Parallels Desktop for Mac is a hardware emulation virtualization software, using hypervisor technology that works by mapping the host computer’s hardware resources directly to the virtual machine’s resources. Version 2.5 brought support for USB 2.0 devices.
In the parallels menu bar go to Devices > USB > USB2.0 Mass Storage (or whatever your drive is called. The drive should unmount from mac OS and show up in windows. NTFS is supposed to be faster and more reliable, i figured i needed every bit of good karma for running windows in Boot Camp, for gaming. Finally, if you are running Parallels and you find that your USB devices are being captured by Mac OS X but not your virtual guest OS, you can also go to the Devices menu, find the peripheral in question, and choose it to have Parallels wrest control from Mac OS X and hand it to your guest operating system.
One of the biggest challenges for businesses looking to adopt the Apple Macintosh platform is the fact that OS X doesn’t run Windows applications. Apple’s solution to that issue is to set up a MAC to multi-boot, using a technology called Boot Camp – in other words you can natively run OS X or you can reboot the system and run a different operating system, such as Windows, Linux, or something else.
However, that dual (or multiple) boot ideology introduces a plethora of hassles and denies the user the ability to truly leverage multiple applications running across multiple OSes. Simply put, that shiny new Mac may wind up only running Windows’ business applications, turning it into little more than a very expensive PC.
Virtualization to the Rescue:
Thanks to virtualization technology, there’s no longer any excuse to constantly reboot your Mac to run other OSes. Yet, historically, virtualization has been anything but simple – proving to be complex to deploy, set up, and use reliably.
What’s more, virtualization software comes in many shapes and sizes, with free products such as Oracle’s Virtual Box and for cost products such as VMMare’s VMWare Fusion for Mac (around $80) leading in the name recognition game.
While the aforementioned products are the primary competitors for the latest iteration of Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac (also around $80), Parallels takes a different approach. The software focuses on tighter integration, ease of use, and support options to take the mystery (and hassles) out of virtualization for those looking to maximize productivity on their Macs.
A closer Look at Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac:
In a world filled with free and low-cost applications, $80 may seem like a king’s ransom to pay for bringing multiple personalities to the typical Mac system. However, that $80 does buy a great deal of functionality and enables your Mac to do things previously thought impossible. What’s more, $80 is a lot cheaper than having to buy two systems (one for OS X and another for Windows) to accomplish what you may have to do on any given day.
With that in mind, $80 seems like a bargain. However, does the value offed by Parallels equate the initial cash outlay? That’s a question that can only be answered by taking a look at what the product brings to the desktop and determining whether its features, capabilities, and user experience surpass those of other options, especially Oracle’s VirtualBox, which for all intents and purposes, is free.
Software System Requirements:
- Mac OS X
- Processor, Storage, RAM capable of running native OS X, and one or more Virtual Machines.
- DVD, Image, or other source files for Alternative OS installation
Hands On with Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac:
Ease of use seems to be the evident theme with the latest version of Parallels, with wizards and guided menus doing all of the heavy lifting. For example, creating a new virtual machine can be accomplished in just a few mouse clicks – using the new virtual machine wizard.
What’s important to note is that the NVM (New Virtual Machine) wizard offers several options, including simply installing an alternate OS, migrating Windows from an existing PC, and downloading and installing alternate (free) OS, such as Ubuntu Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and even another OS X session.
For the majority of users, a Windows install will be the most likely choice, and for simplicity’s sake, Windows 7 might be the best option for those looking to transition from a Windows to a Mac. However, there are situations where Windows 8.1 may be merited, especially if someone needs to to run the latest Windows applications on an OS X system.
Parallels offers several different paths to install Windows, it can be accomplished using a Windows DVD, installed from an image file, or installed from a key drive (USB drive) – all of which should share something in common, an installable image of Windows.
We tested all three methods with the latest release of Windows 8.1 and found that the USB drive method was the quickest (we didn’t have to copy any files to the local hard drive or mount any DVDs) and simplest way to move forward. The USB drive can be either a bootable drive or just simply contain an image file of the Windows install. Once the install source is chosen, Parallels takes care of the rest, including asking for the product key.
