Review: Parallels Desktop 13 for Mac November 13, 2017 / Steven Sande Parallels Desktop 13 for Mac was released a few months ago, and since then I've been using it to run Windows, Linux, Mac and even Android virtual machines on my 27-inch iMac. Parallels Desktop is the easiest, fastest, and most tightly integrated app for running Windows apps or the Windows desktop in Apple OS X. Pros: Parallels Desktop four.Zero for Mac is a totally strong software that allows parallel mac guest operating systems to run on top of host working structures. Thus, you could run a couple of operating structures at the equal time. Parallels Desktop is an invaluable tool for those who use a Mac at work, but who need to run legacy apps accessible only via Windows. Desktop 9 is the latest annual refresh – packing support for. If you’ve recently moved from a Windows machine to a Mac, or if you just want to see what Windows 8 has to offer, Parallels could be right for you. The app enables you to run Windows either as a full virtualisation of Windows, with the new Metro interface and a standard desktop, or by opening.
9.0Outstanding
Pros
✓Runs Windows and Linux VMs on Macs
✓Tight integration of Windows and Mac features
✓Improved performance and battery life
✓Supports Windows 10 and OS X El Capitan
Cons
✕Requires plenty of memory and processor power
✕Poor documentation for newcomers
Updates to the popular Parallels Desktop virtualisation program generally coincide with new versions of the Mac operating system, so it's no surprise to see that Parallels Desktop 11 arrives just a few weeks ahead of Apple's new OS X v10.11 -- a.k.a. El Capitan. But, of course, this year's update also follows the recent arrival of Windows 10, which means that Parallels Desktop 11 is a fairly major update that provides support for both of these new operating systems.
Hey Cortana, where's Siri?
Review Of Parallels For Mac
The most impressive aspect of Parallels Desktop 11 is not simply that it allows you to run Windows as a virtual machine (VM) on the Mac (along with various versions of Unix, and even Android and ChromeOS too), but that it continues to integrate the Mac and Windows environments so that features from each operating system become almost interchangeable.
Review Parallels For Mac
One of the headline features in Windows 10 is Cortana, the 'personal assistant' that lets you use voice commands to find information on the web, send messages and perform a variety of other tasks. Cortana is often compared to Apple's Siri, but Siri is currently only available on Apple's iOS devices and doesn't run on the Mac. Parallels Desktop 11 therefore pulls off quite a trick by allowing Cortana to not only run within a Windows 10 virtual machine, but also to run with the VM hidden or running in the background while you work in native Mac apps. So, while I'm typing this review in Apple's Pages wordprocessor, I can say 'Hey Cortana - schedule a meeting'. The Cortana window then pops up from the Dock on the Mac desktop and lists options for my meeting.
OS integration
Parallels For Mac Review 2017
Other examples of this OS integration include the Mac's QuickLook option, which now works within Windows too, allowing you to preview documents stored on a Windows virtual machine just by hitting the space bar on your keyboard.