M1 Parallels Windows ARM: Quickbooks & Quicken for Win10

I have several clients running Windows 10 in virtual machines on Intel-based Macs -- just to run Windows versions of Quickbooks and/or Quicken.

Some of these clients are ready for new Macs and want M1 models but I'm not recommending them yet until I confirm QB & Quicken (latest versions, 2021) work fine in Parallels Windows ARM.

I'd love to hear from users who are running Quickbooks for Windows Desktop Pro 2021 or Quicken for Windows (latest version) in Parallels Windows ARM virtual machines.

NOTE: the Mac versions of QB & Quicken don't meet these clients' needs (I tried that already).

 

I'm running both Quicken and Quickbooks Pro 2021 under the latest build for Windows 10 on ARM under Parallels on a MacBook Air with M1 chip.
The speed is great and both products work as expected. However, I can't get the shared printers to work. To print a check in QuickBooks I have to print to a PDF file on the desktop and then print that from the MacOS.

 

Thanks! This is just the kind of intel I need.

 

I use QB Premier Plus Retail Edition 2021 (under subscription) on a daily basis. I have been waiting patiently on a functional Win10 ARM version so that I can dump my old Dell laptop that I have to maintain in order to get QB to work. I have a tricked out M1 Macbook Air ready for this and I check regularly for the latest updates to Win10 ARM and QB. To date, QB will load up and run, but it is unstable. When attempting to run QB Help or About Automatic Update under the Help menu, QB will immediately crash hard. The Intuit developer forum suggests that QB should run under Win10 ARM, but I'm yet to see it to be stable.

 

Any updates on running Quicken Premiere for Windows on on M1 Mac?

 

Hello @RobertH20, If you have a M1 chip Mac, please try to check if Quicken Premier is compatible with Windows ARM. Thanks, McAllen

 

I've installed Quicken Premier and it works fine.

 

Me again with an update. I'd upgraded my Parallels install to the latest v17 and Windows to the Win11 ARM developer's version. As Parallels added support for TPM and other essential services for Win11, I enabled all of those too. None of those steps cured QB Premier's hard crash on using Help until QB released their 2022 upgrade. This version so far runs without crashing under Parallels v17 with Win11 ARM Developer Beta. There remain some issues with the screen display. Font sizes are often way too small and the only way to trick that out that I can find is a global change to screen resolution that makes everything else too big.
My main concern now is Microsoft's statement that they're not going to support Win11 on Apple silicon, like ever. At present, I have the Win11 beta and the MS test refuses to upgrade to the supported version because the processor is Apple silicon.
This goes beyond support for QB and raises questions about whether Parallels can outpatch Microsoft as soon as they end the beta trial for Win11.
I imagine that the fallback to Win10 for ARM will also not be a supported scenario for MS either since they appear to be taking a stance on support for any Windows on any Apple silicon platform.
Right now, to avoid buying any Windows machine, I'm running QB on a leased Win10 VPS. Remote Desktop gets me in just fine and I'll probably stay with that approach until the dust settles on the whole Windows on Apple h/w question.

 

I'm running QuickBooks Premier 2021 on an M1 MacBook Air using Windows 11 Insider Preview (10.0.22000.51 - 6/28/21) and 2021-10 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 for arm64-based Systems (KB5006746 - 10/18/2021). I have had no issues with QB in this configuration (or previous build configurations), but it is important that you insure that the folder holding the QB database files is not being backed up to the cloud by OneDrive, Google Drive, or any other cloud synch app.

That can cause significant issues and must be avoided at all cost. Since my QB data files happen to be resident in a OneDrive folder I always QUIT OneDrive prior to launching QuickBooks.

 

Interesting observation. I do run occasional backups to OneDrive, but most times I back up with Intuit's online service. My QB files are local in the Windows file system.
My experience with QB Premier 2021 was that most functions would work but that it would always crash hard when using the built in Help function and some other functions under the Help menu; eg, About Updates, anything that seemed to pull up another subsystem.

 

For the record, Microsoft has NEVER released a version of Windows that they say they will support on Apple MacBooks - EVER. So when I a statement like "Microsoft's statement that they're not going to support Win11 on Apple silicon" I have to say that this concern is misplaced.

The reason we can run Windows on any Mac (Intel-based or M1-based) is that Parallels has stepped up to allow us to create a virtual machine environment in which a Windows OS feels right at home. In fact, when installed, the Windows OS thinks it's running on an Intel or ARM-based PC, not a Mac.

Parallels is doing a great job of establishing an environment that emulates either an Intel PC or an ARM PC (even down to TPM chip emulation), and so the only question is when will they be done with the version for the M1 Macs. My guess is that Parallels wants to continue in this line of business, so it's only a matter of time.

 

I humbly disagree. Sooner or later, MS will pull the pin on the Win11 developer thread and then one will not be able to get a licensed version to run on an M1 platform.
Whether that makes great sense or not, or whether it matches my personal desires, is beside the point. MS can do what they think is best for them and supporting Apple h/w might not be in their interests. For example, what a great way for MS to alienate all the manufacturers building on Intel platforms.
For their part, Apple just introduced two new variants of the M1 and I'm not certain how much advanced notice they gave MS of how those will work.
Time will tell but I'm not willing to stake my company's accounting platform on MS and Apple playing nice or that Intuit and Parallels can save my bacon.