Once a key is entered, next comes one of the most important steps for defining how the virtual machine will function. Parallels provides four canned scenarios for Windows: Productivity, Games Only, Design, and Software Development.
Each choice sets up environment variables that provide the best functionality for that option. For example, the Games Only selection runs Windows in full-screen mode and offers the most resources to Windows. Meanwhile, the others balance memory usage, resources, and disk space necessary to provide a great experience without taxing the Mac system.
One nifty feature that’s unique to Parallels, is the ability to control the Windows 8 experience. During the final steps of configuring the virtual machine, users can select between a “Windows 8” experience or make Windows 8 function like “Windows 7.” For many users transitioning to OS X, the Windows 8.1 experience was the primary catalyst for using an alternative OS or eschewing an upgrade all together.
Here, Parallels makes a very wise choice and offers a path to the Windows 7 experience, bringing perhaps the best of both worlds (Windows 7 and OS X) to a single system in a very usable fashion.
Finalizing the install takes little more than assigning a name and validating some settings – most users can choose to go with the defaults and wind up with exactly what they would expect from a virtual machine. However, power users may want to delve into the additional settings to customize the environment and choose who will have access to the virtual machine.
Parallels provides plenty of tuning options during the creation process. Hardware choices, sharing options, security settings, and general options can all be defined during the final installation steps, and most of them can be changed later on to tune the virtual machine experience.
Buy Parallels For Mac
Overall, the setup took roughly 15 minutes, experienced Parallels users with fast MAC systems could probably pull off an install of Windows 8.1 on Parallels much more quickly.
Working With Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac:
We installed Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac on a Macbook Pro Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014 system, running OS X Version 10.9.4, with a 2.6 Ghz Intel Core i5 CPU, 8 GB 1600 Mhz DDR3 ram, and a 251 GB Flash Storage drive.
Using the Parallels NVM wizard, we created two virtual machines, a Windows 8.1 VM and a Windows 7 Ultimate VM. The NVM wizard automatically provisioned the virtual hard drives, created desktop shortcuts, and added the two VMs to the Parallels menu.
Launching a VM takes little more than clicking a choice on the Parallels Desktop Control Center or clicking on one of the desktop shortcuts created by the NVM wizard. You can also use the Parallels Desktop Control Center to alter VMs, switch between active VMs, pause VMs, and so on.
Parallels allows users to simultaneously launch multiple VMs, monitor the activity on those VMs from the control center, and seamlessly switch between native OS X applications, as well as applications running under VMs. Users can select between VMs using the mouse, touchpad, or keyboard shortcut keys. When resources are limited or one VM is given priority over another, Parallels will automatically pause the inactive to free up resources.
Conclusion:
Users will find that VMs perform adequately for using most Windows applications. However, the more powerful the host machine, the better a virtual machine will run. The MacBook we tested Parallels on was able to run Windows applications with aplomb – we tested most of the Microsoft Office suite and also ran applications such as Quicken, Quickbooks, and Photoshop.
While there was some lag running Photoshop, as well as other graphics intensive applications, the overall experience was acceptable. Some processor and GPU intensive tasks, such as video encoding and data encryption showed signs of impaired performance; we didn’t encounter any errors, crashes, or other problems. Comparatively speaking, the applications running under a VM on the MacBook proved to perform well enough to give an experience equivalent to a PC a couple of generations behind the current latest and greatest powerhouses available today.
Simply put, Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac solves what may be an ever increasing problem – one where users need to run multiple OSes, access legacy applications, and transition to new systems. Considering that this functionality elsewhere, the $80 is a small price to pay.
Of course, users could choose to go the free route and select Oracle’s VirtualBox. That said, free comes at the price of constant tinkering, manual configurations and limited support.
