Why More Enterprises Are Choosing MacBooks and How to Keep Windows and Legacy Apps Running

Enterprise IT teams have a fresh set of decisions to make about their laptop fleets.

Windows 10 reached end of support on Oct. 14, 2025, pushing many organizations to reassess devices that cannot make the move to Windows 11. Some laptops can be upgraded. Others are reaching the end of their useful life anyway, making the next refresh a natural point to reconsider which devices different employees actually need.

MacBooks are increasingly part of that discussion. Apple silicon has brought strong performance and power efficiency, while enterprise deployment and management tools have made Macs practical for a broader range of business roles.

For years, Macs inside large organizations were often treated as exceptions, issued mainly to designers, developers, executives, or specialist teams. That model is changing. MacBooks can now sit alongside Windows PCs as part of a mainstream device strategy, especially in organizations that offer employees a choice of approved hardware.

Windows is not going away, of course. Many businesses still depend on Windows applications, internal systems, admin tools, and software that was never built for macOS.

For IT teams considering broader enterprise Mac adoption, the important question is less about whether Macs can be managed and more about how to expand Mac choice without cutting users off from the Windows software they still need.

Windows compatibility becomes an important part of that strategy.

The shift toward MacBooks is reshaping endpoint strategy

The end of Windows 10 support has created a clear decision point for many businesses.

Organizations may be able to upgrade part of their existing fleet to Windows 11, but older hardware and specialized application requirements can complicate the transition. If devices need replacing anyway, IT has an opportunity to look at the needs of each role rather than automatically buying a newer version of the same laptop.

That conversation can include MacBooks.

Lifecycle cost involves more than the purchase price alone. IT teams may also consider support requirements, device lifespan, security, employee experience, and hardware resale or trade-in value.

There is already plenty of evidence that Macs can operate at enterprise scale. SAP, for example, has deployed more than 30,000 Macs through its employee device-choice program. Cisco has also studied Mac use across its global workforce, while IBM has operated one of the best-known large corporate Mac programs.

Those deployments do not prove that Mac is the right device for every organization or every employee. They do show that managing Macs at enterprise scale is no longer unusual.

For some IT teams, that makes MacBooks worth considering during the next enterprise laptop refresh, alongside the Windows hardware they already support.

Reliability belongs in the business case

A laptop may be a small part of an enterprise IT budget until it starts getting in someone's way.

Every support ticket, device failure, battery issue, driver conflict, or performance problem consumes time for the employee and the IT team supporting them. Multiply that across a large fleet and small reliability differences can become expensive.

One difference IT teams may consider is Apple's control of the hardware, operating system, silicon, and many of the device's security technologies. That can reduce some of the hardware and driver variation found in PC fleets built across multiple manufacturers and configurations.

There are still plenty of responsibilities for IT. Macs need patching, endpoint security, encryption, identity integration, application policies, and ongoing management. A Mac fleet does not manage itself.

Experience from large deployments suggests there can be operational benefits when the environment is managed well. Cisco, for example, reported lower IT support requirements for employees using Mac in its own workforce study. Those numbers apply to Cisco's environment and should not be treated as a universal outcome. They do show why support effort belongs in device-cost calculations. The practical question for an IT team is: What does unreliable or difficult-to-support hardware cost your organization?

That is something you can measure using your own ticket, repair, procurement, and employee experience data.

Windows and legacy app compatibility remains a key blocker

Even in a business that expands its Mac fleet, Windows usually remains part of the picture.

Enterprises still depend on Windows-only applications, legacy business software, finance and engineering tools, internal systems, and administrative consoles. IT administrators may also need Windows tools such as Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) to manage Windows infrastructure.

These dependencies are often where a Mac rollout becomes more complicated.

A MacBook may suit an employee's everyday work, but one critical Windows application can still decide which laptop IT has to issue. Rewriting an internal application may take months or years. Replacing a legacy platform can be expensive. A cloud alternative may not exist. Issuing a second Windows laptop solves the compatibility problem at the cost of creating another device to buy, secure, update, and support.

For organizations in that position, the challenge is straightforward: keep the Mac as the employee's main device while providing Windows locally for the workflows that still require it.

How Parallels Desktop closes the enterprise compatibility gap

Parallels Desktop for Mac allows Windows 11 on Arm to run alongside macOS without rebooting on supported Apple silicon Macs. Employees can use a MacBook as their primary device and open Windows when a compatible business application or workflow requires it.

That can be particularly useful during a long application transition. An organization does not have to wait until every internal tool has been rewritten for macOS before expanding Mac choice. Suitable Windows applications can remain available inside a Windows 11 virtual machine while other work continues in macOS.

For employees, the model is familiar: work primarily in macOS and open Windows when a required application needs it.

For IT, Windows compatibility can become a managed part of the Mac deployment rather than an automatic blocker.

