Parallels Desktop for Mac relates to System Tools. This app's bundle is identified as com.parallels.desktop.console. The most popular versions among the program users are 10.0, 9.0 and 8.0.
- Faster to launch and use
- Touch Bar ready for Windows apps
- Requires less hard drive space
- 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.
Parallels For Mac Free
- 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:
Parallels For Mac Free
- Not yet rated
A regular cycle of annual upgrades has established Parallels Desktop as the leading virtualisation tool for Mac users who need to run Windows apps and software tools that aren't normally available on the Mac. Those upgrades also tend to coincide with new versions of macOS itself, so with macOS Mojave now in the final stages of beta testing it's time for version 14 of Parallels Desktop to make its debut.
Last year's upgrade to v13 largely focused on catching up with recent developments in Mac hardware, such as the Touch Bar on Apple's latest MacBook Pro laptops. In contrast, v14 is more forward-looking, allowing you to create Windows virtual machines (VMs) that support new technologies, such as Intel's high-performance AVX-512 instruction set, which is used in the current Xeon-based iMac Pro, as well as the next generation of Cannon Lake chips. The developers have also improved OpenGL support for Windows VMs in order to enhance performance for a number of graphics-intensive apps, such as the OriginLab range of data analysis tools, which haven't run well within the virtual machine environment in the past.
There have been performance improvements in other areas too, with Parallels claiming that Coherence mode, which hides the Windows desktop so that Windows apps simply appear on the Mac desktop alongside native Mac apps, provides 17 percent higher frame rates when running graphics software. Launch and suspend times for virtual machines are also improved, along with performance of the Windows 'virtual disk'. And, for developers who may need to run multiple virtual machines with different operating systems, there's a Disk Space Wizard that helps to reduce the overall size of each virtual machine file.
Parallels always likes to support Apple's latest eye-candy features, so Windows virtual machines in Parallels Desktop 14 will be able to use the new Quick Look markup features that are due to arrive with macOS Mojave. The Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro laptops will now work with additional Windows apps, including QuickBooks and Microsoft Visual Studio, displaying menu commands from those apps directly on the Touch Bar. And, on the Windows side of the fence, Windows 10 virtual machines will now allow you to use a pressure-sensitive stylus or trackpad with Windows Ink.
SEE: 20 pro tips to make Windows 10 work the way you want (free PDF)
Parallels For Mac Help
Parallels also informed us that it should be possible to accelerate graphics performance on a Windows VM using an external GPU (eGPU), such as the Blackmagic eGPU that Apple is currently promoting.