Pros:
- One of the easiest ways to run alternate operating systems on Mac OS X
- Supports multiple concurrent OSes
- Wizard setup makes it easy to configure and control virtual machines
- Allows users to import existing windows systems into new VMs
- Automatically optimizes VMs for user preferences and supports rollback
Cons:
- More expensive than alternatives
- Limited number of predefined virtual machine environments
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It was just about a year ago that I first reviewed Parallels Desktop. I found it to be a fast and versatile way to run Windows, Linux, and many other systems within OS X. But things are moving quickly in the virtualization arena, and much has changed in the last year. The recent release of Parallels Desktop 3.0 is evidence of that: this first-ever paid upgrade has over 50 new or improved features.
Accelerated graphics
Parallels 3 now offers support for accelerated graphics (both OpenGL and DirectX), allowing some 3-D games to run within Parallels. This feature is disabled by default, as it’s still somewhat experimental, but it can be easily enabled in the virtual machine’s preferences. The company provides a list of games known to be compatible, though others may work as well. For instance, I installed and tested Infogrames’ BoarderZone, an older PC snowboarding game. I also installed and played a demo of the Live for Speed driving game. Neither is on Parallels’ list of tested games, but both worked quite well. However, other games I tested, such as Microsoft’s Flight Simulator and Motocross Madness 2, didn’t run after installation. But for those games that do work, the results can be good—especially for older games with less stringent graphics requirements. (For more on gaming with Parallels, see Peter Cohen’s Game Room blog.)
To test Parallels’ gaming abilities, I installed the Prey demo on Mac OS X, Windows XP via Boot Camp, and Windows XP via Parallels on both my 2.66GHz Mac Pro and 2.33GHz MacBook Pro. I then copied a recorded demo file to all of these setups, and I ran a benchmark test using that demo file on each machine.
The Macworld Lab performed a separate test. They tested Doom 3 on a 2.16GHz iMac Core 2 Duo to see how well this graphically intensive game held up when run in Parallels.
As you can see from the chart below, there’s a substantial performance hit for running either game under Parallels. The results could be improved, of course, by using a smaller window or lower quality graphics settings. When I was testing Prey’s actual gameplay, I found that frames per second (FPS) varied between about 20 and 60 (the latter is where Prey caps it during game play) on the Mac Pro in Parallels. At no time, though, did it feel unplayable. But Prey on the MacBook Pro is another story. To play Prey via Parallels on that machine, both resolution and image quality would have to be reduced to get a usable frame rate.
Doom 3 results on the iMac were similar to Prey on the MacBook Pro—you’d need to reduce the window size and graphic quality settings to get decent gameplay.
If you want the best Windows gaming experience, use Boot Camp to turn your Mac into a real Windows PC. But if your gaming needs are mainly limited to older titles, or if you’re willing to play in a somewhat smaller window, Parallels 3 provides a usable solution, at least for some games, without rebooting.
Gaming tests were not the only tests we performed. We attempted some tests with WorldBench 6, but despite numerous attempts, we were unable to come up with conclusive results. Some tests would not completely run; other tests intermittently corrupted our versions of Windows. We are working with our colleagues at PC World to sort out the problems we’ve encountered with World Bench tests and hope to post results soon.
It should be noted that we didn’t run into any issues running applications on their own—Microsoft Office, the Prey demo, and various other Windows applications ran as expected.
Parallels Desktop 3.0 Game Tests
| Prey Time Demo | Native OS X | Windows XP via Boot Camp | Windows XP via Parallels |
|---|---|---|---|
| MacBook Pro 2.33GHz | 32.6 | 37.5 | 17.4 |
| Mac Pro 2.66GHz | 89.1 | 106.9 | 43.2 |
| Doom 3 Time Demo | Native OS X | Windows XP via Boot Camp | Windows XP via Parallels |
| iMac 20-inch 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo. | 48.1 | 57.8 | 19.5 |
Higher numbers are better. Best result for each system in red. Scores are in frames per second.
All tests were run at 1,024 by 768 resolution. Prey tests ran in a window, with medium texture quality, highest shader detail, no anti-aliasing or vertical sync, and image anisotropy at 8x. All other settings in the Advanced 1 and Advanced 2 video configuration tabs were set to Yes. Figures are frames per second as reported by Prey. Doom 3 was set to use high video setting, 1,024 by 768 resolution, V-sync No, Antialiasing Off, and all other settings set to Yes. All systems were running Mac OS X 10.4.9. The MacBook Pro had 2GB RAM and an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card, and the Mac Pro had 4GB RAM and an ATI Radeon X1900 XT graphics card. The iMac had 2GB RAM and an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card.—Macworld Lab testing by Rob Griffiths and James Galbraith.
