Booting into macOS Recovery in UTM on Apple Silicon Macs
On Apple Silicon Macs, VMware Fusion does not yet support running macOS in a VM, so on my Apple Silicon Macs I have switched from using Fusion to using UTM for running macOS VMs. One feature missing until recently was the ability to boot into macOS Recovery in a VM in UTM.
UTM uses’s Apple’s Virtualization framework, which has a startup option for booting into Recovery, but until recently UTM had not implemented this start option for macOS VMs. As of UTM 4.2.5 (the current version as of June 23, 2023), it looks like this option has now been added. For more details, please see below the jump.
To boot a macOS VM into Recovery mode in UTM, please use the procedure shown below.
1. If needed, build a macOS VM in UTM.
2. Once the macOS VM has been created, right-click (or control-click) on the macOS VM in UTM’s VM list.
3. Select the Run Recovery option.
The macOS VM will boot into the Apple Silicon boot menu.
4. Select Options.
5. Click Continue.
The VM should now boot into Recovery.
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Der Flounder 
Hey Rich. Thanks for your posts, as always. Can you set a serial number and Model ID with UTM? I am eagerly looking for a Zero Touch MDM VM alternative to Parallels.
I would love the same thing. I’m using Virtual Buddy now, but will switch to UTM if I can set a serial number and model ID. I can use my VMs now but there are enrollment issues with Workspace ONE.
I think this is an OS l imitation in the VM APIs. Hopefully Apple will rectify this eventually (sooner rather than later). It’s so helpful to test DEP workflows in a VM. 😦
Thanks for the deets. Makes more sense now why Parallels still doesn’t have the capability.