 

Windows

 

I am awaiting delivery of a Mac M1 Max and would like to continue running my QuickBooks Premier (Canadian) edition which I now run under a 2014 MB Air > Mojave > Windows 10 (Intel, obviously) > Parallels 17. I realize that I'll be soon running the M1 Max > Monterey > Windows 11 (ATM) but wonder if I also will need an ARM version of QB Premier (Canadian) ? I don't see people here mentioning ARM for their QB software running on the M1 chip. Guide me, please.

 

Correction: ... soon running the M1 Max > Monterey > Windows 11 (ARM) but wonder if I also will need an ARM version of QB Premier (Canadian) ? ...

 

My comment is not a suggestion to stay on the bleeding edge of technology with your production work, but rather that Microsoft doesn't choose hardware partners, they create OS solutions to fit a specified hardware architecture.

Since 1983 Microsoft has built its Windows OS to run on the CISC architecture of the Intel product family. Sometime in 2012 they built their first hardware platforms around an ARM processor (a RISC architecture that much faster than CISC), and created Windows RT. They have continued to develop Windows for ARM64 processors that come in current Surface computers (see this link -- https://techcommunity.microsoft.com...porting-windows-10-on-arm-in-the/ba-p/2118048).

By committing low-power Surface laptops to an ARM64 architecture, Microsoft is committing to updating and maintaining Windows 11 on ARM64. Surface laptops on ARM64 CPUs get much faster performance, generate much less heat, and have better battery life. Note that Microsoft DOES NOT create their own processors. Currently they use the AMD Ryzen CPU chip, which is another ARM architecture licensed from ARM Holdings.

Also, please note that Microsoft never has supported MacBooks in the past. They simply supported the architecture of the Intel chips, whether they were produced by Intel, or AMD, or someone else, and regardless of which PC manufacturer built a product around those chips. They didn't "partner" with Intel or AMD - they simply made the Windows OS work on that CPU architecture.

In fact it was Apple that supported Microsoft by creating the Bootcamp capability in MacOS to install and run Microsoft Windows in a disk partition, so all this talk of whether Microsoft will support the M1 chip is really ironic - they never have supported the Apple MacBook family, it was Apple supporting Microsoft. Parallels created their Parallels Desktop product to allow Mac users to run Windows apps within MacOS without the need for Bootcamp, which is much more flexible. There are no "hooks" in Windows for running in MacOS - all of the magic is handled by Parallels.

Any company that designs and fabricates a chip that supports the ARM architecture can run Windows ARM64. Apple's M1 CPUs support the ARM architecture, and I expect Parallels to support the Virtual Machine software layer running on the M1 chips "officially" soon, otherwise they are out of business.

On another point - have you read about the performance of the new Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max laptops? My feeling is that we are at a transition point in personal computing where all chipmakers are going to have to pivot to the ARM architecture. They simply can't afford to create CISC CPUs that are slower, hotter, and have battery life that much less than an ARM chip. Can you imagine trying to run a smartphone OS on an Intel CPU? Every smartphone, and every tablet computer is running on a CPU that is compliant with the ARM64 architecture.

My guess is that in 5 years the competition between the RISC and CISC architectures will be over, and nearly all PCs will run on ARM. Microsoft wants to remain in the OS business whether their Surface laptops continue to be offered or not, so my guess is that the future of the Windows ARM64 is secure.

 

Don't get me wrong. I've been buying Apple h/w since the Lisa came out, and I have pledged to myself not to buy another Windows machine ever. However, Intuit refuses to create a full version of QuickBooks on Apple h/w, compelling me to run QB on a Win10 VPS. I've also been running Parallels on Macs since the very first version. That tried to make a Motorola machine look like Intel. Compared to it, v17 on my M1 is freaking brilliant. I would love this whole scheme to work, and I've invested my skin in the game. I've bought Parallels, an M1, QB, Windows, Office 360, etc.

I think MS does validate and control h/w platforms. In particular, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Qualcomm don't also build h/w to run their proprietary OS. Apple does. That implies that Apple doesn't need MS or Windows to succeed in the marketplace like that the others do. If I were MS, I'd consider Apple's h/w choices a total wildcard. I think that's a valid point of view from Bellevue. While I agree that MS commits to ARM, the only genuine supplier that Win runs on is Qualcomm, and frankly, that's a bit of a dog. And Qualcomm isn't also selling Surface boxes with a QCOS that supports everything from Photoshop to Word better than Windows.

And the minute that MS does validate a Win11 license on an M1 under Parallels, and people start buying more M1 Macs than PCs because they'd run everything better under either MacOS or Win11, then MS just flattened Intel and Dell, HP, etc. etc. etc. Now, maybe, Apple's success with ARM/RISC forces Intel and others to catch up with their variants. In that future world, MS would not be sinking the fleet that they are floating on by supporting a broader range of ARM machines.

I'm just not holding my breath.

 

I have M1 with Parallel windows 11 ARM . I tried to use QB 2022 but installation wont work , I get Error 1904 ClientbootStrab.dll . Thanks

 

I'm not sure about that. I got to 2022 by upgrading 2021 and I've had no problems with it other than the messed up font sizes.
Of course, Intuit says that we are running an unsupported install; so I'm not sure what would get them to shift off their Titanic deck chairs.

 

are you running ARM windows 11 as well or 10 ?