question about UTM Windows 11 virtualization on M1

By techluver, 24 April, 2022

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hello.
Has anyone had success with running a windows 11 VM with UTM? I was able to get it working with a bit of sighted help at least to the point that I can launch the VM and navigate around.
1. Does someone know why the function keys won't work? I can't get my function keys to be passed to windows.
2. More importantly, the input lag is horrendous. It's like half a second between when I type and it reacts. Does someone know what I'm supposed to do to fix that?
Thanks so much!

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Comments

By Quin on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

Hi, I have gotten it working flawlessly, and don't have any of the problems you do. I think to get function keys to work, you have to have them act like normal function keys, not the Mac advanced stuff. I have audio lag, but it's only a tad more than using a virtual audio cable (around 80 ms) so can't speak to that one.

By techluver on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

Oh that’s a good point, I’m not sure if what I have is audio lag or keyboard lag, I will test that later. thanks for the suggestion. Yeah my audio lag is bad.

By Justin Harris on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

I tried doing it, but was never able to get past the point where you have to connect to the internet. I know there should be a button somewhere that will let you bypass, as there is no internet at the beginning, until you install Spice Guest Tools. How did you get around that? I am on an m1 Mac, with the Windows 11 arm build. Perhaps you used a different build? What build did you use? Do you by chance still have access to that file you downloaded? With the latest one, it would not let me bypass the internet connection screen at all. I even got sighted help, and there was no button or anything one could click to proceed with limited setup. And of course getting caps lock to behave as narrator / NVDA key wasn't working quite as expected. Any tips would be much appreciated.

By techluver on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

Shift f 10, you get to a command prompt. You then need to type in a network pass through command, which you’re gonna need to Google for because I don’t have it handy right now. Then, it’ll restart, you get to that same screen but you will have the right button

By techluver on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

All right everyone, I figured out that it’s audio like I’m experiencing. The keyboard is acting absolutely normal, it’s just that there’s a ton of lag with audio. Does someone know what might be causing that?

By Justin Harris on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

If you find that command, please let me know. Did you still have speech in the terminal window?

By Chris on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

The command to skip the Internet connection requirement is oobe\bypassnro exactly as shown here. As for audio latency, I'm not sure. It may simply be the virtualization taking a little more time to pass audio from the guest to the physical host sound device. You can get around this by connecting a USB headset or any other USB audio device directly to the virtual machine.

By Quin on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

I didn't actually know you could use a terminal command. What I did to get internet in the VM is load the ISO file into the virtual disk drive (D:\) before booting, boot up, shift f10, windows R, type D:\, and install that way. Then reboot the VM. Should have internet after that.

By Justin Harris on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

So the network bypass didn't work for me, but installing guest tools did. Now, has anyone gotten caps lock to successfully work as nvda key? If so, please provide detailed instructions. If not, what key were you able to assign instead?
Also, I tried installing classic shell but it says it can't run on this version of Windows. Any free alternative that is ARM compatible?
It's still pretty cool that I got the vm up and running, and it works great. No real lag that I can detect, but I left all settings as default.
Lastly, in UTM, is there a way to share a usb audio device with both the Mac as well as the guest pc? That would help a lot, as I would love to be able to use my MacBook to do remote broadcasts for my online radio station, and while I have Windows audio coming from and going to my interface, I can't exactly have VoiceOver randomly start making noise that everyone else can hear. Especially since my remote broadcasts are for church services, so I want to make sure nothing I am doing will cause a disruption. I know I could perhaps turn VoiceOver off, but then if I somehow manage to move out of the UTM window, that opens a whole new can of worms, so would prefer to keep VO on.

By techluver on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

Y'all.
I gave up on UTM and decided to go the VMWare route instead. the simple reason is I couldn't for the life of me find a way around the sound lag.
VMWare does what I want it seems.

By Justin Harris on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

Ok, glad VMware does what you need. So far, UTM is working great for me. Have you gotten caps lock working as NVDA key? Or what key are you using instead?

By techluver on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

I use the numpad insert key found on the numpad of the external keyboard I use.
It's the only thing that works but I don't really like the MacBook keyboard anyway so it's fine.

By Justin Harris on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

Not sure how VMWare compares on the M1 Macs, but UTM is running like a champ! VMWare is how people usually went about creating virtual machines in the past, but I'm not sure how good their Windows support is these days, as well as if VO support has been kept up. I remember in the past that it was very accessible, but nothing beats UTM for me. This has been the best experience ever with a vm.

By Tj on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

Hi all,

While using UTM and a web browser, such as chrome or edge, I am unable to utilize Jaws' virtual PC cursor to browse. Is this because 1, Jaws isn't supported 2, an ID10T problem, or 3, something I'm missing?

By Chris on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

JAWS isn't compatible with ARM Windows yet. Use NVDA or Narrator for now.

By Justin Harris on Saturday, May 7, 2022 - 05:11

Hi all, I have noticed that when I plug in a USB headset, it gives me the option to connect it to the virtual machine. However, the vm never seems to recognize that one was plugged in. The headset works just fine in Mac OS, and on another Windows pc, but with the VM, nothing. It did recognize a flash drive for me. So, I am wondering if all usb audio devices, such as audio interfaces, will respond in the same way this headset did. It would be nice if I can get usb audio working on the VM, because then I can sell my little Dell two in one, which I only bought because I thought getting a vm up and running would be a lot harder than it actually was. But, without USB audio, I'm stuck having to carry two computers around. Anyone else had this problem? How did you fix it?

By John Abreu on Tuesday, November 7, 2023 - 05:11

I know this post is old... but has anyone tried switching from default ?(presumably spice) to core audio? I haven't tried it yet, but I figure since it isn't capturing audio input as is output only, plus CoreAudio being OS native, it might do better. Before I commit to trying this, has anyone else?