Updating Windows 11 Pro ARM Insider Preview to Windows 11 Pro Official

[DonovanD]

Hello,
I have been running an Activated, Licensed Windows 11 Pro ARM VM using the Insider Preview build on my Apple Silicon M1 Max MacBook Pro. After purchasing and activating a Windows 11 Pro license on the VM, Windows still shows the Insider Preview Evaluation copy / prerelease notice in the bottom right corner (see screenshot):

Now that Windows 11 Pro ARM is officially supported on Parallels I would like to update this build to the official Windows release and eliminate the Insider Preview and Evaluation copy watermark.
I would appreciate some guidance on the best way to accomplish this. I've tried changing the Insider Preview settings in Windows but they are all greyed-out and unchangeable:

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Aries@PF]

If you look at the bottom of your image, then you'll see what you need to do. When going from beta software, you always want to wipe the device and start fresh. The advantage of Parallels here being that you can do so by creating a new VM entirely and then copy any user data between them before deleting the original.

 

[DonovanD]

Thanks @Aries@PF -- I appreciate the suggestion. I'm not familiar with copying data from VM to VM so any pointers to guidelines for copying data from VM to VM is appreciated. In my case I have licensed software on the current VM (primarily engineering design and simulation apps, but also MS Office) and would like to understand the licensing impact if any of copying from VM to VM on license status. Thoughts?

 

[Aries@PF]

Thanks @Aries@PF -- I appreciate the suggestion. I'm not familiar with copying data from VM to VM so any pointers to guidelines for copying data from VM to VM is appreciated. In my case I have licensed software on the current VM (primarily engineering design and simulation apps, but also MS Office) and would like to understand the licensing impact if any of copying from VM to VM on license status. Thoughts?

Copying app/user data shouldn't have an impact on the licensing, but you would need to see how to migrate the licenses from one VM to another (same as moving between machines). Office is simple enough though. Login with the same MSFT account and download the apps (unless you have a single license, then you'll have to look that process up as it might require first removing or something). The problem with the VMs is that there's no way (AFAIK) to keep the same hardware IDs like you would with physical hardware and that's what the OS license is tied to. It might allow you without issue though if you later remove the old VM from the account. MSFT is somewhat forgiving there I've noticed.

As for how to have the new VM see the old data, you can find the actual virtual drive (https://kb.parallels.com/117333) and connect it to the VM as a second drive (https://kb.parallels.com/117649).

 

[Ashley Chumun]

Hello,
I have been running an Activated, Licensed Windows 11 Pro ARM VM using the Insider Preview build on my Apple Silicon M1 Max MacBook Pro. After purchasing and activating a Windows 11 Pro license on the VM, Windows still shows the Insider Preview Evaluation copy / prerelease notice in the bottom right corner (see screenshot):
View attachment 20531
Now that Windows 11 Pro ARM is officially supported on Parallels I would like to update this build to the official Windows release and eliminate the Insider Preview and Evaluation copy watermark.
I would appreciate some guidance on the best way to accomplish this. I've tried changing the Insider Preview settings in Windows but they are all greyed-out and unchangeable:
View attachment 20532
Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

Dear Donovan,
As a possible solution, kindly follow the steps below to fix your issue :
1) Open open regedit (push Win key and type regedit).
2) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft \WindowsSelfHost
3) On left panel right click that key and delete it.


4) Close regedit
5) Restart
Source: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...ions-are/8091aea1-a04f-4bd1-a10d-8083098a65c6