What is Parallels Desktop? Parallels Desktop is the best way to get virtual Windows applications, desktop and data on your Mac system without losing any Mac data and rebooting it. Parallels makes it painless to set up virtual machines, and Parallels Desktop Lite is a free version that can make Linux and macOS virtual machines for free. Even better: this software works with the macOS Mojave Beta as of right now, meaning you can get a Mojave virtual machine set up quickly without having to deal with the command line. Before you get Windows on your Mac, you have to decide how you want to run it: virtually within OS X, or on a separate hard drive partition using Boot Camp. Using software provided by Apple, you can turn your Mac into a dual-booting computer capable of running Windows or OS X natively.
Up to Date
Optimized for the latest Windows 10 updates and ready for macOS Catalina (10.15).
Ultimate Flexibility
Works with OS X, Windows 10, 8.1, and 7, Google Chrome™,Linux and Unix, and macOS Server. No more having to choose between PC or Mac.
Touch Bar
Add Windows applications to Touch Bar™ for instant access and customization.
Connect Devices
USB, USB-C, Thunderbolt and FireWire devices connect with Windows. Pair your Bluetooth® devices—including Xbox One controller, stylus pen and printer—to work with both Windows and macOS.
Retina® Display Support
Smart resizing and independent screen resolutions for separate displays.
One-Click Tuning
Select productivity, games, design, software testing, or development, and Parallels Desktop will optimize your VM settings and performance for you.
Instant Access
Launch and access Windows applications right from the Mac Dock.
Save Disk Space
Get the most out of your Mac with automatic Disk Space optimization.
Office 365 Integration
Allows Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents in Safari to open in their native Windows Office application.
Works with Boot Camp
Reuse your existing Boot Camp installation. Converting a virtual machine from Boot Camp is easy—just follow our installation assistant at startup.
Volume License Key
Unified volume license key, centralized license management, and advanced security features are available in Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition.
Travel Mode
Extend battery life while away from a power source.
Bonus! Parallels® Toolbox
Over 30 one-touch tools—clean your drive, take screenshots, download a video, and more, all with just a single click.
Bonus! Remote Access
Remote access to your Mac from any iOS device, Android device, or browser with Parallels Access®.
24/7 Support
Premium 24/7 phone, email, and social support after activation.
- Share Mac applications with Windows
- Automatic resolution change
- Single cloud storage space between Mac and Windows
- Drag and drop files between Mac and Windows
- Copy and paste files or text between Mac and Windows
- Launch Windows applications right from the Dock
- Move your PC to Mac in a few easy steps
- Assign any USB devices to your Mac or Windows
- Retina display support for Windows
- Volume control synchronization
- Open any site in Microsoft Explorer right from Safari® browser
- Apply macOS Parental Control to Windows applications
- Windows alerts in Mac Notification Center
- Mac dictation inside Windows applications
- See the number of unread emails in the Dock
- “Reveal in Windows Explorer” in macOS files menu
- Virtual machine encryption
- Linked clones for VMs*
- Vagrant provider*
- 32 vCPUs and 128 GB vRAM*
- Nested virtualization for Linux*
- Drag and drop files in macOS guests
- Real-time virtual disk optimization
- Create VM from VHD and VMDK disks*
- Drag and drop to create VM
- Disk Space Wizard optimizes your disk space
- Shared folders and printers for Linux VMs
- Windows applications in Launchpad
- Power Nap in Windows
- Use Force Touch to look up definitions
- New virtual machine wizard
- Mission Control support
- Presentation Wizard prevents most projector issues
- Drop files onto Outlook to create a new message
- Multi-language keyboard sync
- Picture-in-Picture view
- Share Bluetooth between Mac and Windows
- macOS guest support
- Spaces functionality for Windows applications
- Mission Control exposes your Windows applications
- DirectX support
- Thunderbolt support
- Licensing portal*
- Firewire support
- USB-C and USB 3.0 support
- Work without risk with Snapshots
- Safeguard your VM with encryption
- 2 GB video memory support
- Finder tabs work with Windows applications
- AVX512 instruction set support
- Mojave support
- Disk usage optimizations
- Report disk space left on Mac
- Express installation of Windows 10
- Native Mojave screenshots
- Auto allocation of video memory
- “Free Up Disk Space” wizard
- Free OS downloads
- Coherence for external displays
- Continuity camera support
- Touch Bar support
- Shared smart card reader
- Multi-monitor support
- 4K shared camera support
- CPU usage indicator
- Mojave Quick Look support
- Pressure sensitivity support
- Resource usage monitor
- OpenGL support
- Offer to import Boot Camp
- Auto-detect games keyboard
- And many more…
*Available with Parallels Desktop Pro Edition and Business Edition subscriptions
Parallels made quite the splash lately with its new remote desktop client for iOS. The product is great for getting your Mac desktop on an iOS device, but only if IT takes care to control deployment.
