- Parallels Desktop for Mac Review: Run Windows on Mac Parallels Desktop is a Mac application that allows virtualizing the Windows OS on any Mac. Like the VirtualBox for Windows, the Parallels Desktop also is a virtualization software where you could install the Windows or its applications seamlessly.
- After 10 years of use, since Parallels 4, I have stuck with Parallels because they just do it right from the beginning.,10,Parallels has allowed myself and other Mac users to continue using our specialized Windows-only software without the need of multiple computers.
- Faster to launch and use
- Touch Bar ready for Windows apps
- Requires less hard drive space
A big part of Parallels Desktop 10 story is that the company is introducing very robust support for not only Apple’s upcoming Mac OS X Yosemite, but also Windows 8 and 8.1. Working With Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac. We installed Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac on a MacBook Pro Retina, Mid 2014 system, 13-inch, running OS X Version 10.9.4, with a 8 GB 1600 Mhz DDR3 ram, 2.6 Ghz Intel Core i5 CPU, and a Flash Storage drive of 251 GB. Overall: We use Parallels Desktop for Mac on all of our Macs in our company. It makes it easy for our mac users to run the few needed Windows applications while still keeping the look and feel of the Mac OS that they are used to.
- No DirectX 13 support for games
Parallels is still the best way to run Windows on a Mac simultaneously and the latest version of Parallels 14 has just been released.
Parallels allows you to conveniently run all those Windows only applications and games that don’t run on Mac.
Here we’ve taken a first look at the new macOS Mojave ready version of Parallels.
In a nutshell, here’s what’s new and what we like in Parallels 14.
- The biggest improvement we’ve noticed with Parallels 14 is speed. One of our biggest gripes with Parallels has always been the amount of time it takes to open but Parallels 14 launches Windows noticeably faster. Parallels claims it opens “four times faster” than Parallels 13 and while it doesn’t quite feel that fast, it’s a big improvement. While using Windows, it also feels a bit snappier than before with less lag when using big apps or games.
- Parallels takes up less space on your hard drive than previous versions. It now takes up to around 20GB less space which is a significant saving. However, this mainly applies to Windows 10 installs – the savings for other versions of Windows are a lot less.
- Parallels 14 is optimized for macOS Mojave. Parallels usually release a new version with every new version of macOS and it’s guaranteed to work with Mojave. Mojave hasn’t been released quite yet but you can test the Public Beta version of Mojave in Parallels if you want to give it a spin.
- Touch Bar support has been enhanced from the previous version. There are now pre-configured Touch Bar shortcuts for Windows software like OneNote and Quicken and you can still customize Touch Bar controls for any app you like.
- If you use a drawing tablet with your Mac, you can now use Microsoft Ink with pressure sensitive support to edit Windows Office documents on Mac. This works with Windows apps such as PowerPoint, CorelDRAW and Photoshop.
Some of the other highlights worth mentioning include:
- Dark mode can be used in Windows applications
- The new enhanced Quick Look and Screenshot features can be used in Windows
- Camera Continuity imports pictures from iOS 12 into Windows
- Graphics Support has been improved for OpenGL
- Unused virtual video memory is now used by macOS for smoother and faster operation when running Parallels
- 4K video cameras are now supported for video conferencing
There are also specific improvements to Parallels Desktop Business edition the most notable being automatic Smart Card reader availability in macOS and Windows.
On the downside:
- There’s still no support for DirectX 13 that would allow users to play games like FIFA on Mac.
- Many of the biggest 3D performance improvements are only for the latest iMac Pros so won’t be of much use to the vast majority of Mac users that have iMacs and MacBooks. This will mainly benefit those that use graphics heavy 3D modelling apps such as CAD applications on Mac.
Parallels pricing remains that same as before depending on which version you need.
As an incentive, Parallels are also offering Parallels Toolbox for free with new purchases of Parallels 14.
You can also try a free trial of Parallels 14 to test it for yourself.
You May Also Like:
- 9.0Outstanding
Pros
- ✓Runs Windows and Linux VMs on Macs
- ✓Tight integration of Windows and Mac features
- ✓Improved performance and battery life
- ✓Supports Windows 10 and OS X El Capitan
Cons
- ✕Requires plenty of memory and processor power
- ✕Poor documentation for newcomers
Parallels For Mac Free
Updates to the popular Parallels Desktop virtualisation program generally coincide with new versions of the Mac operating system, so it's no surprise to see that Parallels Desktop 11 arrives just a few weeks ahead of Apple's new OS X v10.11 -- a.k.a. El Capitan. But, of course, this year's update also follows the recent arrival of Windows 10, which means that Parallels Desktop 11 is a fairly major update that provides support for both of these new operating systems.
Hey Cortana, where's Siri?
The most impressive aspect of Parallels Desktop 11 is not simply that it allows you to run Windows as a virtual machine (VM) on the Mac (along with various versions of Unix, and even Android and ChromeOS too), but that it continues to integrate the Mac and Windows environments so that features from each operating system become almost interchangeable.
One of the headline features in Windows 10 is Cortana, the 'personal assistant' that lets you use voice commands to find information on the web, send messages and perform a variety of other tasks. Cortana is often compared to Apple's Siri, but Siri is currently only available on Apple's iOS devices and doesn't run on the Mac. Parallels Desktop 11 therefore pulls off quite a trick by allowing Cortana to not only run within a Windows 10 virtual machine, but also to run with the VM hidden or running in the background while you work in native Mac apps. So, while I'm typing this review in Apple's Pages wordprocessor, I can say 'Hey Cortana - schedule a meeting'. The Cortana window then pops up from the Dock on the Mac desktop and lists options for my meeting.
OS integration
Other examples of this OS integration include the Mac's QuickLook option, which now works within Windows too, allowing you to preview documents stored on a Windows virtual machine just by hitting the space bar on your keyboard.