How to use Composer on Apple Silicon

[DLite]

I currently use VMWare Fusion and Windows 10 to run Composer HE on my Intel-based Mac. I am thinking of upgrading to a new Apple Silicon-based Mac.  Is there a way to run Composer on those Apple Silicon machines?  Would I have to switch from Fusion to Parallels? Are there only certain versions of Windows that would work on an Apple Silicon-based virtual machine?

Thanks a lot.

 

[ekohn00]

5 hours ago, DLite said:

 Are there only certain versions of Windows that would work on an Apple Silicon-based virtual machine?

Thanks a lot.

 

you got it....  Windows ARM. Works great under parallels, do not know if Fusion supported it yet.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windowsinsiderpreviewARM64

 

[416to305]

Composer works perfectly on Windows 11 ARM on Apple Silicon, I've been using it since I got my 16" M1 Max and it works great.  I actually can't believe just how fast Windows is on this machine, like even rebooting it, I hit reboot on Windows 11 and it's back at the desktop in maybe 10 seconds.  I actually keep it running 24/7 as I made sure to get a machine with 32GB and I've yet to hear what the fan on this machine sounds like.  

I've never used Fusion, but Parallels has been fantastic.  

[Control4Savant]

Go buy a $300 PC…strip it down program wise and save yourself the time and hassle every time you need to upgrade your OS.

[ekohn00]

12 hours ago, Control4Savant said:

Go buy a $300 PC…strip it down program wise and save yourself the time and hassle every time you need to upgrade your OS.

when you run a VM changing the computers OS version doesn't affect the VM. Actually running in a VM is a great benefit, you could create a stripped down VM for only Composer and use another VM for anything else so you don't screw up Composer. The VM also makes it easy to move composer from one pc to another or have the one license available on multiple devices.

I've had my composer running in a VM as long as I can remember. I update my MacOS quite often (I have a developer license for the latest betas). The only time I've reinstalled composer iis when I created a VM for Windows ARM or Windows 11. 

[Control4Savant]

1 hour ago, ekohn00 said:

when you run a VM changing the computers OS version doesn't affect the VM. Actually running in a VM is a great benefit, you could create a stripped down VM for only Composer and use another VM for anything else so you don't screw up Composer. The VM also makes it easy to move composer from one pc to another or have the one license available on multiple devices.

I've had my composer running in a VM as long as I can remember. I update my MacOS quite often (I have a developer license for the latest betas). The only time I've reinstalled composer iis when I created a VM for Windows ARM or Windows 11. 

Yeah that’s not the case or people wouldn’t be needing help with it regularly on online forums.  Iv been programming Control4 on Mac laptops for over a decade   and using a composer purpose only PC that you can get for next to nothing makes much more sense, but maybe not for an end user… The VM lic. transfer is a wonderful point. 

[Jonathan, C4 Engineer]

On 3/9/2022 at 3:41 PM, ekohn00 said:

you got it....  Windows ARM. Works great under parallels, do not know if Fusion supported it yet.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windowsinsiderpreviewARM64

 

This and what @416to305 are correct and what the devs have to do in order to use Composer on the new M1 Mac Silicon. The ARM architecture of the computer does affect the VM. Most of us are using Parallels and the Windows 11 ARM release. Do those things and you'll also not have any problem running composer. As an added bonus you can actually get OS3 from the App Store and run it directly on an M1. It's not officially supported but from most of our uses it works pretty well. The only oddity I've found is cameras has a odd color tint to the video feed. Not that many people are using it yet but if more people do and report errors it would probably get more attention to resolving them.

[TrackZ]

I have an M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16" and have been trying to get Home Composer to run on it. Parallels VM. 

The C4 software seemed to install fine, but when I go to start it, nothing happens. No launch. No failure. No error. Anyone else seen this?

[ekohn00]

3 hours ago, TrackZ said:

I have an M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16" and have been trying to get Home Composer to run on it. Parallels VM. 

The C4 software seemed to install fine, but when I go to start it, nothing happens. No launch. No failure. No error. Anyone else seen this?

Ive had this with windows 11......can't explain it, and just copied an older VM over and it would work.

[TrackZ]

So, I nuked my VM. Did a new Win 11 VM setup using basically the automated process in Parallels and the Composer installed and now runs. I think something was off in the prior install that uninstalling/reinstalling Composer didn't fix. I'm very happy now though finally!