Parallels Desktop

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Credit: Parallels

Parallels Desktop is by far the most powerful and effective tool for accessing a Windows or Linux instance on your Mac. It’s fast, enables mostly seamless workflows between systems, and gets frequent updates that keep it compatible with the latest operating system versions. The most recent Parallels release (Version 20) costs more than before, but Mac users simply won’t find a more capable solution for running apps that work better on Windows or aren’t available on macOS at all. For all those reasons, Parallels Desktop earns our Editors’ Choice award among .

How Much Does Parallels Desktop Cost?

Parallels Desktop offers Standard, Pro, and Business editions. The Standard edition, which home users should get, costs $129.99 for a perpetual license that doesn’t include upgrades or $99.99 per year for a subscription that does. Because future macOS versions might not work with the current version of Parallels Desktop, I strongly recommend the subscription option. Meanwhile, the Pro and Business editions respectively cost $119.99 and $149.99 per year. Students can get the Standard or Pro subscription versions at a discounted price of $69.99 or $79.99 per year. A free, 14-day trial is available for any version.

The Standard version supports virtual machines (VMs) with 8GB of RAM and four virtual CPUs; the Pro version ups those to 128GB of RAM and 32 CPUs. If you’re using graphics- or math-intensive Windows software, you need the Pro version. The Business version, which matches the Pro tier in terms of VM specs, offers centralized management and a single-volume license for multiple machines. The Pro and Business versions both include a kiosk-like Rollback Mode that makes it easy to run an emulated system that doesn’t save any changes when it shuts down. All versions support a snapshot feature that lets you manually roll back to an earlier version, but the Rollback Model is very useful for corporate and educational setups.

, once a costly commercial app, is now free for personal use. If you’ve used Parallels Desktop in the past, you may remember it as slightly less stable and enterprise-friendly than VMware Fusion. But the latest Parallels Desktop version seems thoroughly reliable and runs refreshingly faster than its already fast predecessor. Fusion performs far more slowly and not as seamlessly.

The free and open-source is slow and buggy on Intel Macs, and its Apple silicon version still isn’t usable in any practical way. The free, experimental , based on the open-source QEMU emulation software (like VirtualBox), can run Windows on Apple silicon, but it’s frustrating to set up and lacks all the conveniences built into Parallels. You’re better off spending paying for Parallels than struggling with the free apps.

What Platforms and Systems Does Parallels Desktop Support?

Parallels Desktop is available only for macOS. (It once offered Windows and Linux versions of its app under the name Parallels Workstation but discontinued them a dozen years ago.) Unless you’re a developer using virtual systems to develop and test on multiple platforms, this shouldn’t be an issue.

On an Apple silicon Mac, Parallels lets you run the ARM-based version of Windows 11, which is what most users will want to use. Developers and other advanced users can run (including ARM-based versions) or another copy of macOS. A menu within Parallels lets you download and install those. If you’re willing to download the installers yourself, you can also install different versions of macOS from the one you’re running on your host machine.

For the best results with a macOS virtual machine via Parallels, you should be running macOS Sequoia and let Parallels download a virtual Sequoia machine. That’s the only way you will be able to sign in to your Apple Account (formerly Apple ID) from your Parallels-based virtual system. Not even upgrading a virtual Sonoma system to Sequioa will work. Don’t get discouraged if you can’t log in to your Apple Account when you first create a Sequoia virtual machine; I had to restart my VM before I could log in.

On a Mac with an Intel CPU, you can create virtual systems that run any Intel-based Windows or Linux versions, as well as any recent Intel-based versions of macOS from your recovery partition. None of the Apple-silicon-related restrictions on logging in to your Apple Account apply here. I used the menu to download and install Ubuntu Linux in testing, and it was the easiest Linux installation experience I’ve ever had. Instead of working my way through a dozen menus, Parallels did all the setup for me, and the Linux virtual machine was up and running in a couple of minutes.

