Apple M1 processor, Parallels and Paratext

Question

Running PT on Parallels on my 2017 MacBook Pro (16 GB Ram) with an Intel Processor is smooth sailing.
Thinking about to upgrade one of my computers to the new Apple M1 chip with 8 cores.
Parallels upgraded the Parallels emulation, but does anybody run PT on Parallels on a MacBook Pro, or Mac Mini or iMac with the new 8 core M1 chip (not the 7 core, or does anybody runs it with success?).
How is the performance?

Dietmar

Answer 1

Hi! I finally made the plunge and got a M2 Macbook Pro. The installation of Parallels 18 and Windows 11 arm were easy and straightforward. Parallels downloads the right Windows ISO and you don’t have to sign up for any beta program. It accepted my regular Windows key that I used for my x86 installation on my last Intel Mac.

Paratext was unresponsive at first, but a restart of the virtual machine cleared that up. I’ve been using it for remote exegesis over Paratext Live for about a week and haven’t faced any major problems. It’s working well.

Then yesterday I came across this article which shows that Microsoft will be officially supporting this solution.

9to5Mac – 16 Feb 23

Microsoft announces full support for virtualization of Windows on ARM through...

Alludo and Microsoft have teamed up to allow Mac with Apple silicon users to run Arm versions of Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise in a virtualized environment with Parallels Desktop.

Est. reading time: 2 minutes

Which refers to:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/options-for-using-windows-11-with-mac-computers-with-apple-m1-and-m2-chips-cd15fd62-9b34-4b78-b0bc-121baa3c568c

Comments

Good news @girldad5! It’s really helpful to have these kinds of updates from the field.

@sewhite Check it out!

james_post

Answer 2

I have thus far totally failed to get Paratext to run on my Mac Mini with an M1 processor. Unless Paratext were to have a native Mac mode OR compiled for Debian Linux for ARM, OR have a binary that runs on the preview version of Windows for ARM, plan on running Paratext on something that runs Windows on a real Intel or AMD processor.

Comments

@anon854042 Have you tried ARM64?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windowsinsiderpreviewARM64

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Or the x64 emulator for Windows 10 on ARM PCs?

Windows Insider Blog – 10 Dec 20

Introducing x64 emulation in preview for Windows 10 on ARM PCs to the Windows...

Today, we're releasing the first preview of x64 emulation for ARM64 devices to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel starting with the Build 21277. It can be installed on Windows 10 on ARM PCs by following the instructions

I have no idea if these will work “as advertised”, but the Paratext team would be very interested to know if somebody has been able to get Paratext to work in any of these ways.

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I tried and failed with Windows 10 for ARM earlier, but just now tried the latest version of Parallels (which is usable with Windows 11) and Windows 11 Dev Channel Build 22483. I got two error messages on setup: “Problem copying file C:\My Paratext 9 Projects\UserSettings_Michael \Settings_Cross References\UBS_nt.xrf to C:\My Paratext Projects_Cross References\UBS_nt.xrf: Access to the path is denied.” and “Problem copying file C:\My Paratext 9 Projects\cms\ChineseExtraSpacesCheck.cms to C:\My Paratext Projects\cms\ChineseExtraSpacesCheck.cms: Access to the path is denied.”

Answer 3

Thanks for the reply.
I know that PT does not run straight on Macs with Intel and M1 processors. But smooth sailing on Intel Macs on the installed Parallels virtual machin and Win 10. So my question is, if anybody could confirm that PT on Win10 on Parallels on a M1 Mac works.
Technically it should but did somebody test this yet?

Comments

I think the issue is that Parallels on a M1 Mac can only install a special version of Windows, the “Windows 10 preview on ARM”.
See the details under “supported guest operating systems” on this page
Note, it says:

Windows on ARM can run most of the regular Windows x86 applications.

Paratext 9.1 is a Windows x64 application.
.
anon854042 says that Paratext won’t run in the ARM version of Windows 10. And apparently a similar problem exists for Paratext on Linux.

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Did you get ever get PT working on Win10 on Parallels on an M1 Mac or find out if anyone has is working?

Answer 4

I have a MacStudio running macOS Monterey (12.5) with Parallels 18.1.0 (53311).

Parallels

Installing Windows on a Mac with Apple M-series chip

Paratext

I was able to install Windows 11 Pro (22621.525 / 22H2) directly from Parallels. I was able to install Paratext.

The first time I tried to install, it was on Windows 11 Home and I got an error (you can probably see it in the history of this ), but I didn’t get the same error when I reinstalled on Windows 11 Pro.

I was able to open a project from Send/Receive.
I was able to do Advanced > Restore project from file...

Windows on ARM

Currently the Windows install is not licensed. When I go to the System > Activation control panel, I get:

Windows reported that no product key was found on your device. Error code: 0xC004F213.

I could click on Open Store and it takes me to the Windows 10/11 Home entry on the store. I am concerned about it supporting Apple Silicon. If click on System Requirements and then compatible 64-bit processor, it lists “AMD Processors”, “Intel Processors”, and “Qualcomm Processors” (not “ARM Processors”).

[Update]: I contacted Parallels support about whether there was a specific edition that I need. They said:

In M-series Mac, it supports only Windows 11. However, you can purchase any edition of Windows 11 license key and activate on your Mac.

[Update]: I was able to activate a regular Windows 11 Pro license.

anon017027

Answer 5

I setup a MacBook M2 with Parallels and Win11(ARM) today, everything worked great. Very seamless.
My Windows 10 Enterprise key activated Win11 without any problem.
This user is only wanting Paratext access on Windows.
It is only 8GB RAM, I was surprised how responsive it seemed.

A couple notes:

1. Bootcamp does not support ARM
2. MS Office for Intel CPU will not install on Win11(ARM)

Comments

Thanks for the report.

Will neither x86 nor x64 MS Office install? As far as I know, SIL Converters will not work with an ARM version of MS Office.

Note also that Adobe InDesign will not install on Windows for ARM, so one cannot use Publishing Assistant/InDesign.

PTXprint was recently fixed so that it will now install on Windows for ARM and is assumed to work fine.

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I tried MS Office 2013x64, 2016x32, 2016x64, 2019x64, all failed to install.

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Great to hear the setup for Paratext with an M2 Mac went so well!

Unfortunately you may need to install the Mac version of Adobe and Microsoft products. With Parallels, you should be able to run a Mac product and a Windows product side-by-side with Coherence mode, but that may not work with PubAssist?

james_post