Frequently asked questions

Is Windows running?

No. Windows Boot Manager initialization is not verified. Windows PE and Windows Setup have not been achieved. There is no Windows desktop to show, and this site will not fake one.

Is this bare metal?

The long-term aim is a Boot Camp-like boot that does not keep macOS as the host operating system. The current design may still require an EL2 compatibility layer so Windows can see interfaces Apple Silicon does not provide directly, including a virtual GIC and PSCI. That is not the same sentence as "Windows is running unvirtualized on the bare metal," and that sentence is not a result of this project.

Which Macs work?

One machine has a verified boot environment: the project's MacBook Pro 14-inch, M3 (2023). m1n1, U-Boot/UEFI, and the BootCampARM shim have executed there. Windows has not.

No other M3 Mac is included in that result. M3 Pro, M3 Max, M1, M2, M4, and later families are not verified. A model appearing in the device database only means the name is known.

Can I download it?

No public installer is available yet. There is no disk image, no signed app, and no firmware package on the download page. Anything circulating under this name as a ready-to-run Windows installer did not come from this release record.

Is it affiliated with Apple or Microsoft?

No. BootCampARM is an independent experimental project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Apple Inc. or Microsoft Corporation. Apple, Mac, macOS, Apple Silicon, and Boot Camp are trademarks of Apple Inc. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

How is this different from a virtual machine?

Parallels, VMware, and UTM run Windows under macOS. BootCampARM is trying to boot Windows from an alternative firmware path started by Apple's bootloader, so macOS is not the host. That path may still include an EL2 layer inside m1n1. It is a different architecture from a hosted VM, and it is not a finished one. Hosted hypervisors remain the practical way to run Windows on Apple Silicon today.

Will it damage my Mac?

The installer design repartitions internal storage and changes boot objects. That can prevent macOS from starting. Do not run unpublished builds to "see if Windows works." If a development machine will not boot, use Apple's startup options and, if needed, a restore from another Mac. Keep your own backup before any such experiment.

Are drivers or Secure Boot solved?

No. This project does not claim a Windows NVMe driver, a display driver, a keyboard or trackpad driver, or any Secure Boot outcome. Those problems are visible in the hardware differences between Apple Silicon and a PC, and they are unsolved here.

Where is the source?

A public Git repository is not configured. The engineering work exists as a local Swift package and EFI experiments. When a real repository URL is set in the site configuration, the header and the open-development section will link to it. Until then, the link is omitted on purpose.