Is the latest release of Parallels’ virtualization program, which allows users to run Windows, Linux, and now even OS X Lion directly within Mac OS X. Since Macworld last reviewed, the program has acquired an updated interface along with a slew of performance improvements and new features.
Aug 22, 2017 - Parallels Desktop 13, the latest version of the virtualization software that lets you run Windows on your Mac, is now available.
Among the latter, there’s a simplified window for configuring virtual machines, support for Lion’s full screen mode, Launchpad integration, an in-app store for purchasing Windows and other programs, the ability to use iSight (and other) webcams within Windows clients, improved virtual printing, and more. Parallels installs quickly and requires no real intervention from you; it even checks for updated versions during the installation process. You choose to install the application wherever you like; it doesn’t have to live in your Applications folder. You must activate Parallels Desktop (by entering your serial number) the first time you run it. Parallels presently requires one license per computer, so if you use both a desktop and laptop Mac, for instance, you’ll need to buy two copies of the program.
After activating, a new Parallels Wizard window appears. It focuses on helping you install Windows from a variety of sources. You can also install Mac OS X Lion (if your Mac is running Lion) from the wizard, import an existing virtual machine, and visit the Parallels Convenience Store, where you can buy a variety of operating systems and apps that run on them. Parallels also makes it simple to install Chrome, Fedora, and Ubuntu operating systems: You can download ready-to-go versions of them from within Parallels, and they then auto-install themselves.
It really doesn’t get much easier. The virtual machine wizard makes it easy to install Windows and certain other operating systems, but hides Parallels' abilities to run many other types of operating systems. If you want an operating system that doesn’t enjoy such explicit support in Parallels itself, you can still create a virtual machine for it yourself; counterintuitively, you start with the Install Windows from DVD or Image File option, then use the installation file (.iso, typically) for whatever operating system you want to install. There should be a more obvious way to do it.
![Parallels Desktop Windows 7 Parallels Desktop Windows 7](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125618595/901916557.png)
Buying Windows When purchasing Windows within Parallels, you can choose between three versions: Home Premium ($199), Professional ($299), and Ultimate ($319). After choosing the version you want and providing your credit card information, you’re taken to a shopping cart screen, showing your purchase. In the cart is your chosen version of Windows, a set of download instructions, and (somewhat deceptively) a $7 charge for extended download protection; if you don’t want that last one, you need to remove manually from the cart. (You can also elect to order a backup disc for $15.) After checking out, I received an email. I was then able to download the installer for Windows Professional, which included the installation instructions. Unfortunately, the installation instructions were for Parallels 6 and they were in fact incorrect; they advised me not to install the 64-bit version of Windows, for example. If you use the help system built into Parallels, you’ll be advised correctly.
Once I got through this initial confusion, the actual Windows installation was quite straightforward and took only about 15 minutes. But despite that convenience, I’d recommend purchasing a copy of Windows either directly from Microsoft itself or from your favorite third-party vendor: you’ll likely save some money compared to the price you’ll pay in Parallels, and you may be eligible for a much-cheaper upgrade version. (Just to take one example: As I write this, you can buy a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate from Microsoft itself for about $220.) The built-in purchasing works, but there’s a high price to pay for its convenience factor.
Using Windows I tested Parallels with Windows 7 Professional, using the 64-bit edition purchased within Parallels Desktop, installed on a 2011 MacBook Pro (2.2GHz Core i7 with 4G of RAM). (I also installed the Windows 8 Developer Preview edition (build 7.0.14924), and it worked just fine.) As noted, installation was fast and simple, and included the installation of the required tools (for integration of the mouse, accelerated 3D graphics, and on-the-fly window resizing). During the setup, you’re asked to decide whether to set up the virtual machine “like a Mac” or “like Windows.” Choose the Mac to start with a fully-integrated environment and all sharing between the virtual machine and OS X enabled; choose the Windows option to create a more standalone virtual machine. (After setup, you can always alter the virtual machine’s settings to behave as you wish.) When creating a new Windows virtual machine, this dialog lets you choose the degree of integration with the Mac OS (you can change these settings later). By default, Parallels configures Windows 7 so that your user is the Administrator. This is not like an administrative account in Mac OS X; it’s more akin to logging in as root: you’ll never see the Windows authentication prompt, and you have full power over the entire system.