You can also install any supported virtual system that uses the same architecture as your host system via a disk image or DVD. For Intel machines, you can even import an existing Windows system over a network after installing Parallels’ transfer software on the original computer. Keep in mind that you need to buy a license for any virtual Windows systems, except for developer betas.

What Apps Work With Parallels Desktop?

For gaming and graphics-intensive apps, Parallels Desktop (like VMware Fusion and the latest version of VirtualBox) supports DirectX 11 graphics but not DirectX 12, which brings ray-tracing and machine-learning capabilities. Unless you’re a serious Windows gamer or run high-powered Windows scientific and graphic apps, DirectX 11 support is likely sufficient.

Recent versions of macOS won’t let you run older 32-bit apps. However, if you have an Intel Mac, Parallels and VMware Fusion allow you to install older macOS versions (Mojave and earlier) that support them. Our story on has all the details.

As mentioned, Parallels is handy for apps like ABBYY FineReader, Microsoft Excel, Nitro PDF, and others, which offer more features via their Windows versions. Virtualization software also helps you run apps like WordPerfect that aren’t available on Macs at all.

Getting Started With Parallels Desktop

After you download and install Parallels Desktop, you might not be sure what to do next. If you want to install a Windows VM, go to the app’s File menu > New > “Get Windows 11 from Microsoft.” The app will then download and install Windows without asking for any input. You won’t need to set up a user account because Parallels configures the system with the same account name that you use on your Mac. You won’t even need to type a password to log into Windows unless you enable that security setting.

When Windows is done installing, you can follow the prompts to buy a Windows product key (if you don’t already have one) and activate it. Just make sure you have enough disk space. For reference, a Windows 11 setup typically takes up 15GB before you start installing software.

Your Windows VM will then start up in a window. Parallels offers endless options for customizing your Windows VM, including a default option that cleans up unused disk space when you shut down the emulated system. Like with a real Windows system’s hardware setup, you can even set the boot order of the system if you want to start up from a CD or a disk image.

The same Create New option where Parallels lets you download and install Windows also gives you the option to install Windows, Linux, or macOS from an image file or macOS from an installer package. Again, you can install ARM-based systems only on an Apple silicon Mac and Intel-based systems only on an Intel-based Mac. A row of small icons at the foot of the Create New dialog lets you download and install popular Linux versions or the current macOS version.

Host and Guest Integrations

Like VMware Fusion and VirtualBox, Parallels facilitates a tight connection between the macOS host and the virtual guest systems that it manages. For instance, you can drag and drop files between your Mac host and your VM. You can also share the clipboard between the two systems and, optionally, launch applications on your Windows system to open files on your host Mac and vice versa.

When Windows starts up under Parallels, the folders on your Mac’s desktop appear on your Windows desktop. The same behavior is now the default in VMware Fusion. I think this is a bad idea because I keep some Mac apps on my Mac desktop. Mac apps are technically folders (called application bundles) that the Mac displays as if they were individual files. Windows can’t handle application bundles correctly and simply displays them as folders on your desktop. You can easily mess up your Mac apps if you start exploring these folders on your Windows instance.

I always turn off the option to share the desktop between my Mac and any guest system. Even if you do this, Parallels still has a convenient Mac Files shortcut on the Windows desktop that lets you access any of your Mac folders. An option under Parallels’ Security tab lets you completely isolate your virtual machine from the host macOS system, but you probably won’t want that unless you’re running dangerous software.

Parallels, like VMware Fusion and VirtualBox, lets you run a VM in three ways: in a window on your macOS desktop, in full-screen mode, or via what Parallels calls Coherence mode. In Coherence Mode, Parallels shows a single Windows app on your Mac desktop in its own window and hides the rest of the virtual desktop. Parallels Desktop switches in and out of these modes quickly and seamlessly.

