Aug 22, 2016 Parallels Desktop 12 also takes an unexpected detour, by including a new set of utilities, called the Toolbox, that focus purely on the Mac side of the fence. Parallels Desktop is celebrating its tenth birthday this year, and its regular cycle of annual updates has helped to consolidate its position as the leading virtualization tool for Mac users who.
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As it always has, Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac lets you run Windows and Mac applications simultaneously in virtual machines without rebooting. I took a look at the the latest version. It integrates Windows applications with OS X seemlessly — and it works nicely with the latest features of Apple OS X Mountain Lion. But it sure isn’t perfect.
Here’s my review.
Installing Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac takes about four minutes. I found the process to be smooth. If you have a virtual machine from a previous installation, it will show up in the Parallels Desktop 8 Virtual Machines list when you launch it. As with previous versions, the system lets you install new virtual machines from within Parallels Desktop 8.
Note also that the list of supported operating systems is longer in this release. That’s a plus. Parallels 8 supports Google Android, Google Chrome and Apple OS X Mountain Lion. It also adds support for such Linux flavors as Ubuntu and the upcoming Microsoft Windows 8.
After installing, Parallels dumped a Safari extension on my system without asking or warning. That extension lets you switch the page you’re currently viewing between Safari and whatever version of Internet Explorer your virtual machine happens to be running.
Given the problems you can encounter when using Safari extensions, I was not amused. At the very least, Parallels Desktop 8 should allow you to opt-out of this extension being installed. I have a call into these folks …
Starting up Windows 7 from the list immediately invoked a kernel panic on my OS X system, involving Mountain Lion’s hypervisor and I/O kit.
Not encouraging.
A fresh startup fixed the problem but it introduced another one. In this reviewer’s experience, Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac doesn’t like OS X Spaces feature. I deduced this because the problems disappeared when I ran all my apps in the one default OS X Space.
For my first test, I activated Mountain Lion’s Dictate and switched to Parallels with Windows 7 running. I told the Windows equivalent of Stickies that “I should be able to dictate in Windows through Parallels Desktop 8,” and it turned out I could. This new feature works well. It’s as if you are dictating to a Mac app, even when Windows lives in its own Parallels environment — a strange experience. Of course, it also works in Coherence mode.
In Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac you can drag and drop files from the Mac desktop on the OS X Dock icons for Outlook and other Windows email clients to attach and share them. This works well, both in Coherence mode and when Windows is running inside the Parallels environment.
The integration with Mountain Lion’s LaunchPad was less successful. When the virtual machine is allowed to exchange data fully between Windows and the Mac (a Preference you can set), Mac apps should load in the Windows Start menu, and Windows apps in Mountain Lion’s LaunchPad.
To make this work (more or less) on my system I first had to restart OS X, switch to Parallels, then switch to Coherence mode and launch every app. Even then only some of the Windows 7 apps showed up in LaunchPad, and only randomly did Mac apps show up in the Windows Start menu.
Other new features include the ability to share Bluetooth connections between Mac and Windows, integration of Windows Notifications into the OS X Notification Center and Mountain Lion gestures for Windows apps. Bluetooth sharing works as advertised.
It’s totally transparent. Notification Center integration didn’t work on my system. I tried it with email. It should have notified me of new email coming in and it didn’t.
Gestures were useful with Windows 8 Preview. It took a bit of guessing before I could work out which swipes launched the sidebars in Windows 8.
With the right hardware in place, Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac is said to support Retina displays and full screen second-display PowerPoint presentations using a special wizard.
Most users will upgrade or buy Parallels Desktop 8 for speed. Parallels’ press release claims a 30% increase in I/O operations and games performance, and a 25% speed gain when operating the virtual machine (booting, suspending, restarting…). The latter was immediately noticeable. Parallels 8 certainly started much faster than version 7 did. Working with Windows apps wasn’t just snappier. It was a lot faster. I couldn’t tell the difference between a Mac app and a Windows app speed-wise.
I couldn’t test claims of 30% faster games performance as I lack games to try it with, so what I did was download the LightWorks video editing system (it’s a heavy lifting system with which “The King’s Speech” got edited). My goal was to see how video performance and edits — especially with effects which can easily bring a whole system to its knees — would fare on Windows 7 within the Parallels Desktop 8 environment.
The LightWorks people warned me I would probably see dropped frames and more unpleasant speed-related troubles, but much to my surprise I didn’t. Video playback, effects and edits were just as fast in LightWorks as they were in Final Cut Pro X on OS X. True, Final Cut Pro X isn’t a speed demon but it is no slouch either.
However, during my testing, Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac crashed at least three times. It also randomly spawned crash dialogs, even when I left it alone. This tells me that Parallels 8 is buggy, and I expect we’ll be seeing an update soon.
My conclusion, Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac isn’t ready for prime time. It crashed a lot, some features were working, while others were not, or only more or less. Performance-wise, Parallels Desktop 8 shines.
Company: Parallels
Price: $95.19; upgrade $59.49
Pros: Fast, integration with Mountain Lion, surprisingly good graphics performance (video)
Cons: Unstable, some features work but only “halfway”
Rating: 3/5
- Pros
Fast performance in testing. Tight integration with guest OSes. Effortless installation. Flexible file and folder tools. Options for opening Mac files in Windows apps. Can install macOS virtual machines directly from the Mac recovery partition.
- Cons
Some Mac-integration features can be confusing or impractical until you turn them off. Only runs on a Mac, so you can't share guest machines with Windows or Linux users.
- Bottom Line
Parallels Desktop is an excellent way to run Windows apps on MacOS, especially for ordinary users. It's fast in testing, offers tight integration between Macs and guest systems, and supports many other OSes, too.