Snapshots and Undo Disks
Also new in this version is the ability to create Snapshots of your virtual machine. A Snapshot is just what you think it might be—a picture of your virtual machine’s setup at a point in time. Create a Snapshot before installing a new program; if you want to revert your system at some point, you can do so using the Snapshot Manager. Creating a Snapshot is more space-efficient than simply duplicating your virtual machine’s disk image in the Finder: I created two Snapshots of my 10GB Windows XP Pro virtual disk, and the total space required was just over 1GB. You can create Snapshots for the other Parallels-supported OSes as well.
The Undo Disks feature is like an always-active Snapshot. Although turned off by default, this feature lets you undo all changes made to your virtual machine during a session: when you shut down the virtual machine, it will revert to its previous state. In a lab setup, a feature like this can ensure that any changes made by students won’t survive beyond the next launch of Parallels. Note that you cannot use both Undo Disks and Snapshots on the same virtual machine.
Parallels For Mac Usb Problem
Boot Camp partition support
Parallels 2.5 added the ability to use your Boot Camp Windows XP partition as a Parallels virtual machine, eliminating the need for two separate Windows installations. In Parallels 3, you can now also use a Vista Boot Camp partition, and the speed of mounting Boot Camp partitions is faster. The first time you run Parallels, it will search for any Boot Camp partitions and offer to create virtual machines from those Windows installations (you can also do this manually if you wish). The main limitation of this setup is that you won’t be able to create Snapshots or use Undo Disks on Boot Camp partitions. When this feature was first introduced in Parallels 2.5, users had some trouble with it, but it worked well for me in Parallels 3.
Coherence mode
Introduced with Parallels 2.5, Coherence mode interleaves windows from both Windows and OS X. Instead of having one window to represent your Windows machine—complete with background image and desktop icons—Coherence mode creates a separate OS X-like window for each Windows window, and hides the Windows desktop and desktop icons. Switching between OS X and Windows applications is as simple as switching between OS X applications—just click the window you wish to use. The Windows taskbar will also be visible, so if you intend to use this mode, it’s best to move either the Dock or the Windows taskbar to the side of the screen, to avoid confusion.
I ran a number of Windows and OS X applications side-by-side in Coherence mode, and everything worked as expected—except when I used Apple’s Exposé features. Exposé treats all open Windows windows as one window, and shows them grouped together when you press F9. As a result, you can’t choose a specific target application by using F9 and then clicking on the target program’s window. Instead, you click on the group of Windows windows in Exposé, and whatever application is frontmost becomes the frontmost open application after switching. You can, however, use Command-Tab or the Dock to switch to a specific Windows application, as each gets its own icon in the switcher and the Dock.
Smart Select
Smart Select is a promising feature, at least in theory: when Parallels is running, files on either the Windows virtual machine or your Mac can be opened with either Windows or Mac applications. When you control-click a file in either OS, the Open With menu option will list both Mac and Windows programs that can open that file. In practice, however, I found this feature confusing and not all that helpful. For many common file formats, such as JPEG and TIFF, the list of entries on the Open With menu is already sizable with only OS X apps included; adding more choices doesn’t do anything to help my productivity.
Smart Select also features a special Shared Applications folder in the Windows Start menu. This folder is populated with a list of every program on your Mac, so you can open a Mac application directly from Windows. I have hundreds of Mac apps, however, and seeing them all in one gargantuan menu really isn’t a benefit of any sort. According to the manual, this feature can be disabled in the new Security Manager. In my testing, however, that was not the case—the huge list was still present regardless of my Security Manager settings. After sending an e-mail to Parallels’ tech support, I was told that a soon-to-be-released free update would take care of the problem.
