Is it possible to move Windows programs from Intel VM to M1 VM?

D

DavidB22

Member
Hello!
Possibly like many other people, I don't have the program serial number/passwords for all the programs on my Windows VM (10 Pro). I'm OK with Windows itself, it's mainly for other programs. Without these serial number/passwords, I won't be able to do a fresh install of the programs.
Is it possible to create the new VM on the M1 with Parallels then copy the relevant files over from the old VM so the programs will work in the new VM?
It is likely that serial number/passwords are stored in Windows registry and I have my doubts that this can simply be copied over.
Thanks
 
Michael Hi
Thanks for your reply. I had a quick look at the topic you linked to. When right-clicking on Control Centre, I don't get an option "Show hard disk contents". I have Parallels Version 17.1.1 (51537).
 
Not sure if this will work for you. I have an (older) Windows program I wanted to migrate from Win10 to Win11 under M1 Parallels. (I couldn't find the old version installer and their website only has later version, which I don't want to upgrade to)
I just copied the app's folder (directory) to the new "Program Files (x86)" directory on the C: drive of the Win11
I had to reactivate the app (I couldn't find out where to deactivate the old one so deleted the folder afterwards).
It worked fine. (I did have to run a DLL updater in Win11 but I had a note that I had done that originally for Win10 when I moved from Win7)
Might be worth trying for an App at a time. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the tip. I tried copying over a program or two unfortunately without success.
I also tried a fresh download of PDF24 to run in the VM but it will not install. It just returns an error that it needs the x64 platform. I thought Windows 11 Pro had an emulator to allow these programs to run?
 
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