Parallels Access is available for free in the Apple app store, but you have to subscribe to continue using it after two weeks. When you first run the app, you'll need to register with Parallels, after which you're sent an email with instructions for how to use it and from where to download the agents. Currently, it only supports OS X, although there is a beta for Windows.
Installing and using Parallels Access
Installation itself is really easy and doesn't require a reboot (something that is uncommon among remote access packages on the Mac). After running the installer, my Mac immediately appeared accessible on my iPad. This is a service that is brokered by Parallels, which is why you can use it over mobile connections without any changes on your side. There is an agent that runs on your desktop that talks to Parallels, and when the iOS app signs in, Parallels brokers the two together securely.
You have to watch an annoyingly long video to start using Parallels Access. After it ends, you're presented with a Launcher-like screen with all your apps listed. This is really slick looking because they almost look native. When you select an app, more tutorials appear to roadblock you, though. Eventually, you're presented with your app (I chose Chrome). The experience is really nice, which alleviates my concerns about using garbage protocols or hacked-together JPEG streams.
A quick check of netstat shows no known ports being used, but there is a connection between my Mac and iPad across multiple TCP and UDP ports. That's encouraging, because it means that this was purpose-built for mobile use cases, too, rather than just making a VNC client or something. Until now, I'd only been using it via the LAN, but using it over a 4G connection is just as good.
When using a Mac, the remote desktop controls the physical desktop, so I could see an issue with privacy. Right now, as I type this from the iPad, I can watch what I type appear on my screen. Citrix wrestled with this before releasing RemotePC, and it successfully integrated a screen-blanking feature to avoid it. There is a setting to lock the computer when working remotely, but when I turned it on, it was clear that this functionality was experimental.
You can see a lot of effort has been placed into the controls of the app, and the keyboard is the most comprehensive remote desktop 'soft' keyboard I've seen. It has arrow keys, tab, command, function keys and even a Windows key when connecting to Windows desktops. There are numerous gestures that make things like switching between apps super easy.
Downsides of Parallels Access
Is this going to replace virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) or Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) in your organization? Almost certainly not.
What it will do, however, is spare you the time of setting up VDI or RDSH just for the sake of enabling one user to access Windows apps from the golf course. Deployed carefully by IT, Parallels Access could be a remarkably easy-to-deploy remote desktop tool for one-off use cases where virtualization isn't necessary or is too restrictive.
The app is free to download and free to try, but there is a $79.99 per year subscription required to use Parallels Access. This fee is per machine, so if you have more than one you'll wind up spending some money. If you already have access to Citrix RemotePC, you could get similar functionality with it and not have to pay more. If you have nothing in your environment to support this use case, though, the cost isn't so bad.
More on Parallels
Comparing VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop for Mac
Parallels and VMware square off
Q&A with Parallels CEO
It's worth considering the opposite of the IT-deployed situation, too. This is accessible through the app store, and anyone can pop in their credit card number to subscribe, so anyone with admin rights to their desktops can install their own remote desktop software. Since Access can be configured to not require a password to log in remotely, it's conceivable that a careless employee could install it on their machine, then lose their iPad somewhere. If it's unlocked, whoever finds it could have full access to the employee's PC. Yikes! The only thing keeping this situation from unfolding is probably the price tag.
Parallels Alternative For Mac
There are two takeaways from this release. First, Parallels Access is a clean interface with a good performing protocol on both LAN and WAN that can address specific needs in your organization. Also, it can be deployed by users in an insecure way, especially if they have admin rights.
Running Parallels On A Mac
So, Parallels Access is a 1.0 app without a broad enterprise use case, but you have to start somewhere. That means that IT departments should both embrace it and watch out for it. There's always a catch, right?