- Seamless Use Windows side-by-side with macOS (no restarting required) on your MacBook ®, MacBook Pro, iMac ®, iMac Pro, Mac mini ® or Mac Pro ®.Share files and folders, copy and paste images and text & drag and drop files between Mac and Windows applications. Easy Set-Up Parallels Desktop automatically detects what you need to get started so you are up and going within minutes!
- Windows 10 on the Mac mini pulled in a 1515 single-core score and a 4998 multi-core score. Nobel points out that on those same tests, the Surface Pro X natively running Windows 10 for Arm scored.
- Mac Mini: The Mac Mini finally got updated in 2018 alongside the MacBook Air, breathing life back into the cult favorite Mac. Whether you're looking to build a home theater PC, a Mac-based server farm, or you just need an entry-level Mac without a monitor, the Mini is a great choice.
After much build up and fanfare, Windows Server 2016 has now been officially launched.
The vast majority of Windows laptops have a graphics OUT port, but no graphics in port, so you can't just connect up your Mac Mini to the graphics port on the back of your laptop. Unfortunately, the M1 chip does cause complications if you want to run Windows on your Mac. This is because the M1 chip uses a different architecture from Intel chips, which are the chips that Windows is designed for. Specifically, the M1 chip is built on the ARM architecture, while is Intel is built on x86 architecture.
I'd planned on creating a test VM on my HP Microserver Gen8 but its puny Celeron CPU just doesn't have the grunt that I need to be able to play around with Server 2016 properly.
I'd also considered installing to a virtual machine on my MacMini that is currently running ESXi. As ESXi runs directly off of a pen drive the local disk isn't being used for storage. This created the possibility of simply removing the USB pen drive from the Mac and installing Server 2016 directly on the local disk. When I want to run my homelab/test environment I can simply plug the USB back in an then boot back into ESXi as normal.
Note: My MacMini has been though a few hardware changes since I've had it – the SSD and half the memory are now in another system for the time being, so the MacMini is back to its stock setup with 4GB RAM and a 500GB laptop HDD.
I've checked and bootcamp supports Windows 10 on the 2012 model Mac Mini so in theory Server 2016 should work as well.
Windows Server 2016 on a Mac Mini – Install Media
The media i'm using for this install is the Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Evaluation ISO from the Microsoft Evaluation Center. Microsoft have also made Server 2016 available as a Nano Server, a Virtual Lab and as an Azure install.
Because i'm using my Zalman for the install, I dropped the ISO into the _ISOs directory on the drive, renaming it to Windows Server 2016 Eval to make it easy to find later.
Windows Server 2016 on a Mac Mini – Setup
As with most Mac Windows installs, theres no BIOS settings to change – simply plug in your USB drive, external DVD drive or in my case my Zalman, switch on and hold down the Option key to get to the boot menu..
Generic OSX Boot Options Image via Apple.com (but you get the idea..)
To boot from the install media, simply use the left and right arrow keys to select the correct choice, then hit enter.
The standard 'Press any key to boot from install media..' message will appear, hit any key to boot from your media. You can now follow the prompts to install Windows 2016 like any previous version.
Windows Server 2016 on a Mac Mini – Install Procedure
Rather than go thought the individual steps that you have probably seen countless times before over many iterations of Windows i've created a YouTube video showing the install procedure from start to finish.
I've created it using Hyper-V but the process is identical for the MacMini.
Windows Server 2016 on a Mac Mini – Post Install
The install went without a hitch and completed in a few minutes. After logging in I got the standard Server Manager dialogue box. All the core hardware is there and being reported correctly.
Next step was device manager with the following results:
Not bad, but not great either.. Windows has found most of the hardware but I need to find drivers for the following:
I've created it using Hyper-V but the process is identical for the MacMini.
Windows Server 2016 on a Mac Mini – Post Install
The install went without a hitch and completed in a few minutes. After logging in I got the standard Server Manager dialogue box. All the core hardware is there and being reported correctly.
Next step was device manager with the following results:
Not bad, but not great either.. Windows has found most of the hardware but I need to find drivers for the following:
- Bluetooth USB Hub Controller
- Network Controller
- PCI Simple Communications Controller
- High Definition Audio Device
I think i'll just let Windows Update run overnight and hopefully it'll find the missing drivers automatically. The bonus is that its found the Gigabit Ethernet out of the box, so I can get on with having a play around with the system. None of the missing drivers are what I would consider urgent.
Windows Server 2016 on a Mac Mini – Thoughts
The whole process of installing 2016 on a Mac Mini was straightforward with no hidden storage driver gotchas like on my HP ML10 v2. In fact, it was no different from installing Server 2012 R2. The fact that it installs with such little trouble further raises the profile of the MacMini as a homelab server. Its small size and noise, its good looks and the flexibility of OS choices mean that its hard to beat.
You can run Windows on a Mac, but how and what depends on the Mac model.
Can I Run Windows On A Mac Mini
Can A Mac Mini Run Windows
Windows on Intel Macs
There are presently several alternatives for running Windows on Intel Macs.
- Install the Apple Boot Camp software. Purchase Windows 7 or Windows 8. Follow instructions in the Boot Camp documentation on installation of Boot Camp, creating Driver CD, and installing Windows. Boot Camp enables you to boot the computer into OS X or Windows.
- Parallels Desktop for Mac and Windows XP, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate, or Windows 7. Parallels is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
- VM Fusionand Windows XP, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate, or Windows 7. VM Fusion is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
- CrossOver which enables running many Windows applications without having to install Windows. The Windows applications can run concurrently with OS X.
- VirtualBox is a new Open Source freeware virtual machine such as VM Fusion and Parallels that was developed by Solaris. It is not as fully developed for the Mac as Parallels and VM Fusion.
Note that Parallels and VM Fusion can also run other operating systems such as Linux, Unix, OS/2, Solaris, etc. There are performance differences between dual-boot systems and virtualization. The latter tend to be a little slower (not much) and do not provide the video performance of the dual-boot system. See MacTech.com's Virtualization Benchmarking for comparisons of Boot Camp, Parallels, and VM Fusion. A more recent comparison of Parallels, VM Fusion, and Virtual Box is found at Virtualization Benchmarks- Parallels 10 vs. Fusion 7 vs. VirtualBox.Boot Camp is only available with Leopard and later. Except for Crossover and a couple of similar alternatives like DarWine you must have a valid installer disc for Windows.
You must also have an internal optical drive for installing Windows. Windows cannot be installed from an external optical drive.
Sep 22, 2015 5:56 PM
