I am writing this through my win11 install. I lost all my respect for VMWare/Broadcom a year ago.
UTM always gave me weird issues and unstabilities. Fusion... Just to get their softwares is a nightmare now.
Parallels? Yes the accessibility could be better, and some initial steps need VOCR. But it's as usable as cisco packet tracer on mac for example, and you'll get the cleanest windows 11 install ever. After first boot idle it's less than 3gb ram with 0 tweak, no microsoft account **so far** :), and honestly, it just works!
I am getting the best of both worlds, I've already paid the student pro plan, and not for everything, but I think for 90% of my use case in my college CS program I will able to use my mac now instead of my terrible HP.
I am really, really impressed. I thought I saw the best of what my mac hardware was able to offer me when I saw the speed of Asahi, but this is nowhere near the abilities I get now.
Web browsing? I take whatever I need. Spell check? Windows! :)
Office? Windows.
Text? Windows.
Fun? ... Depending on what I need, either.
Email? Mac all the way.
X86 specific things? IE running college pre made iso in my OS course in exam? My hp.
11/10 Parallels. You have done it very well, I am sold. Completely. Despite the rough accessibility. The rest absolutely compensates, Windows alone is worth the challenges.
By TheBlindGuy07, 19 October, 2025
Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Comments
Had the same experience myself
Ever since fusion started going downhill since the acquisition of Broadcom, I started thinking of switching, finally took the plunge, and yes, it might not be the most accessible and require OCR at the start, but once you get windows installed, no need for OCR pretty much. Needless to say, I am not looking back.
So you bought a Mac...
Just to run windows on it? 😏
I wouldn't use Windows full time on my Mac.
I would certainly use the mac to spell check. I would only use windows for playing windows audio games.
That' what I do
I only use windows to play audiogames and games which aren't available on the mac, but my job and everything else? I do it on the mac.
Mmm
I suppose I could once again make compromises in order to run Doze on the Apple Silicon Mac, by using Parallels. But, yes, I'd not be madly in love with the idea, because I do think the UI isn't as convenient to use. But if it's really the only way, might have to. On my Intel iMac the first choice remains BootCamp, obviously.
@Dennis Long
My spell check joke was about this bug of spell check not working in browsers, especially safari, notably on this very website, whereas it does work on windows.
Sebby
you don't need to touch the UI if you don't want to. Other than installing windows, if you don't want to have to touch the UI again you don't have to, as you can customise keyboard shortcuts etc from the windows vm itself. Of course, if your up to mucking about in the UI, you will need ocr for some of the settings screens, well one in particular, that beeing the keyboard shortcuts for the vm, but even then you only need vocr to focus you on the table of keyboard shortcuts after which your voiceover commands to navigate the table will work as normal to uncheck and check the default keyboard shortcuts.
Help with this issue please
Sorry for the poster if I am hijacking the post. I donwloaded the app from the App Store and I am getting nothing in the first screen, VoiceOver says: kToolbarTitleLabelItemId text. Not sure what this means! Also when I use VOCR to get the screen it says Nothing Found.
I'd still hesitate on principal
So I get that parallels is probably the best option for virtualization as of now, but financially supporting a company that makes zero effort with regards to accessibility kind of rubs me the wrong way. Don't get me wrong - if I get to a point where I need to, I'd be hypocritical and bite the bullet, but I do think it wouldn't hurt to write them, especially if you're an existing customer, and tell them how you feel about the present state of their UI.
how does it work with M4 mac book pro
parallels work with M4 or M5 mac book pro?
and can we install windows 11 in there?
and after that can we use screen reader like NVDA?
Yes to all
Yes, you can run it on all m sereis macs.
Regarding the setup screen and VOCR. VOCR seems a bit flaky, or it's simply not finding the window open. There should be a guide around I put together on this topic.
I find that restarting voiceover sometimes helps. Also worth checking with a VO f1 twice to get into any windows that might have popped up for new permissions. Be patient, it does work, it's just frustrating.
Regarding the rpinciple thing, if it's either buying a grands worth of windows machine or struggling a little with set up, I'll do the set up. I admire principles, but I want to get stuff done. We can set it up, it's not ideal, but I'm not going to deny myself something because people are people. And, who knows, the more of us who use parallels and send in requests, the more reason they have to improve accessibility.