I used the Insider program to download Windows 11 for ARM and install it via the free version of VMWare Fusion. What I don’t understand is how long I can use the Insider Program without having to buy something? I’d love to hear about any experience your all have.
It’s basically a public pre-release testing program. In general, you don’t need to purchase anything. You just need to be comfortable using pre-release software and to update to new builds when currently installed builds expire. There are several channels, ranging from “Experimental” to “Release Preview”, with “Release Preview” being the safest.
Technically, you are only supposed to use it if you already have a legitimate Windows license. I haven’t tried using Windows 11 for ARM on VMware Fusion, so I can’t really say how well it works or how it activates or not. I have a licensed version of Windows 11 for ARM that works very well in Parallels Desktop.
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Disclaimer: I’m a frequent contributor and moderator on the VMware Fusion forum community, but am not a Broadcom employee.
Windows 11 ARM activates with no problems when run as a VM under VMware Fusion (from first hand experience). It will also allow you to switch from a Release Channel build to a Insider Preview channel from within the VM (you need a licensed/activated Windows in order to do this).
Other hints about using Windows 11 ARM Insider Preview releases on Fusion.
If you don’t have a Windows license, you can run insider builds of Windows 11 ARM on VMware Fusion by downloading the .vhdx files found on the Insider web page then convert it to VMware vmdk format. You then create a custom VM with that converted vmdk as you virtual hard drive. (Sorry but Microsoft doesn’t have ISOs for ARM like they do for x86_64).
Or you can build your desired Windows insider build iso from uupdump.net (You’ll need a Windows system to do this - you can’t do it on macOS).
The one big missing feature when running Windows ARM under Fusion is that there are no host/guest shared folders. That can be worked around by using macOS file sharing.
If you’re using VMware Fusion on Apple Silicon, you might want to check out my unofficial guide that’s chock full of hints/suggestions/gotchas (shameless plug) found here: Fusion - VMware Cloud Foundation
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Windows 11 (unlike prior versions) doesn’t break if you don’t get a license. If you don’t buy a license and activate it, it will run normally, but with a few minor cosmetic limitations:
- A watermark on the screen telling you to activate it
- Nagging in a few other places asking you to activate
- No personalization (wallpaper, themes, etc.)
But if you do this for a long time (more than needed to evaluate your installation), then you will be in violation of the license terms. So you should buy a license if this is more than just a “let’s see if this works” experiment.
See also: You Can Install and Use Windows 11 Without a Product Key
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My compliments on an excellent guide! Very well done.
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Also, Windows 11 will accept a Windows 10 key.
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Sorry, I’ve been busy, so not able to respond here. Thanks a ton to everyone who has weighed in!!
My question now is how do find a legitimate license to buy?? There are so many available to something like $15, but most don’t look legit at all. From what I can tell is that they’re most likely OEM or gray market licenses.
Of course, I’d rather not have to put out $100 or more, so how do I find a legit but reasonable deal?
I’d appreciate any and all tips you might have.
My opinion:
For a virtual machine, I’d recommend staying away from OEM or system builder licenses. Those licenses get locked to the hardware they are first installed on. Virtual hardware can change in ways that would make Windows think that it’s running on different hardware than what it was originally activated on. (especially if you move VMs between machines). If that happens your recourse may be to contact Microsoft and treat the whole situation like you swapped a motherboard on a physical PC.
The issue isn’t whether the licenses are legit. They usually are since they will activate against Microsoft’s servers. It’s just whether if license being sold was acquired for resale from a source that had some restrictions on reselling it.
Buying a license from a Microsoft certified reseller or from Microsoft itself is safest but more expensive. I’ve bought licenses both directly from Microsoft (the Microsoft Store) and Amazon (with Amazon as the seller, not a third party) with zero issues. Those licenses were close in price to MSRP, though.
I’ve had good luck with cheap licenses from PC World’s online store that I used on a PC that I built for my son a couple of years ago. But caveat emptor.
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Some employers and schools offer deeply discounted access to Windows and Office to their employees and other affiliates. The specifics can vary widely from one source to another, but it can be worth investigating.
I bought a license from Stack Social (which PC World seems to use) and it says my product doesn’t qualify (or some such wording). Do I need to get off the Insider Program to use it?
Without seeing the actual error message, it’s hard to say exactly what is going on. It may be an invalid license, such as an OEM license that was already used, or it may be an issue specifically with the Insider installation.
It might also be that the license code is for Windows 11 Home instead of Pro or Enterpise. If you used VMWare’s automated download, I believe it only offers the Pro and Enterprise versions as options.