Parallels Desktop is the fastest and friendliest way to run Windows apps on a Mac for the majority of users who are likely to want to do so. IT pros may prefer VMware Fusion; expert users who want no-cost apps will prefer the open-source VirtualBox. Hardcore gamers may prefer Apple's Boot Camp, which lets users boot directly into Windows, with the added bonus of native graphics card support. For most ordinary Mac users who prefer Windows versions of apps like Microsoft Office or AutoCAD, however, or who use Windows-only apps like CorelDraw or WordPerfect Office, Parallels Desktop is the clear first choice for virtualization software.
- $79.99
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Platforms and Pricing
Parallels Desktop supports all Windows versions since Windows 2000, all Intel-based macOS versions (with some exceptions for licensing reasons), many flavors of Linux, BSD, Solaris, and a few other OSes. VMware Fusion and VirtualBox are even more flexible, and can run historical curiosities like OS/2 and NeXTSTEP. Also, unlike Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion and VirtualBox have versions that run on Windows and Linux machines, while Parallels Desktop is Mac-only.
There's one other important difference: Parallels Desktop is a subscription-only product, so you'll have to pay $79.99 per year for the home-and-student version or $99.99 for the Pro Edition. VMware Fusion has a one-time cost (a model some consumers may prefer) of $79.99 for its standard version and $159.99 for its Pro version. VirtualBox is free for personal use and $50 for corporate use, but you get far fewer convenience features out of the box with this open-source product.
Parallel On Mac
Get Started With Parallels
Size Of Parallels For Mac
Parallels starts up with a menu for creating a new virtual machine or opening an existing one. This is where Parallels' focus on ordinary end users shines best. Unlike all other virtualization apps, Parallels doesn't expect you to have a Windows or Linux installer disk or disk image ready when you start it up, although it can use that image if you have one. Instead, Parallel's user-helpful menu lets you buy a Windows 10 download directly from Microsoft, or simply download a Windows 10 installer if you already have a license key.
Parallels 10 For Mac
Another set of options lets you install a Parallels system-export utility on your Windows PC, and export it to Parallels via a network (slowly) or an external drive. A scrolling list at the foot of the menu lets you download specific versions of Linux or Android, install a virtual copy of macOS from your Mac's hidden recovery partition, or install Windows from a Boot Camp partition if you have one.
Like VMware and VirtualBox, Parallels supports a Snapshot feature that lets you save a guest system in one or more configurations that you know works well, and then restore a saved configuration after making changes in the system that you don't want to preserve. However, Parallels is unique in supplementing this feature with a Rollback option that automatically discards all changes to a system when you shut it down, so it works like a kiosk system, returning to its pristine condition every time you power it up. This feature can be invaluable in testing, or in environments like schools where users are liable to leave systems a lot messier than they found them. If you used Microsoft's long-abandoned VirtualPC app, you'll remember this feature, and will welcome its return in Parallels.
Parallel's Performance
Compared to VMware, Parallels starts up Windows at top speed in testing. On my vintage 2015 MacBook Pro, Parallels boots Windows 10 to the desktop in 35 seconds, compared to 60 seconds for VMware. VirtualBox matches Parallels' boot speed, but it performs far fewer integration tasks while booting up. For example, VirtualBox doesn't provide printer integration and the ability to open Windows files with Mac apps and vice versa.
One reason for Parallels' bootup speed advantage is that Parallels uses an emulated PC BIOS that supports the Fast Startup option, and the others don't. The speed difference isn't nearly as obvious when running Windows apps after the OS starts up, however. Parallels feels slightly faster than its rivals, but not drastically so. Fast as it is, Parallels won't satisfy hard-core gamers because Parallels, like VMware Fusion, only supports DirectX 10, while VirtualBox only supports DirectX 9. There's nothing that Parallels can do about this limitation, which is the result of the Mac's limited support for OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) features.
By default when Parallels runs a Windows system, any files on your Mac desktop will also appear on your Windows desktop. This may sound convenient, but it's a feature that I always to turn off in Parallels' settings dialog. One reason I turn it off is that it leaves the Windows desktop cluttered. Another is that much of what I keep on my Mac desktop—like folders and apps—simply won't work when I click on them in Parallels' Windows desktop. Parallels tends to go overboard with integration features, turning them on by default whether you want them or not.
Another way Parallels goes overboard with its integration is its tendency to clutter up its dialogs and your Mac system with icons and folders that you probably don't want. For example, by default, it adds a folder full of Windows application to your Mac's dock, and a Parallels menu to Mac's menu bar—though you can turn these off by poking around the options and preferences windows. Some of Parallels' menus include links to a set of Mac-related utilities called the Parallels Toolbox; some of these utilities, like a quick disk-cleaning menu, are convenient, but you probably don't want all of them, and they have nothing to do with virtualization. Another link on Parallels' menus invites you to buy Acronis True Image backup software, which you probably don't need if you use your Mac's built-in backup features.
Parallel Computing
Anyone who wants to run a Windows app on the Mac should choose between our two Editors' Choice apps, Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. For IT managers, developers, and for many tech-savvy users, VMware is the best choice. For most home, school, and SOHO users who don't need VMware's unique cross-platform support and legacy features, Parallels Desktop is the fastest, most hassle-free way to run Windows apps on a Mac.
Parallels Desktop (for Mac)
Bottom Line: Parallels Desktop is an excellent way to run Windows apps on MacOS, especially for ordinary users. It's fast in testing, offers tight integration between Macs and guest systems, and supports many other OSes, too.
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Cost Of Parallels For Mac
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