This is not a good thing—Windows 7 actually disables the Administrator account by default. I’d recommend creating a new normal user and logging in as that user, not as the Administrator. Once I was up and running, I ran Office 2010, Adobe Acrobat, and a number of other general application programs.
They all ran without troubles and never felt slow in any way. I also tested a number of games (which are great ways to stress-test virtual machines). Overall, I was amazed at the performance I saw. Parallels can provide up to 1GB of video RAM, which means that even some newer games with large texture sizes will run reasonably well; I was able to play the demo of, an intensive first person shooter, at decent (though not great) frame rates. Older games, such as Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X and Crysis, ran very nicely, with smooth graphics and audio. Even the demo of Call of Duty 4, which ran but with jerky-slow framerates when I last tested it with Parallels 5, is now playable.
While testing the games, I was also able to test Parallels’ support for USB peripherals, which turns out to be quite good. I used a Bluetooth mouse, a Saitek flightstick, a generic gamepad, and a Logitech Momo force feedback wheel and pedal set, all of which worked fine.
The only exception was that the force feedback in the wheel isn’t active within the virtual machine. When you connect a USB device, Parallels provides a nice visual dialog box for selecting how it should be assigned, and whether that assignment is permanent or temporary. When connecting a new USB device, you can easily choose who controls it: your Mac, or the active virtual machine. For protection against Windows malware and viruses, Parallels includes a 90-day trial for.
I didn’t use this, however, as I chose to use Windows own (optional but free) Security Essentials. So far, my virtual Windows 7 installation has stayed free of viruses and malware (at least according to Windows itself).
Overall, I had almost no issues with running Windows 7 in Parallels. The one blue screen I got occurred after I’d switched multiple times—over a network connection via screen sharing— between viewing modes. Printing on shared printers worked, high definition video playback was fine, I could access my Mac’s hard drive, and I was able to copy and paste both text and images between OS X and Windows 7 without any problems.
I was even able to use the MacBook Pro’s built-in iSight camera to hold a video chat (via Windows Messenger) with a user on a Mac. OS X as a virtual machine Parallels 7 allows you to install OS X Lion as a virtual machine (provided you’re running OS X Lion as your root operating system). Parallels does this through Lion’s restore partition; once the installer starts, it downloads Lion from the App Store, and creates the virtual machine. This means, though, that if you’re without an internet connection, you won’t be able to create a Lion installation, even if you have the installer file.
I installed a virtual Lion on both my 2006 vintage Mac Pro and the MacBook Pro, and found that they worked as expected, with a few caveats. I was unable to copy and paste text or images to or from the virtual machine to the host OS—odd, given how well this works in Windows (as well as Unix) guests. When I tried to do a video chat in iChat, the camera window opened as a black box, and iChat then crashed. This also happened on my Mac Pro, with its FireWire iSight camera. When running FaceTime, however, the camera worked fine.
I also had a problem with the mouse click location being offset from the actual pointer location; this seemed to crop up when switching between full-screen and windowed mode. Virtual OS X setups also lack multi-monitor support, and there’s no OpenGL acceleration, so forget about running anything that requires accelerated graphics. But for general usage, such as testing software in a safe way, or testing as a user without any login items, being able to run OS X Lion in a virtual machine is great. Beyond Windows To help manage your installed virtual machines, Parallels presents them in a list, showing each one’s status and a live screenshot (if active). You can also configure, start, and remove virtual machines via a control-click, but doing so doesn’t actually highlight or select the virtual machine you clicked on.
On more than one occasion I went back and confirmed my control-click, just to make sure I wasn’t removing the wrong virtual machine. (There is a confirmation dialog, but it doesn’t include the name of the virtual machine to be removed, so it’s not much help.) The bundled downloads of Chrome, Ubuntu, and Fedora all work well; you can even use the Linux guests in Parallels’ Coherence mode, taking away the “desktop” interface and presenting Linux windows intermingled with OS X windows. I was also able to download and install various Linux distributions using their.iso files without any troubles. Parallels supports accelerated OpenGL graphics in Linux, unlike Fusion. Parallels offers an incredible number of settings, both for the application itself and for configuring your virtual machines. If you like tweaking your settings, this is a good thing.
If you’re the type who gets intimidated by too many choices, this may be a bad thing. Thankfully, the preferences panel has been redesigned, and is now much more Mac-like, making it somewhat easier to find things. Help, too, is improved in this version. Fully searchable, and presented in a floating window like help files in other OS X programs, I found it well written and useful.
