Finally after a very long wait VMWare released a version of Fusion that downloads appropriate files, then creates a functional ISO image of the ARM version of Windows 11.
That’s a lot of techno babble.
What it means is that there are two version of Windows. One runs on the familiar Intel processors and the other runs on ARM design processors.
VMWare is a well known application or more properly a suite of applications that allow you to virtualize a computer. The practical upshot of this is you can have multiple instances of a computer operating system running on a single hardware platform.
So if you needed to, for example, test a new bit of software on Windows 7, 8, 10, and Red Hat Linux, and perhaps some flavor of UNIX. You wouldn’t need to have 6 dedicated computers, nor would you have to manage loading each operating system sequentially on a single machine for each testing run. Instead you could use virtual instances of each OS simultaneously, limited only by memory and the speed / capabilities of the Processor of the host system.
Often this kind of thing is run on powerful servers during automated testing and for manual testing you have a client that allows you to create or use an instance of the operating system(s) under test on your local machine without having to flush your local machine’s native operating system. You can even have 2 or 3 operating systems running at once for comparison sake and logging purposes.
VMWare Fusion is an application I’ve used for years to enable my Mac to run Windows, Linux, and even other versions of the Mac OS. It’s slick and efficient.
When I made the leap to Apple Silicon, things got a little more interesting. When Apple was running Intel processors VMWare just loaded the intel version of Windows or whatever and off you went.
Apple Silicon changed all that. While I really like Apple Silicon for it’s speed, power efficiency, and God knows it’s nice to not have fans screaming all the time when the processor is under a load, Apple Silicon looks like an ARM (RISC) processor. Which makes compatibility with some software a bit more problematic.
It’s funny because Apple has come full circle. The old PowerPC processors Apple used to use, were RISC processors too. They were, in many ways faster than comparable Intel chips for some functions. They too sometimes had compatibility issues with some applications that were ported from other hardware.
6 – 8 months ago, I downloaded and compiled an ARM version of Windows 11, then created the ISO and loaded it into VMWare Fusion. I didn’t like the resultant Windows OS and it was very “twitchy”. So after fiddling around a bit I deleted the image and went on with my life.
I noticed on Sunday that my VMWare installation had updated. I got curious, and fired it up. It threw some errors because it was looking for the Windows install. I resolved those errors and was presented with a nice clean dialog box offering to download and install Windows 11.
Okay, no skin off my nose. So I told the system to do it.
I should state upfront I really hate Windows.
VMWare Fusion did exactly what it said it was gonna do. It downloaded a copy of Windows 11, it compiled it and saved it as an ISO image that I could burn to CD or store in another fashion.
Then It fired up a standard Windows setup and directed me to the ISO image stored on my computer. Boom! In about 30 minutes start to finish I had a functional, stable, Windows 11 installation.
I’m not thrilled with Windows 11 itself, but having a copy to screw around with is useful for me. I can catch up knowledge wise to the latest version, and if by some miracle I get an actual new job. I won’t have to purchase another computer.
Unfortunately, I can’t run anything less than Windows 11 on this computer / VMWare combination. So if I have to do a bunch of testing on previous versions of Windows, I’ll have to get an intel system.
Sunday brought some neat advances. As I said I still don’t like Windows 11 and I’m even more annoyed at Microsoft.
I put into their search dialog, “How do I purchase Windows licenses?”
I still haven’t found a way to just purchase the license. I did find that Microsoft is apparently selling PCs on their website. So what are you Microsoft? Are you a sofware vendor or are you a PC retailer?
All I need is the 16 digit license bullshit. I don’t need a PC, I don’t need a USB Stick with an Intel only version of Windows on it, I just want to send you money and in return you send me the code.
My God! Why do these people insist on complicating the simplest things? Thank goodness, I don’t need to find out how to jerk off from the Microsoft Web Site. My balls would have exploded and I’d still be looking for the appropriate information.
Apple, don’t get all smug… Your website is becoming shitty too.