Install Windows 11 using VMWare Fusion Free on Mac Mini M4 (works on other M4 devices & M1, M2, M3)

[@gunaskurapati]

Useful video for mac user who want to run windows

[@Thomas-ij7ki]

Great guide, thanks. How can I backup my windows files or how can I transmit the files to the mac HD?

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

You’re welcome, you can move them to the Mac by copying the items from the VM window and then go out of the VM window, then paste the copied items onto the Mac. For this to work make sure you follow the instructions from the video that goes over installing VMWare Tools, it won’t work if you haven’t installed that

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

I've made a video of how to do it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6fGYo1jZ6atbNU

[@steveblanchard7293]

I'm still on the fence on this. I screwed up my old Intel iMac, basically all instructions followed (from Broadcom) and ended up with Win11 wanting to take over the iMac - ie booting into Win11 rather than OSX...

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

I've not had any issues with it trying to do that. Did you have the VM set to start up when you log into your mac? That may have been causing it. If you're worried about this, I would recommend installing VMWare and Windows 11 on an external SSD which you connect to your apple device via the USB port. This way all files & data associated to the VM remains separate to the devices storage. If you're worried about the device booting into Windows 11 then you can unplug the external ssd with the vm data whenever you're turning on your device, so there's 0% chance of it doing that. Then reconnect the SSD to the usb port once macOS has started up.

[@ericsmiths]

Thank you for this. I see you bypassed the windows activation key in this install. At what point will you need to enter this?

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

You’re welcome! You don’t need to enter the windows activation key, because we bypassed it

[@ericsmiths]

@@ReviewMyPurchase OK yes I was able to do this and it ran as you said, but, Windows knows you did not enter the key and warns you may not get updates and that you are unable to change personalisation settings until it is activated. If this is not something you need, then I understand. I purchased a key and all is good. BTW, The VMWare personal edition option is no longer available as a separate download, I think Broadcom have integrated the installers into one and all you need to do is install the version you want and not enter a key. Their website is clear that the product is free for personal use, but it's not so obvious if you follow your instructions, so I thought it may be of interest to anyone who tries to install it this year.

[@jakeoo7tupperware]

I have never had a Mac and planning to buy Mac Mini M4 Pro. I want to be able to use Windows as well and what is the difference between using VMWare or Virtual Box and Parallels? My purpose is to do some career learning/sandbox projects in Data Engineering/BI and may be some light learning on AI/ML. For example, Python, PySpark, SQL Server, Power BI/Tableau etc.

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

I wouldn’t recommend Virtualbox because it lacks support for ARM64 which is used by apple silicon (m1-m4), so you won’t be able to get windows working until they add this support. Virtualbox also isn’t as stable as the others and requires much more steps to install an OS so it can get complicated. The main difference between VMWare and Parallels are: 1. Cost (you can get VMWare Fusion for free while Parallels has either a one off payment (£104 in the UK, im assuming the price is similar in other countries) or parallels has a subscription option where you pay around £10 per month for the home use version) so it ends up getting quite pricey. 2. Parallels has hardware acceleration and 3d graphics acceleration, which is great if you’re planning to game on the VM too. It might also be helpful for AI/ML but if youre doing light AI/ML then this isn’t a big deal. 3. Parallels tends to have better optimised drivers and a support team you can reach out to. I’d put this down to the price tag they offer meaning they can hire better teams and people likely expect support/contact systems for the price they’re paying for parallels. For you purposes, I would recommend going with VMWare, because you’re able to do everything for data engineering on the Mac and power bi/tablueau may be the only thing you’ll need windows for. If you want to do all of the data engineering on the windows vw then VMware fusion will suffice too. If you find VMware doesn’t allow you to do everything you need, then I would recommend using UTM (you can download it from the App Store for around £/$10). I’ve found that to be quite good and better than VMware in a couple of areas. If neither of those do what you need, then I would recommend parallels as a last resort. You won’t have wasted any money you don’t need to this way because if utm doesn’t work for you, then you can always get a refund via the App Store too. I hope that helps!

[@vabsit]

Is it ok install a VM on an external drive (TB4)?

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

Yes it’s fine, it will work, just make sure you get an SSD external drive

[@001Debjeet]

after installing windows on mac can I play all windows games ?

