We’ve already seen that Parallels will bring Windows 10 apps to M1 MacBooks, but that is still in beta while CodeWeavers has now shown off the current build of its CrossOver 20 emulation software running a number of Windows 10 apps on a MacBook Air (via Engadget).
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One caveat is that CodeWeavers installed the Big Sur 11.1 beta, but anyone is free to join the beta program so that’s not stopping you from trying this too. The team was able to run a variety of Windows 10 software including Quicken, Among Us, The Witcher 3 and Team Fortress 2. For a fast-twitch game like TF2, things aren’t exactly smooth sailing throughout, with frame rates jumping around here and there as you can see in the video below. But that it works at all without optimizing anything is pretty amazing. Jeremy White from CodeWeavers walks through the layers of emulation that are happening in the blog post, “a 32-bit Windows Intel binary, running in a 32-to-64 bridge in Wine / CrossOver on top of macOS, on an ARM CPU that is emulating x86 - and it works!” Naturally, just like the Parallels team, CodeWeavers is already at work on an optimized version that will deliver a much smoother experience, but if you have one of the new M1 Macs and absolutely have to run a Windows 10 app, this is a workable solution for you to try today.