Macworld’s buying advice Parallels 7 is a fast, stable, and highly customizable way to run Windows on a Mac. Although its interface is focused on running Windows on the Mac, it also does well with other operating systems. There are minor issues with the built-in Windows purchasing and defaulting with Windows running as the Administrator, but neither of these are deal breakers. (If you use multiple Macs, you’ll need to consider the cost of licensing Parallels for all your machines, too.) If you’re a current Parallels 6 user, upgrading to Parallels 7—especially if you’re running Lion—should be on your to-do list. If you’re new to the virtualization market, or contemplating switching from another program, you should download a free trial from Parallels and see how well it fits in your workflow.
Parallels today is launching the latest version of, the company’s virtualization software that allows users to run Windows, Linux, and other operating systems directly in macOS. Parallels Desktop 13 introduces a number of new features, including support for the latest Mac and Windows operating systems. We’ve already begun testing the new version and will have benchmark results to share with you shortly. Until then, here is a rundown of the major new features and improvements in Parallels Desktop 13. Parallels Desktop 13 Features & Improvements Support for the Latest Operating Systems: As expected, Parallels 13 will launch ready for the latest and upcoming builds of Windows 10 (the ) and, which is set to be released in September or October. MacOS High Sierra will be fully supported as both a host and guest operating system, which means that users reluctant to upgrade can run and test High Sierra in a VM without risking compatibility issues or bugs. Touch Bar Support: One of the most interesting new features in Parallels Desktop 13 is Touch Bar support for apps running your Windows VM.
That’s right, if you launch a compatible application like in your Windows VM, application-specific Touch Bar controls will be available on Touch Bar-based MacBooks. When no application is running and your Windows VM is active, the Touch Bar will instead display the icons for the applications in your Windows taskbar. Application support is currently limited to Microsoft Office 2016, Windows File Explorer, and popular Web browsers like Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera, but Parallels has a developer API for implementing Touch Bar support in Windows apps, so expect the list of compatible software to grow. If you can’t wait for that, however, Parallels has also introduced a new feature called “Touch Bar Wizard,” which lets users add Touch Bar support to almost any Windows app by mapping app functions associated with keyboard shortcuts to specific Touch Bar icons. This method won’t work as well as an app that’s been fully customized with Parallels’ APIs, but it’s a good compromise that many Touch Bar users will appreciate. We’re not huge fans of the MacBook’s Touch Bar in general, but from what we’ve seen, the way that Parallels has implemented these features works very well. VM Installation Assistant: Recent versions of Parallels Desktop have made getting started with virtual machines easier, but Parallels Desktop 13 takes it a bit further with a revamped “Installation Assistant” which walks new users through the VM setup process and can even directly download and install an evaluation copy of Windows 10 right in the app.
This feature is clearly aimed at novice users, and VM veterans will want to skip it for the manual approach, but the reality is that Parallels Desktop 13 makes it easier than ever to get up and running with a Windows VM. As with previous versions, the Installation Assistant can also help you install a VM from an existing installation disc or image, convert your current PC into a virtual machine, access your Mac’s Boot Camp partition, and install a number of free Linux distributions. Preventing Windows Corruption and Issues: When you’re using a native Windows PC, things like Windows Updates and other important system scans are easy to notice. When you’re virtualizing Windows, especially if you’re using features like, the user may not realize that Windows is doing something important in the background and may inadvertently shut down their Mac or take some other action that could corrupt the Windows installation. Parallels Desktop 13 now detects when Windows is performing critical operations and can warn the user via the native macOS interface if an action could lead to issues with Windows. Windows 10 “My People” on Your Dock: “My People” (a.k.a.
The “People Bar”) is a set to be included in the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. It allows you to select your closest and most important contacts and add them to your Windows 10 taskbar.
Clicking on one of “your people” gives you instant access to them via Skype messaging, email, and other popular communication platforms. Parallels Desktop 13 takes the “people” you’ve set up in Windows 10 and adds them to your macOS Dock, so that you’ll continue to have one-click access to your most important contacts even when you’re not actively using your Windows 10 VM. Picture-in-Picture Views: Parallels users have long been able to run multiple VMs at the same time, and even resize the VM windows to use them side-by-side. But Parallels Desktop 13 improves upon this usage scenario with the introduction of Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode.
