Hello Apple Silicon

Now that I have a new MacBook Pro with the Apple M1 Pro chip which is part of Apple’s Silicon line of processors, it’s time to start upgrading my macOS apps so that they run natively on Silicon. Note that Intel-based Mac apps will still run on Apple Silicon chips through Rosetta in emulation mode, but apps that are Universal (i.e., they run on both Intel and Silicon processors) or Silicon can take full advantage of Silicon chips.

If you want to view a list of all your apps and whether they are Intel, Apple Silicon, or Universal, Run System Information and navigate to Software > Applications. See this page for step by step instructions. If there is a specific app that you want to look up to see if there is a Silicon version available, visit Is Apple Silicon ready? and search for your app by name.

If you’re lucky, your Intel app might notify you that there is a Silicon version available. This was the case when I launched the Intel version of Zoom:

It advised me to update the app to the Apple Silicon version. Very helpful and timely! For comparison, here are the details of the Intel and Apple Silicon versions:

 

Are you making the transition to Apple Silicon?

Apple M1 Chip + Parallels Windows VM = Windows 11

At work, my colleagues are generally issued Windows machines. Since my manager knows that I’m a Mac fanboy, he graciously issued me a 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro upon hire, and I’ve been seamlessly running all of our company apps through a Parallels Desktop virtual machine running Windows 10 Pro. It’s worked great for me, and I haven’t experienced any compatibility issues.

Recently I asked my manager for approval to service my 2016 MacBook Pro since I needed to repair the defective butterfly keyboard and to replace the battery which was nearing the end of its life. He approved the repairs AND recommended that I get a new MacBook Pro and hold on to the old machine as a backup. Normally I try to use my Macs as long as I possibly can, but that also means that I have to occasionally deal with hard drive failures like this and this. Therefore, it made sense for me to keep a backup computer.

Now I’m running a 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro with the Apple M1 Pro chip. Woot! I thought that transferring my Parallels virtual machine to my new machine would be as simple as installing Parallels Desktop and copying my .pvm file over to my new MacBook Pro. I did that, and here’s what I saw:

Here is some additional information:

It turns out that a virtual machine created on an Intel-based Mac cannot be started on a Mac computer with an M1 chip as discussed here. Instead, a new virtual machine must be created as discussed here. Furthermore, since the M1 chip is an ARM-based processor, you must install an ARM-based version of Windows.

Our IT department officially supports Windows 10 Pro, so I attempted to download an ARM-based version of Windows 10 Pro. I discovered that there was a Windows 10 ARM version in the Windows Insider program, but it is no longer available. A Reddit thread confirmed my findings, and although it appears that there may be unofficial channels where one can obtain Windows 10 ARM installers, I didn’t want to take the risk.

To run Windows on a new M1 Mac, it appears that the only option available today is to run Windows 11 ARM, and I found 2 ways to get it (there are probably other ways, but these were the most obvious to me). The first method is to use the Parallels Desktop Installation Assistant to “Get Windows 11 from Microsoft” as is prominently displayed when you try to create a new virtual machine.

Naturally I selected that option and successfully installed Windows 11 ARM, only to find out later that it defaults to the Windows 11 ARM Home edition. I am not sure why we need to use the Pro edition at work—perhaps it is because Pro supports Active Directory, or it could be any number of other features that Pro supports that Home does not (see a comparison of Home vs. Pro editions of Windows 10 and Windows 11), but in any case I needed to look for a Pro edition.

The second method of getting Windows 11 ARM is to register for the Windows Insider program and download Windows 11 on ARM Insider Preview here. The current build is 22523, and I can confirm that it is the Pro version:

I am not aware of an official release of Windows 11 Pro on ARM, so I believe this “beta” version to be the only version around. All the usual apps (Microsoft Office 365, Adobe Reader, Notead++, 7-Zip, and other apps I use day to day) as well as custom company apps seem to run fine on Windows 11 Pro Insider Preview, so all seems OK for now (knock on wood).

In summary, if you have a new M1 Mac and need to run Windows via Parallels Desktop, just be aware that your ARM-based Windows options are limited to Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro Insider Preview. Windows 10 ARM is no longer available. I wish that Parallels would have made this a little more obvious to me before I switched over to an M1 Mac. It might not have deterred me from upgrading, but it would have been nice to know about my options ahead of time.

James Webb Space Telescope

On December 25, 2021, millions of people will wake up in eager anticipation of opening Christmas presents. Far fewer people will be interested in the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope which is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The launch has been delayed several times, and the current launch window is December 25 between 7:20 AM and 7:52 AM Eastern time.

Check out this website for an informative overview of the James Webb Space Telescope, its launch plan, and its unfolding. If you will be up early on Christmas Day, consider watching the live stream of the launch on the NASA website.

I am eager to see what kinds of images it is able to capture and transmit a million miles back to earth.

Lee Family 2021 Year In Review

Our Lee Family 2021 Year In Review is now available, with prior editions available here. Depending on the device you are using, you might be prompted by Dropbox to sign in, download the mobile app, or continue to the website—you can simply select the option to continue or dismiss the dialog box.

Our home movies are available on Victor’s YouTube channel.