Other aspects of day-to-day computing work as expected. For example, the same printers installed on your Mac appear in the print dialog in your Windows apps. When you attach a USB peripheral, a clear menu pops up and lets you choose whether the device will be accessible in your Windows or Mac systems. You can send Windows-only keystrokes like Break or PrintScreen via a menu on your Mac. All these features are also available in VMware Fusion, but Parallels does a better job of implementing them with more lucid dialogs and better-organized menus.

Additional Features and Customizations

One major advantage of the Pro or Business versions of Parallels Desktop is the aforementioned Rollback Mode. In this mode, you can run a guest Windows, Mac, or Linux system like a kiosk. In other words, every time you reboot the machine, it returns to its original state. It’s a useful capability for those who like to experiment with software without making permanent changes to a system. All the other emulation apps support snapshots, but those aren’t quite as useful. You can find the Rollback Mode in the Security > Configuration menu for your VM. Here, you can choose between automatically returning the system to its original state or asking the user whether to incorporate or ignore any changes from the session.

Parallels Desktop outclasses the competition with its range of integration options. By default, your Windows guest system and your Mac host use the same Documents and Downloads folders, but you can disable or customize this feature from an Options tab in the Configuration menu. Your home folder on your Mac also gets a drive letter in your Windows system by default. Cloud storage folders on your Mac, like Dropbox and iCloud, also get drive letters in your Windows system, though you can always disable this functionality.

Speed and Performance

The most impressive aspect of Parallels Desktop is its speed. On an M2-based MacBook Air, Windows 11 booted to the desktop in 4 seconds and needed only 1 second to resume after I suspended it. That’s spectacularly fast. The freeware UTM, on the same machine, booted Windows 11 in 12 seconds.

What impressed me even more was how quickly Parallels Desktop ran apps. Practically every Windows app that you’ll want to use is Intel-based, and ARM-based Windows uses translation software to run it on ARM hardware. Microsoft’s translation software is extremely fast, and every Windows app I ran in Parallels felt snappier than it does on my four-year-old Intel-based Windows desktop. Now that ARM-based Windows laptops and desktops are starting to become available, most major vendors are working on ARM-based versions of their software, which presumably will run even faster in Parallels than the Intel-based versions. Forthcoming ARM-based Windows apps include Adobe Illustrator, LibreOffice, and Opera browser.

On an older Intel-based MacBook Pro, Windows 11 booted to the desktop in 34 seconds and needed 4 seconds to resume. On the same Intel machine, VMware Fusion took 43 seconds to boot Windows 11 to the desktop and 15 seconds to resume from a suspended state. VirtualBox started Windows 11 in 38 seconds, but I found its performance unusably slow once I reached the desktop.

Parallels’ various display modes also worked more quickly and fluidly than competitors’ equivalents. For example, when I ran a Windows app in Coherence Mode, I moved its window around my Mac desktop without the choppiness that I experienced with rival emulators. When I switched in and out of Coherence Mode, Parallels got the job done smoothly and without visual distractions.

One point to keep in mind when running ARM-based Windows is that Microsoft’s translation software isn’t perfect. Every mainstream Windows app will run as expected, but some special-purpose apps might need tweaks. I use the superb to run ancient MS-DOS programs, and some of those programs produced odd results in ARM-based Windows in Parallels initially. I had to select Properties > Compatibility > Change Emulation Settings > Strict Emulation to get them to work properly. The dialog above this drop-down list warns that this change might slow down emulation, but I couldn’t detect any difference.

Verdict: Seamless Virtualization Software for Mac Users

Parallels Desktop is the obvious choice for home and small office users who want to run Windows, Linux, or even another instance of macOS on an Apple silicon- or Intel-based Mac. It’s terrifically fast, smooth, and reliable. Some of the default settings could change to prevent confusion between the host and virtual desktops, but Parallels Desktop still takes our Editors’ Choice award for emulation software. Just keep in mind that VMware Fusion might be a better choice for large corporations and educational sites that need to run virtual machines on Windows and Linux systems in addition to macOS.