PiP lets you shrink down your running VMs (without lowering the resolution inside those VMs; i.e., simply scaling the view down) and configure them to remain on top of your other apps if desired, even when you’re using macOS apps in full screen mode. Your VMs continue to run in realtime, and are even able to be interacted with, while you focus on other work. This lets you keep tabs on what’s happening (e.g., waiting for a software build to compile, an installation to complete, etc.) while still being able to work in other VMs or native Mac apps. Users can switch back to a full-screen or regular windowed view of one of their PiP VMs with just a click. OpenGL Improvements: 3D graphics continues to be one of the most challenging areas when it comes to virtualization, and Parallels and its competitor VMware have made steady progress over the past few years. Post-release updates to Parallels Desktop 12 saw support added for OpenGL-based games, and, while Parallels Desktop 13 adds support for, a high-end lighting design and planning application, and, a popular strategy game. These improvements are notable because, with the exception of, these games and apps are not available natively for macOS.
Improved Graphics in Scaled Mode: Owners of a Mac with a Retina display have two choices when it comes to their VMs: they can either render the guest VM at full Retina resolution and rely on the guest operating system’s own scaling, or they can use a “scaled” mode, which presents a lower resolution to the guest VM and then rely’s on the host operating system to scale the image to a usable size. The scaled option, while producing a blurrier image, is often preferred by users for reasons of both compatibility and performance.
In Parallels Desktop 13, Parallels has improved the rendering of scaled virtual machines. While scaled VMs will still look blurrier than their native resolution counterparts, the new rendering method brings some noticeable improvements for a smoother image. Various Performance Improvements: While we’ll need to finish our testing to verify these claims, Parallels states that Parallels Desktop 13 includes a number of performance improvements, including near-native speeds when transferring from a VM to an external Thunderbolt drive, up to 47 percent faster file access on mechanical hard drives, up to 40 percent faster USB transfer speeds, and up to 50 percent faster snapshot creation. Higher Limits on VM Hardware Allocation: In anticipation of the upcoming and revamped, users of Parallels Desktop 13 Pro Edition can allocate even more hardware resources to their VMs. Each VM can now be configured with up to 32 virtual CPUs and 128GB of RAM, allowing users to handle the most demanding applications in a virtualized environment. Those using the “Standard” edition of Parallels Desktop 13 are limited to 4 virtual CPUs and 8GB of RAM per VM. Parallels Toolbox 2.0:, first introduced last year, is a Mac application that lives in your Menu Bar and provides quick access to a bunch of useful functions and utilities, such as tools for capturing screenshots, finding duplicate files, making animated GIFs, and downloading video from sites like.
It’s available as a separate standalone application, but the latest version, Parallels Toolbox 2.0 for Mac, is included with Parallels Desktop 13 and, for the first time, Parallels Toolbox is also available for Windows and included with Parallels 13 as well. The Windows version can run natively on any Windows 10 PC, or you can install and run it from within your Windows 10 VMs. In our brief testing, it works quite well and is designed to match the look and feel of the. We’ll be providing a more detailed review of Parallels Toolbox for both Mac and Windows in the near future. For now, as mentioned, you can get it as part of your Parallels Desktop 13 purchase or subscription, or pick it up separately. Availability & Pricing Parallels Desktop 13 is from the Parallels website and select third party retailers.
The “Standard” edition is priced at $79.99 for new users, while those running Parallels 11 or 12 can upgrade to Parallels Desktop 13 for $49.99. Parallels Desktop Pro Edition is only available via the company’s yearly subscription model for $99.99 per year. Existing Parallels 11 or 12 users can upgrade to the Pro edition for $49.99 per year. Those with a current Parallels subscription plan can upgrade to the latest version by checking for updates in Parallels 12, or by the Parallels 13 installer from the Parallels website. Your existing subscription key will be able to active the Parallels Desktop 13 installer. Parallels also offers a with access to all features.
Parallels Desktop 13 requires a host Mac running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 or later, 4GB of RAM (8GB recommended), and 850MB of storage space. As we mentioned, we’re conducting our annual benchmarking and full review of Parallels Desktop 13 and will have more to share as soon as the testing is complete. Want news and tips from TekRevue delivered directly to your inbox? Sign up for the TekRevue Weekly Digest using the box below. Get tips, reviews, news, and giveaways reserved exclusively for subscribers.