Parallels Desktop 12 For Mac Is The World's

Parallels 11 is a polished virtualisation solution that allows Mac users to switch easily between OS X and Windows apps, regardless of which operating system they were written for. With Parallels Desktop 12, new icons join the menu bar, including network configurations, sound, battery and notifications. Parallels delivers the best of all worlds on any well-outfitted Mac. With Parallels Desktop for Mac, you can seamlessly run both Windows and Mac OS X applications side-by-side without rebooting. Drag-and-drop files between Windows and Mac applications, launch Windows applications from your Mac dock, and do much more with speed, control and confidence.

Parallels Desktop 12 For Mac Is The World's Strongest
Parallels Desktop 12
Parallels Desktop For Mac Pro
Parallels Desktop 12 For Mac Is The World's Hardest
Parallels Desktop 12 For Mac Review

Let's start with a major positive... no price hike for Aussies! In fact, with the current exchange rate and no GST it's actually (refreshingly) cheaper than in America. With that all sorted, let's go into the review...

How to use Windows on a Mac

Because Macs are made with the same components as PCs these days, it doesn't take much to configure them to work with WIndows. We call this process, 'Virtualisation.' Parallels is a program that makes this process easy.

Parallels Desktop 12 review

Mac users are fortunate to have not one, but two excellent commercial virtualization software packages to choose from, not to mention less-polished free alternatives like Virtual Box. In what has now become an annual ritual, VMware and Parallels have updated their respective Fusion and Desktop products to coincide with the recent release of macOS Sierra.

Last year, both companies delivered ambitious new versions to capitalize on back-to-back debuts of Windows 10 and OS X El Capitan, but the 2016 editions are somewhat more subdued by comparison. VMware marked the occasion by launching Fusion 8.5, a maintenance update with no new features.

Having celebrated its tenth anniversary for Desktop earlier this year, Parallels encouraged engineers to come up with at least one unique new feature to justify the upgrade to version 12, although the company’s usual relentless innovation produced a mixed bag this time around.

Open the Toolbox

Ironically, the marquee feature of Parallels Desktop 12 ($100 one-time purchase or $65 upgrade) isn’t part of the core software at all, but a bundled standalone application called Parallels Toolbox (sold separately for $13) which is installed via Preferences. Toolbox consolidates 20 common, everyday tasks into a single menu bar window, making them easier to find and use.

These tools offer one-click simplicity for downloading or converting video, recording audio, muting the microphone, or performing system tasks such as locking the screen, hiding the desktop, preventing your Mac from going to sleep, and Do Not Disturb, which temporarily pauses notifications and Dock activity. Convenient? Yes, but none of the utilities are particularly special or unique, and power users are likely to have their own alternatives already installed.

Others are grouped into categories, providing functionality for taking screenshots, screen recording, archiving files, or managing time. I found the stopwatch, alarm, timer, and date countdown in the latter group particularly handy, since I typically defer such tasks to my iPhone or Apple Watch. Toolbox strictly works on the host OS—it has nothing to do with enhancing Mac, Windows, or Linux virtual machines.

One unfortunate side effect of Toolbox is that you’ll now have three separate Parallels icons taking up space on the menu bar: one for Toolbox, another for Desktop (when it’s actually running, of course), and a third for Parallels Access, the company’s remote access service (included with annual Desktop subscriptions). There’s clearly room for some consolidation here, and the individual tools also add icon clutter to Launchpad, but at least they can be organized into a single folder there.

Always ready

If you spend an equal amount of time in Windows and macOS, Parallels Desktop 12 offers a number of welcome enhancements. Performance has been boosted across the board, with 25 percent faster access to shared folders and snapshots, and noticeably speedier suspend and resume—under five seconds on my 27-inch iMac Retina 5K.

VMs can now be configured to launch automatically when your Mac starts up, leaving them paused in the background while idle to avoid consuming valuable CPU time. (Remarkably, this continues to work even after quitting Desktop.) Located under Startup and Shutdown in the Options tab, “always ready in background” is accompanied by a handful of custom settings that determine how VMs behave when launched, closed, or shut down.

