Windows 10/11, Parallels, MacBook M2 chip

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Windows 10/11, Parallels, MacBook M2 chip

Anonymous

I have been running Windows 10 Home edition on my Intel chip MacBook using Parallels for many years, but it is/was on its last legs. (I have not yet disabled Parallels Toolbox on the old Mac) I bought a new M2 chip MacBook Air and did a "clean" migration from my old Mac to the new one. only to discover I need Windows 11 to run Parallels on the new Mac. (Yes, I should have done more research before I did the installation, but...) I installed Windows 11 via the Parallels prompts and discovered that I will have to manually copy files from the old .pvm to run under Windows 11. Ok, I can do that.

The Win11 virtual machine is telling me that I do not have an authorized version of Windows, leaving me with a series of questions:

The MS website says that there is no fee to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Clearly, since the install was a "clean" install of Win11, the Win10 license did not carry over, even via the Parallels install process.

How can/should I link my Win10 system to the Win11 so I don't have to purchase a new Win11 license?

2)Should I blow away the Win11 virtual machine and start again differently?

something else entirely?

Thanks!

Cathy

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Answer 1

Hello,

If Windows was activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account, then you simply have to run the activation troubleshooter and then sign into your Microsoft account to select the computer that has the license that you want. You don't necessarily have to start Windows 11 over, because you already have a functional Windows 11 device.

Hope this helps.

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Windows 10/11, Parallels, MacBook M2 chip

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