VMWare Fusion 13: Run Windows 11 ARM on Mac Apple Silicon
Hello folks. In this tutorial we will see how to install & run Windows 11 ARM on Mac Apple Silicon completely FREE using VMWare Fusion13.
Let’s dive into this.
Step 1: Download & Install VMWare Fusion:
The very initial step is to download and install VMWare Fusion on a Mac machine with Apple Silicon. Visit the official VMWare website as given below to download the latest version of VMWare Fusion.
Download here: https://www.vmware.com/go/getfusion
Once you download the VMWare Fusion setup file, double click on DMG file to open it. Follow the onscreen instructions and install the VMWare Fusion.
While installing it will ask you for a license key as shown in image above, proceed to Step 2 for obtaining FREE license (personal & non-commercial usage only).
Step 2: Obtaining a Free License Key for Personal usage
In order to obtain a free copy of personal license click on “Get a Free License Key” from the installation window. Once the page is loaded scroll down a bit and select License & Download section as shown in the image below.
Click on create an account or use this link: https://customerconnect.vmware.com/account-registration?source=dwnp&p=fusion-player-personal-13&loggedin=false
Once the registration is completed, login using your credentials and go to License & Download section again, there you’ll be having your personal license key as shown in image below.
Copy this license key and paste it into the installation window and complete the installation process.
Step 3: Downloading Windows 11 ARM ISO from Microsoft
Once you’ve successfully installed VMWare Fusion application, open it. Click on “Get Windows from Microsoft” as shown in below screenshot and continue.
By selecting the correct Windows11 ARM edition and language, click on Download Windows. This will start downloading the Windows ISO image directly from the Microsoft official sources.
Once download is finished it will then ask for some configurations such as Firmware type, set it to UEFI boot. Next it will ask for encryption, keep the default options checked and simply fill up the password fields and hit continue. See the below attached screenshot.
Once done, click finish. Now Click on Play button and it will start booting Windows11 installer. Follow the onscreen instructions to begin with the Setup and Installation process of Windows11.
Step 4: Installing VMWare Tools using CMD prompt
Meanwhile installing Windows11 ARM, you might encounter the below mentioned screenshot error where Windows couldn’t detect the internet connectivity. Do not worry about this.
In order to solve this issue, we do need to install the network drivers using CMD prompt. While you’re on the above screen press keys combination — Shift + Fn + F10 to open the command prompt.
At this point, there is no autoplay enabled meaning you manually have to trigger the drivers setup.exe application to run and install the necessary network and other drivers. See the below attached screenshot.
As you can see VMWare tools will start installing drivers once you type D:\setup.exe in the command prompt and hit enter key. Once these drivers are installed successfully, continue to the Windows installation. It will restart Windows and ask the same options such as select your region and language, once done you’ll no more receive the internet connection error in the above step. After this follow the onscreen instructions and complete the Windows installation.
For more info, checkout the following youtube video guide. Thanks for your time. Much appreciated ❤