One of my biggest Windows 10 pet peeves is the heavy-handed approach to automatic updates. I don’t use Windows daily, so it every time I launch Parallels Desktop, performance is degraded as updates start installing in the background. The new Maintenance option allows such tasks to be blocked until the scheduled time, such as a weekend when my iMac isn’t in use. (VMs must be open at the time.) PD12 includes one year of free online storage (500GB) from Acronis, which can be used to back up your virtual machines.

Desktop 12 also makes using Windows on the Mac more seamless. Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents in Safari can be configured to open in their respective desktop Office 365 applications, and passwords entered in Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge can now be saved in your Mac keychain.

Last but not least, Parallels offers independent screen resolutions for multiple displays. In full-screen mode, my iMac runs Retina Display resolution, while the adjacent 27-inch Thunderbolt Display works as an extended 2560 x 1440 desktop, each in their own Space. (Sadly, there are no independent settings for backgrounds.)

There is at least one area where Desktop 12 takes a step back. Contextual menu shortcuts have been inexplicably removed from Control Center, which I always found quite handy for quickly reclaiming storage from my Windows VMs without having to open the Configure window.

Bottom line

If you already have an annual subscription, installing Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac is a no-brainer. Although the new Toolbox utilities aren’t compelling enough on their own to justify a perpetual license upgrade, the performance improvements and macOS Sierra support certainly are.

If you use a Business Edition, visit KB 124112 for the updates summary.

The latest version

This update for Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac 12.2.1 (41615) addresses overall stability and performance issues, and includes the following fixes and improvements:

Resolves an issue with Windows and other shared applications crashing after starting from the Dock or Finder.
Resolves an issue with the Windows and other virtual machine icons disappearing from the Dock after starting Windows from the Dock or Finder.
Resolves an issue with Visual Studio freezing after the Mac wakes up.
Resolves an issue with files appearing on the macOS Desktop and then, after a long delay, on the Windows desktop.

NOTE: Parallels strongly recommends to keep your copy of Parallels Desktop up-to-date. To download the latest update go to Parallels Desktop menu >Check for Updates, or download the installation image directly from here.

Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac 12.2.0 (41591) addresses overall stability and performance issues, and includes the following fixes and improvements:

Resolves an issue with Windows 10 not booting after updating to Windows 10 Creators Update
Resolves an issue with dragging and dropping files from Mac to Windows 10 Creators Update
Resolves an issue with web pages opening in Windows 10 Creators Update instead of opening in Mac
Resolves an issue with Windows 10 not installing from a USB thumb drive
Resolves an issue with a virtual machine freezing when a 4 TB USB drive is connected to the virtual machine
Resolves an issue with Ubuntu 16.04 not switching to the Coherence view mode
Resolves an issue with Parallels Tools reinstalling every time a BootCamp virtual machine configuration is changed
Resolves an issue with BootCamp virtual machine applications not shown in the Dock
Uses the new Facebook API to sign in to Parallels accounts
Uses the new Google+ API to sign in to Parallels accounts
Improves the Korean localization

Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac 12.1.3 (41532) for Parallels Desktop addresses overall stability and performance issues, and includes the following fixes and improvements:

Resolves an issue with request to enter Mac administrator password on every Parallels Desktop start.
Resolves an issue with Problem ID 15380 on Parallels Desktop start.
Resolves and issue with mouse not working on external display after it has been reconnected
Resolves an issue with Parallels Desktop crashes when trying to print to PDF

Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac 12.1.2 (41525) addresses overall stability and performance issues and includes the following fixes and improvements:

Introduces a new option for virtual machine that use all displays in fullscreen - 'Activating virtual machine shows all its spaces'. For this option, go to 'Options' > 'Full Screen' of the virtual machine configuration.
Offers an updated virtual appliance: Ubuntu 16.04.
Adjusts default settings for Modality view mode that covers the window opacity and position on top of other applications windows.
Resolves an issue with Fedora 25 not starting GUI session after installing Parallels Tools

Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac 12.1.1 (41491) addresses overall stability and performance issues.

Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac 12.1.0 (41489) addresses overall stability and performance issues, and includes the following new features and fixes:

New features:

Tabs support in macOS Sierra. Organize virtual machine windows into tabs. Also available in full screen on multiple displays.
Draw and annotate in Microsoft Office 2016 applications on Windows 10. Use a built-in MacBook touchpad, an external mouse, or a pen device to draw in Excel, PowerPoint, or Word.
'Parallels VMs' plugin for macOS Sierra storage manager displays storage taken by Parallels Desktop virtual machines. Allows you to optimize disk space taken by virtual machines with a few clicks using the Free Up Disk Space wizard.

Fixes:

Resolves an issue with Windows 10 installation failing using dual boot installation media (e.g. USB thumb drives)
Resolves an issue with prl_naptd process taking 100% CPU
Resolves an issue with Windows app windows in Coherence being overlapped by macOS menu bar
Resolves an issue with Windows virtual machine resolution with 'Best for external displays' option enabled when using Windows only on external display
Resolves an issue with mouse movement delays in virtual machines on macOS Sierra
Resolves an issue with Ctrl + mouse click or tap not opening a context menu in virtual machines
Resolves an issue with macOS Sierra virtual machine installation using .app image
Resolves an issue with Parallels Tools for Linux failing to update automatically in some Linux distributions
Resolves an issue with inability to stop resuming a virtual machine from suspended state
Resolves an issue with the 'Web Pages: Open in Mac' feature not working in some builds of Windows 10 virtual machines
Resolves an issue with passwords not being accepted for encrypted virtual hard disks when attaching them to a virtual machine
Resolves an issue with archived virtual machine name changes not being reflected in Finder
Resolves an issue with Windows application windows not coming to foreground in Coherence
Resolves an issue with virtual machines stuck at black screen on booting
Resolves an issue with critical errors with Solaris 11 virtual machines after installation
Resolves an issue with Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtual machines hanging on startup after Parallels Tools installation
Resolves an issue with armour graphics artifacts in World of Warships game in Windows
Resolves an issue with virtual machine not starting if Fitbit dongles are connected or software is installed
Resolves an issue with slow scrolling speed using touchpad in Linux virtual machines
Resolves an issue with inability to switch between '英数Alphanumeric'and 'かな kana' layouts in Windows using corresponding JIS keyboard keys
Resolves an issue with Parallels Tools failing to install in Windows XP virtual machines
Resolves an issue with VirtualHere USB devices not connecting to Windows virtual machines
Resolves an issue with graphics artifacts when using Microsoft Edge or Microsoft Office PowerPoint on macOS Sierra
Resolves an issue with the size of the parallels.log file not being managed
Resolves an issue with CPU and RAM assignment in virtual machines for Parallels Desktop Standard Edition, limiting VMs to 8 GB of vRAM and 4 vCPUs to be consistent with Standard Edition product features

New features and fixes for Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition:

Seamless Business account that allows enrolling additional account administrators and end users even if they have private Parallels accounts. Check Parallels Desktop Business Edition Licensing Guide at https://www.parallels.com/products/business/resources/
More options are now available to administrators to protect against unwanted actions from end users of Parallels Desktop for Mac. Check Parallels Desktop Business Edition Administrator's Guide at https://www.parallels.com/products/business/resources/
Resolves an issue with custom setup for getting support in Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition

Parallels Desktop 12 For Mac Is The World's Strongest

Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac 12.0.2 (41353) addresses overall stability and performance issues, and includes the following fixes:

Resolves an issue with printing from Windows using a shared printer from Mac, with error message 'There was an internal error and Parallels Desktop is unable to print this document'
Resolves an issue with Ctrl + mouse click or tap not opening a context menu in virtual machines
Resolves an issue with the 'Web Pages: Open in Mac' feature not working in some builds of Windows 10 virtual machines
Resolves an issue with Parallels Desktop crashing when the application is quit
Resolves an issue with unexpected desktop space switching when using a virtual machine in full screen with external displays
Resolves an accidental case sensitivity issues with files on Shared Folder

Parallels Desktop 12

Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac 12.0.1 (41296) addresses overall stability and performance issues, and includes the following fixes:

