We already know that the new Macs with M1 chip can run both Intel and ARM apps made for macOS and iOS, but Mac users who rely on Windows for some specific software have lost Boot Camp support. However, CodeWeavers announced that CrossOver 20 now works on Apple Silicon Macs, which means that the new M1 Macs can run Windows software right on macOS.
If you’re unfamiliar with CrossOver, it’s a platform based on the open-source Wine project that can run the Windows environment on macOS and Linux. In other words, it allows users to install and run Windows software on other operating systems without even installing a full version of Windows as you do on a virtual machine.
While Apple and Microsoft have confirmed that the new ARM-based Macs no longer support Windows (at least for now), CodeWeavers developers were able to run CrossOver 20 on Macs with M1 chip. The latest version of CrossOver emulates Windows Intel binaries on macOS through Rosetta 2 technology, which emulates x86 binaries on the new ARM Mac hardware.
That’s incredible when you consider that we’re on literally the cheapest Apple Silicon device you can buy – one that gets thermally throttled and is missing a GPU core. I can’t tell you how cool that is; there is so much emulation going on under the covers.
The CrossOver team successfully installed some Windows software on M1 Macs, including the desktop version of the popular game Among Us and even Team Fortress 2. While the game did have some lag, it ran well most of the time as you can see below.
Running CrossOver 20 on Macs with M1 chip was only possible with macOS Big Sur 11.1 beta, which brings critical fixes to Rosetta 2 technology. Users running the latest beta version of macOS can now try Windows software on the new Macs with CrossOver 20.0.2.
Check out this blog post on the CodeWeavers website for more details about CrossOver 20 on M1 Macs.
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