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Updating Windows 10 to 11 on a Mac, with Parallels

I’ve been a Microsoft user since they first started, and recall using MS-DOS at the command prompt, and then Windows 3.0 starting in 1990. For the past decade or so I’ve been a Mac user, yet still needed to run an occasional PC app like Internet Explorer or Quicken, so the Parallels App allowed me to install Windows on a Mac. I was really expecting the Windows 10 would simply prompt me to update to Windows 11, but that never happened, so I did a quick Google search to find out my options and I followed the advice from Parallels on their support site.

Download the Windows 11 iso

From the Microsoft browser I started the multi-gigabyte download of an ISO file for Windows 11. At the end of that long download I selected an option in Parallels to mount the ISO file, which then bought up a dialog asking what action to take, then I selected run setup.exe. This started the actual installation process, which took over the entire Windows screen.

Waiting

I had other work to do on my Mac while all of this was happening, which was mostly waiting for Windows 11 install to complete.

More Updates

You would think that installing Windows 11 would make your OS all up to date, but no, I looked for updates after Windows 11 installed and it found two more:

Parallels

Finally, the Parallels app had an update too once I reached Windows 11 OK:

Windows 11 Learning Curve

The most notable change to start out with is that the Start icon is not in the lower-left corner, that new icon is for Widgets. The second visual change is that the taskbar moved from the left-hand corner, to the exact middle. Why? Who knows. I could still double-click my most used apps, Quicken and Microsoft Edge, so all was well in my world.

Summary

Yes, Mac users can run Windows 11 on their computer, thanks to the clever app from Parallels. Updating from Windows 10 to 11 wasn’t really intuitive, but with some Google and patience I did manage the process. If you plan to do the same thing, then expect over an hour to do this task. Maybe over lunch time, or after work hours if you want to be productive.

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