For suitable users and workloads, delivering Windows directly on the Mac can also remove the need to maintain a separate Windows laptop. That can reduce device sprawl without forcing the organization to abandon software that still has a useful life.

Compatibility still needs to be checked. Windows 11 on Arm can run x86 and x64 Windows applications through Microsoft's emulation technology, but emulation does not support x86 or x64 kernel-mode drivers. Applications with specialized drivers or hardware dependencies may therefore require additional testing.

A pilot with the applications your teams actually use is much more useful than assuming every Windows workload will behave the same way.

RSAT shows why Windows access still matters

RSAT is a good example of a Windows dependency that matters even when an employee spends most of the day on a Mac.

As we recently covered, RSAT is now supported on Windows 11 for ARM, allowing IT administrators using Parallels Desktop to perform many common Windows administration tasks.

Admins can run Windows 11 in a virtual machine on Apple silicon Macs and use supported Arm64 RSAT components for common management workflows. That makes a MacBook a more realistic primary device for some members of the IT team, not just for employees in departments that rarely touch Windows infrastructure.

That also addresses a familiar objection to Mac adoption:

“MacBooks may work for users, but IT still needs Windows.”

For supported workflows, needing Windows tools does not necessarily mean needing a separate Windows PC.

There will still be environments where a Windows workstation is the right answer. Some administration tools, security products, hardware utilities, and low-level Windows features have requirements that virtualization cannot meet. The useful distinction is between workflows that genuinely need native Windows hardware and those that only need access to Windows software.

Enterprise Mac adoption still needs management and security

Running a Windows application on a Mac only solves one problem. Enterprise IT has several others to think about.

A virtualization product deployed across hundreds or thousands of Macs cannot be treated like a utility that each employee installs and configures independently. IT needs a consistent way to deploy virtual machines, manage licenses, control configuration, apply security policies, and decide which Windows environments users are allowed to run.

Parallels Desktop for Mac Enterprise Edition is designed for IT-managed deployments. Its management capabilities include centralized administration, SSO integration, policy controls, Golden Image deployment, encrypted virtual machines under organizational control, and integration with Jamf and Microsoft Intune.

Those capabilities change how Windows is delivered on a Mac fleet. Instead of asking every employee to create and maintain a virtual machine, IT can prepare approved configurations and distribute them according to company policy. Golden Images help keep environments consistent. Centralized controls can restrict VM settings such as networking, USB access, clipboard use, and shared folders when an organization's security requirements call for it.

Parallels Desktop for Mac Enterprise Edition 26.2 and later supports declarative Windows VM deployment with Microsoft Intune enrollment. That gives IT another way to bring virtual Windows environments into existing deployment and management processes rather than maintaining a completely separate workflow.

Mac endpoint management remains essential as enterprise Mac adoption scales. The same is true of the Windows virtual machines running on those Macs. A Windows VM still needs patches. It still needs the organization's required security controls and application policies. Access to company data has to follow the same rules that apply elsewhere in the environment. IT needs Windows and legacy applications on Mac in a form it can manage, secure, standardize, and support across the fleet.

MacBooks belong in the next enterprise refresh conversation

For most large organizations, choosing endpoints is not simply a Mac-or-Windows decision.

Many enterprises are likely to operate mixed environments for years because different roles have different requirements. Windows remains essential for a huge range of business applications and infrastructure workflows. A MacBook may be a better fit for another role in the same company.

Device decisions should start with the requirements of each role.

An engineer may have different hardware and software requirements from someone in finance. An IT administrator may spend most of the day in macOS but still need RSAT. Another employee may rely on a Windows-only application that has no acceptable Mac equivalent.

Those differences are a reason to build choice into the endpoint strategy, not to force every user onto one platform.

The next laptop refresh gives IT a chance to test old assumptions against current requirements. Start with the roles where MacBooks appear to make sense. Look at your own procurement costs, support tickets, repair history, security requirements, and expected device lifespan.

Then inventory the Windows dependencies.

Which applications are still Windows-only? Which ones are compatible with Windows 11 on Arm? Are there specialized drivers involved? Does the user need hardware-accelerated graphics or another feature that may not translate well to a virtual machine? Which admin tools still require Windows? That work tells you where virtualization fits.

Where the application's technical and security requirements are compatible, Parallels Desktop for Mac Enterprise Edition can provide access to those Windows workflows on the same Mac the employee already uses. Where virtualization is not suitable, IT can keep a Windows device in the mix.

There is no need for an all-or-nothing migration.

Enterprise Mac adoption is increasingly a question of matching devices to roles while keeping the software people need available. With a managed virtualization strategy, organizations can expand MacBook choice while retaining access to many of the Windows applications and administrative tools their teams still depend on.

Speak with our team to discuss how Parallels Desktop for Mac Enterprise Edition could support Windows workflows across your Mac fleet or try it out for free today.