Windows on ARM emulation isn’t good enough to trick the MySQL Workbench installer into thinking that it’s running on an Intel CPU, so the installation fails.
Fortunately, this is fixable with some degree of effort – you have to patch the MSI file. There’s likely other ways to do the patch, but here’s how I did it using Orca:
- Install the Visual Studio 2022 ARM preview and include the tools needed for C++ development. This will get the Windows SDK installed.
- Run the Orca installer that’s bundled with the Windows SDK (it will be put somewhere like «C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\WINDOWS SDK VERSION\x86\Orca-x86_en-us.msi»)
- Download the MySQL Workbench .msi installer from https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/workbench/. Do not use the MySQL Installer that handles everything – you want the dedicated installer that handles just Workbench.
- Right click the downloaded .msi, choose «Show More Options» and then «Edit with Orca»
- Open the «LaunchCondition» table in the left hand list.
- In the right hand side, there will be a row saying «Intel >= 5». Right click it and select «Drop Row» to remove the CPU check.
- File > Save As and save your modified .MSI file.
You can now run the modified .MSI file and it’ll install Workbench just fine on your Windows 11 on ARM environment. It works great in Parallels on my M2 MacBook Air!