You might try downloading the standard Windows 11 ARM ISO file and using that for the installation, but I defer to @Technogeezer’s expertise on that question.
I actually recommend using the Windows 11 ARM ISO downloaded from Microsoft’s web site rather than using Fusion’s built-in “Get Windows from Microsoft” feature.
The Fusion process downloads Microsoft Windows 11 ARM ESD files, builds an iso from them, and injects the VMware network driver into the generated ISO automatically. Fusion’s feature builds W11 ARM 24H2 ISOs that contain either Home and Professional editions or Professional and Enterprise editions.
The ISO downloaded directly from Microsoft contains Windows 11 ARM 25H2 Home and Professional editions.
The only “downside” with using the Microsoft ISO over the Fusion built-in procedure is that the Microsoft ISO doesn’t bundle the VMware virtual network driver.
Without a network, the Windows OOBE setup won’t complete. When using the Microsoft ISO, that just means that you’ll have to interrupt the OOBE setup early and install VMware Tools (which contains the VMware network and video drivers) so that the setup finds the network and runs to completion. My guide walks you through how to do this.
Edited to more completely describe the Windows editions that are provided by the Fusion feature and Microsoft’s ISO download.
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Finally got it activated, following a quite convoluted process that the very helpful folks at Stack Social walked me through.
Thanks again for all your help and advice. (I will be checking out your guide too, Technogeezer {great handle, btw})
I believe you can keep using the Insider build for testing, but activation and licensing are separate issues. I’d also be interested to hear from anyone who has been running Windows 11 ARM this way long-term.
I’ve been using Windows 11 ARM for a year or two now? I don’t remember when I first installed, but it has been a while since I need it only five times per year via VMware Fusion.
I’ve been running W11 ARM as a guest under VMware Fusion for close to 4 years now. Here’s my thoughts.
I’d not bother with Insider builds unless you have a need to preview upcoming changes before deployment (Release Preview channel) or contribute to beta testing (Experimental or Beta channels). When Windows 11 ARM and Fusion/Parallels first started to support Apple Silicon Macs, Insider builds were pretty much the only way to get W11 ARM for a VM. This changed over time and today the release channel versions of W11 25H2 ARM are readily available (and as since W11 24H2, available from Microsoft as ISOs) and usable as a guest on both Fusion and Parallels.
Windows won’t stop working if you don’t buy a license - unlike Windows 8 and prior. If you use it regularly, you really should buy the license, though. In the grand scheme of things, is a full retail license really that expensive if you use it regularly? And you can probably get away with Windows 11 Home Edition to keep the costs down - unless you’re in an environment that really, really needs Professional Edition features such as domain joining.
So why run preview or beta software that is not release quality when it’s just as easy (or easier) to get the generally available release channel build?
There is one thing to be aware of when running Insider builds. The Insider Beta and Experimental Channel builds also may have expiration dates built into them. They will no longer update themselves once that date passes. You’ll also get a notice that the build has expired and you should install a newer build. The problem is that you have to do a clean installation to get that newer build - there is no in-place upgrade available to replace these expired builds. That also means that wiping the disk is part of that process. Not something I’d want to do with a VM that has valuable files on it.
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Here are most of the meaningful differences between Windows 11 Home and Pro:
- Price. MSRP is $140 for Home and $200 for Pro
- If you buy Home, you can later upgrade to Pro by buying a new license key, with an MSRP of $100.
Features only in Pro:
- BitLocker drive encryption
- This allows remote lock-down so, for example, your IT department can disable a lost or stolen computer.
- Note that Home users can encrypt their storage devices via the “Device encryption” feature
- Windows Information Protection
- This is a feature for preventing data exfiltration
- Virtualization.
- Pro includes Windows Sandbox and Hyper-V. Home users need a third-party hypervisor like VirtualBox or VMWare.
- Resource limits.
- Home is limited to 128 GB of RAM and one CPU with up to 64 cores. So if you’ve got a high-end PC with more than this, you’ll need Pro to take advantage of it.
- Enterprise networking features
- Ability to join a domain
- Ability to join Azure Active Directory
- Private Catalog. A dedicated corporate section in the Microsoft Store for your company’s apps.
- Remote Desktop Control
For myself, the only Pro feature I might conceivably need would be higher resource limits, if I decide to buy/build a PC that exceeds the limit. But if I ever get a PC that beefy, I will almost certainly be either running Linux or using it as a native VM host (via something like the VMWare ESXi free edition)
See also:
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I’d stick with Microsoft or an authorized retailer if you want to be sure the license is legitimate. Those $15 keys can be tempting, but the risk of getting a gray-market or already-used key probably isn’t worth it.
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