Resolves an issue with virtual machines booting into a black screen
Resolves an issue with Windows applications missing from the Dock after upgrading to Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac. If you have already upgraded and apps are missing, relaunch the apps from Windows and pin them to the Dock again. Then delete any broken app icons from the Dock
Resolves an issue with file associations not being remembered after installing Parallels Desktop for Mac updates (any missing associations must be created again)
Resolves an issue with virtual machine crashing after connecting or disconnecting an external display
Resolves an issue with printing from Windows using a shared printer from Mac
Resolves an accidental issue with the mouse loosing focus in Windows and releasing to Mac
Resolves issues with Windows 10 repeatedly asking to set a default browser and not preserving the setting to open URLs from Windows in Mac
Resolves an issue with Parallels Tools not installing in Linux virtual machines with 4.7 kernel
Resolves an issue with memory leaks in Linux Shared Folder driver

Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac release build 12.0.0 (41273) includes the following new features:

Performance

Up to 90 percent faster snapshot creation
Up to 60 percent faster suspending of virtual machines
Up to 25 percent faster Shared Folders performance
Up to 10 percent battery life improvement
Improved virtual machine responsiveness when your Mac is low on free memory
For better performance, when Windows is idle but you're working in OS X, Windows will no longer perform resource-intensive maintenance tasks.

Windows 10

Schedule when Windows 10 does maintenance, like downloading and installing updates

Parallels Desktop For Mac Pro

Productivity

New options to Windows apps settings in the Dock: Keep Mac Awake, Always Hide Others, Enable Do Not Disturb, Start in Full Screen
Ability to open Microsoft Office online documents from your Mac browser in Windows office apps (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
Quicker attachments: list of recent files in File Explorer and Outlook 2016 for Windows now shows files which were opened, edited, or downloaded recently on the Mac
New mode that puts virtual machines in the background to make them ready in seconds when needed.

Other New Features

Simplified backup: one year of Acronis True Image 500GB cloud backup storage, which can back up changes to a virtual machine instead of having to resave the entire virtual machine every time changes are made
Ability to run a virtual machine in Coherence without the Parallels Desktop icon in the Dock
Retina display: resizing a Windows 10 virtual machine window preserves proper size of text and icons
Retina display: when using Windows 10 on a Mac laptop with external display(s) connected, you can set an independent screen resolution for each display
An option to store Edge and Internet Explorer passwords in Mac Keychain
Retina resolution support for OS X virtual machines

General Enhancements

New design for virtual machine windows in shutdown, suspended, and paused states, including updated screens when starting or resuming a virtual machine in Coherence and a 'Play” control on the virtual machine thumbnail in Control Center.
Native look for .exe files on the Mac desktop and in the Finder
Fully featured toolbar for virtual machines in full screen mode

Parallels Toolbox for Mac

The Parallels Toolbox feature in Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac and the Pro Edition makes it easy to perform 20 common tasks on the Mac with simple single-function tools that don’t require settings customization. With the Pro Edition or a subscription to the stand-alone Parallels Toolbox for Mac, additional tools will be made available every few months to make your life even easier. Initial tools include:

Audio and video management: record audio, mute microphone, video downloader, and video convertor
Screenshots made simple: capture area, window, or screen
Screen recording: record area, window, or screen
Time management: alarm, timer, date countdown, and stopwatch
Peace, productivity and privacy: do not disturb, do not sleep, hide desktop icons, and lock screen
Archiving: archive and un-archive

Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac Pro Edition

Parallels Desktop 12 For Mac Is The World's Hardest

Includes all the features of Standard Edition, plus these additional features:

Parallels Desktop 12 For Mac Review

Compile Visual Studio projects on shared folders up to 25 percent faster
Limit virtual machines disk I/O speed, CPU usage, and bandwidth when you want to run tasks in multiple virtual machines
In-place virtual machine archiving even when running out of free disk space
Pre-defined profiles for testing network related apps in virtual machines: 100% Loss, 3G, DSL. EDGE, Very Bad Network, Wi-Fi
New advanced settings for Shared Folders
Support for /etc/resolver/ - set name servers for specified zones when you are in VPN
Support for Secure Boot standard for Windows 10 virtual machines
Support for Apple Hypervisor engine
Quick access to built-in Windows utilities from virtual machine title bar.