a high-performance, universal, stable platform for developers to ensure compatibility across the wide range of emerging Arm-based devices. Combining this with today’s announcement from Microsoft, who is also an Arm System Ready certification partner, the foundation for improved support and more innovation for Windows on Mac computers with Apple silicon is here and we couldn’t be more excited about it.
What does this mean for VMware customers?
With Fusion 13 and beyond customers can rest easy knowing that they can deploy Arm-based Windows and Linux virtual machines on Mac computers with Apple silicon, at any scale, with the full weight of VMware’s support behind it.
From individual users to gargantuan enterprise desktop rollouts, we’re standing behind our commitment to delivering the worlds leading Windows, Linux and BSD on Mac experience to desktop and notebook Macs with Apple silicon for now and into the foreseeable future.
We’re thrilled that Microsoft has finally lifted the veil of uncertainty around Windows on Arm, but more importantly we’re immensely grateful for the community of VMware Fusion users who have been with us along this journey. None of what we’ve done thus far would have been possible without your understanding and support!
Stay tuned for more announcements as the year continues!