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

Most games will work but not all. Some more resource heavy games might have stuttering/delayed response times so you'd need to make sure you assign enough RAM memory and cores to the VM to minimise that. Also, some games have security features added by the developer which prevents the game from running on virtual machines too

[@cloudguerrero4014]

can i install ldplayer on windows virtual?

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

You should be able to, I recommend you research ldplayer before deciding to install it though. From what I’ve read online, users of it say it contains malware

[@Ninja-Myth]

I want to use this as my main os, whats the max cores etc i should choose??????

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

What device are you trying to use it as a main OS on? What’s the storage capacity/RAM and number of cores it has?

[@Ninja-Myth]

@@ReviewMyPurchase Thanks, I have a Mac Mini M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB storage, I think the Mac mini has 1 core I dunno. It's the base version (I don't like MacOS).

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

I’ve tried to cover it in detail for you below so it’s quite a bit to read but hopefully it should answer other questions you might have. If you’re planning on using Windows as your main OS and install files/software on that then here’s what I would recommend: - Maximum of 4 processor cores (if you go above this you’ll get a warning sign from VMware saying the VM is configured to use more virtual processor sockets than the operating system may be able to use), you can increase it to 5 cores if you want but it’s unlikely to make a difference. Don’t go above 5 cores though otherwise the Mac and virtual machine may become slow because you’ve over assigned the number of processor cores. - 12 GB RAM (if you go above this you’ll start to get a warning sign from VMWare because you should leave atleast 4GB RAM for macOS). If you want more RAM to be assigned to windows I’d recommend getting a higher RAM Mac mini - Harddisk space - this one is subjective because it depends on how much software you’re going to download on the virtual machine and how much you need for other things on the Mac. If you don’t plan to install anything on the Mac itself and everything will be on the windows VM then you should leave atleast 64 GB of memory for the Mac (around 30gb is used by macOS). So you would assign 192GB to the windows VM. I would be cautious with it though and personally would leave 100GB to the Mac, so you would assign 156GB to the Windows VM. Of course this is again dependent on your use, so try out what works best for you from a hard disk space perspective, but the above should be good indicators for you on what the limit is

[@jakeoo7tupperware]

I am a Sr Data Engineer. I am thinking of getting Mac Mini M4 Pro. I was thinking 24 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD. There is no 32 GB RAM config option, next one is 48 GB RAM and Apple charges a lot. What total memory config would you recommend so that I can use VMWare Windows 11 to run? How much memory the VM takes up?

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

You should be good with what you’re trying to do. I have the 24GB 1TB SSD model, but 512GB is fine too. If you need more memory you can always get an external SSD too. You’d need a minimum of 64GB memory assigned to the windows 11 VM because the windows OS uses around 35GB of the memory. VMWare takes up 1.25GB of SSD on my Mac mini. If you get the 512GB SSD Mac mini, the amount of storage you assign to the VM depends on how much data you intend to put on the VM vs on the Mac. If you plan to put a lot of data on the VM I would start with 100GB, then if you find you need more memory for the VM you can increase it through the settings like I showed in the configuration section of the video

[@andreamassd725]

Do I lose all my work if I shut down the virtual machine, or can I resume my work? Thanks for the video

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

I’ve just tested it and it saves the state of the virtual machine when I suspend the virtual machine, so when I restart the virtual machine it opens it in the last state I left it in so I can resume my work. The above also happens when I completely close VMware fusion and then open that again. It may well be dependent on the settings applied to the virtual machine though, so my recommendation would be to try turning off the virtual machine when you’ve got some non important work open (eg a drawing in Microsoft paint) and then try reopening it and see if it opens the work where you left it

[@Ninja-Myth]

No Pro version available and no use anyway - you CANT move files from OS to the VM, gutted because I wanted to put my music back on Windows so I can put it on a USB stick (something Mac mini M4 can't manage to do).

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

You can move files from the OS to the VM, you just have to drag and drop them into the VM window, make sure you’ve downloaded the VMWare tools and it will work

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

I've made a video of how to do it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6fGYo1jZ6atbNU

[@aaijaayy]

How much space does it take?

[@ReviewMyPurchase]

VMWare Fusion takes up about 1.25GB, the Windows 11 Virtual Machine you can set how much GB you'd like to assign it from the hard drive, generally you should give it atleast 64GB (windows 11 takes up around 35GB of this memory), I hope that helps!