Parallels Explorer
Mac Parallels 12
Parallels Explorer is a newly bundled application that lets you view and modify your Windows virtual machines without actually launching Parallels Desktop. It’s a great tool for moving files to and from a virtual machine, especially when you need to get a file or folder in a hurry and don’t need the full Windows OS up and running.
Parallels For Mac Help
Other improvements
Parallels 3 features improved USB and USB 2.0 support. The newest BlackBerries and smart phones—no, not the iPhone as of yet—are also supported, and USB transfer speeds have been improved. When Parallels is running and you connect a USB device, a dialog box asks you to choose the OS that should control the device. I had no trouble getting Parallels to recognize and use a USB game controller during my game testing.
Parallels Transporter is a tool introduced in version 2.5 to migrate everything on a physical PC into a Parallels virtual machine, including the OS itself, applications, files, folders, and settings. Transporter was new in Parallels 2.5, and in Parallels 3 you can use Transporter on Linux and Vista, in addition to various other Windows OSes.
The Security Manager provides control over the degree to which information is shared between Mac OS X and Windows virtual machines. With the security level set to high, for example, Parallels will disable shared folders and Smart Select, and will not mount the Windows drive on the OS X desktop. At its lowest setting (medium), the Security Manager allows full sharing of folders, mounts the Windows volume on the OS X desktop, and enables Smart Select. In my testing, however, I had problems making this feature work as described. Regardless of the selected level, for instance, the Open With menus showed both Mac and Windows applications.
Like its competition, VMware Fusion (currently in public beta), Parallels 3 offers a selection of downloadable virtual appliances , which are pre-configured systems ready to be used with only a few mouse clicks. For example, I downloaded and installed a JumpBox virtual appliance set up with the Drupal content management system. Parallels recognized the virtual machine. All I had to do was answer a few Drupal configuration questions, and the system was up and running. I could then load the Drupal system from any browser on any machine in my home—in OS X or Windows. Using virtual appliances is an easy way to install and test complex software: there’s no configuration required, and if you don’t like what you’re testing, you can just throw it away when you’re done.
Finally, Parallels Tools, which helps integrate the guest OS into the Mac OS by allowing on-the-fly screen resizing and seamless control over the mouse, has been updated to work with all Linux virtual machines, in addition to its existing support for various versions of Windows, Solaris, and OS/2. I tested Parallel Tools with Fedora Core Linux, and the features worked quite well. For example, with Parallels Tools installed, you don’t have to capture the mouse by clicking inside a virtual machine window; the mouse simply knows when it’s within the virtual machine’s window area.
Tech support
One frequently heard complaint about previous versions of Parallels relates to technical support: for many, it’s been difficult to get. The Parallels Web site offers a few choices, including a $30-per-incident phone support option, as well as a knowledge base and an FAQ. The company also offers free e-mail support, with a promised turnaround of three business days. I received a response to my inquiry in less than 24 hours (and I sent my request from a personal e-mail account, not one with a Macworld address).
One of the best resources for help isn’t documented anywhere on Parallels’ Web site: the Parallels Support Forum. Here, you can post questions and read answers from other Parallels users, and often find answers more quickly than you’ll get via e-mail. It’s unfortunate that Parallels chooses not to publicize this useful resource on its own site.
Macworld’s buying advice
Parallels Desktop 3.0 is currently the best solution for running Windows, Linux, or any of many other operating systems alongside OS X. With the inclusion of (still limited) 3-D graphics support, Snapshots and Undo Disks, virtual appliances, and many other features, it’s a compelling alternative to rebooting via Boot Camp. Tech support has improved, although you will pay somewhat dearly if you need an answer via phone. Unless you need full 3-D graphics support, or support for some esoteric hardware, Parallels will probably get the job done for you.
[Macworld Senior Editor Rob Griffiths runs the Mac OS X Hints Web site. ]
BoarderZone, an older Windows game, played quite well with Parallels’ new support for 3-D accelerated graphics. Results with other games were mixed: some worked while others didn’t.Using Snapshots, you can store a copy of your virtual OS installation at a given point in time. If you ever wish to revert to the saved version in the future, the Snapshot Manager makes it easy.