Parallels just launched Parallels Desktop 16(PD16) for Mac, that has been designed to be consistent with the new macOS Big Sur interface. It promises increased graphics performance. PD16 subscribers receive complimentary concurrent subscriptions to Parallels Toolbox for Mac and Windows and Parallels Access.
“Parallels invested more than 25-man-years of engineer programming to take full advantage of the new macOS Big Sur architecture and revamped kernel extensions to deliver our best Windows-on-Mac performance ever for our Parallels Desktop 16 customers,” said Nick Dobrovolskiy, Parallels Senior Vice President of Engineering and Support. “The innovative new
features in Parallels Desktop 16 include the world’s first support for Metal applications with 3D capabilities running in a macOS Big Sur virtual machine on a macOS Big Sur host. Performance improvements include launching twice as fast, up to 20 percent faster Windows resume and shutdown, faster DirectX and more.”
New Feature Highlights of Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac:
The old Parallels Desktop design using Parallels system extensions is shown on the left, and the newly-invented Parallels Desktop 16, using macOS Big Sur APIs, is shown on the right.
- DirectX 11 and OpenGL 3: Up to 20 percent faster DirectX 11 and improved OpenGL 3
- graphics in Windows and Linux.
- • Increased battery life: Stay productive on the go with up to 10 percent longer battery
- life when Windows runs in Travel Mode.
- • Automatically reclaim disk space: Virtual machines (VMs) can be set to automatically
- return unused disk space when shutting down.
- • New multi-touch gestures for Windows apps: Use smooth zoom and rotate Trackpad
- multi-touch gestures in Windows apps.
- • Enhanced printing: Print on both sides and use more paper sizes, from A0 to envelope.
- Parallels Desktop 16, for example, supports 3D in a metal application while running a virtual machine of MacOS Big Sur on a macOS Big Sur host. Printers can be shared between hosts and virtual machines on the operating system, and support for zoom and rotate gestures has been added on the multitouch trackpad for Windows apps with zoom.
- The Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac with support for M1 processors now includes: New features. Apple releases macOS Big Sur 11.3 beta 8. IPhone 13 smaller notch design revealed.
- Aug 11, 2020 While support for Big Sur is the headline feature, Parallels 16 also comes with several new features and improvements. This version claims to launch twice as fast and offers a 20 percent.
Availability and Pricing
All editions of Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac (Standard Edition, Pro Edition and Business Edition) are available now for purchase either online at parallels.com/desktop (which also offers free fullfeatured 14-day trials for new users) or from retail and online stores worldwide. Parallels
Desktop subscriptions include complimentary concurrent subscriptions to Parallels Toolbox for Mac and Windows and Parallels Access, which are also separately available to all PC and Mac users as standalone products for free trials and subscriptions.
Current Parallels Desktop for Mac customers (any edition) can get upgrade pricing for Parallels Desktop 16 online at parallels.com/desktop-upgrade. New customers can download free trials and purchase at parallels.com/desktop.
Recommended Retail Price (RRP)
Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac
• Upgrade from any edition to a perpetual license – US$49.99
• New subscription – US$79.99 per year
• New perpetual license – US$99.99
Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro Edition
• Upgrade from any edition – US$49.99 per year
• New subscription – US$99.99 per year
Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition
• US$99.99 per year
PRO vs BUSINESS EDITION
Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac Pro Edition
The #1 selling version of Parallels Desktop is Parallels Desktop Pro Edition. It is a more powerful, feature-rich and flexible solution than the Standard Edition yet simple to use. Parallels Desktop Pro Edition makes it easy for anyone to enjoy maximum productivity. New and key Pro Edition features include:
• CPUs and RAM: Assign up to 32 vCPUs and 128 GB vRAM for each VM.
• Microsoft Visual Studio plug-in: Visual Studio integration simplifies testing
applications across operating systems.
• Create and name custom networks (new): Name your custom networks for more organized and productive testing.
• Nested Virtualization: Run and test Microsoft Hyper-V based virtual machines in your Parallels Desktop virtual machine.
• Command Line: Rich command line interface (prlctl and prlsrvctl) allows flexible work automatization.
• Vagrant, Docker, and Jenkins Plugins: Complimentary Vagrant, Docker and
Jenkins plugins/providers for developers.
• Linked Clones: Make a new VM from a snapshot of the exiting VM. The linked clone occupies only a fraction of disk space that is used by the parent VM, as it reuses disk sectors that are the same for both VMs.
• Archive a VM right in Control Center: Pro users tend to have many virtual
machines which occupy a lot of disk space. In-place archive right from Parallels Desktop Control Center, with the ability to manage the configuration of an archived VM, brings unique convenience.
• Prepare for transfer (new): Export a VM in a compressed format as a solid file for easier and faster upload and transfer to new hardware.
• 50+ features: More than 50 useful and time-saving features are included in the Pro Edition.
Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac Business Edition
New Parallels Desktop 16 Business Edition features, which are in addition to all Pro Edition features, include:
• Corporate VM provisioning: Easily configure VMs with preinstalled applications to upload and host for employees to securely download and run on their Mac devices.
• Upgrade control: Centralized administration provides flexible controls to manage access to new Parallels Desktop updates, new feature releases, upgrades and new macOS releases.
• Password-less update: Administrator credentials are no longer required for Parallels Desktop updates, making it easier for IT and users to keep it current even when users are not admins on their Mac devices.
• Easy installation on macOS Big Sur: Parallels Desktop installation on macOS Big Sur does NOT require approval of system extension, so installation is fast, seamless and does not require rebooting your Mac.
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Install Big Sur On Parallels
Guest blog post from Dmitry Geynisman, Product Manager at Parallels
You may have seen these messages from both macOS and Parallels Desktop for Mac:
No worries, in this blog post I will explain the situation in detail. First, I will give you a relatively short answer about why Parallels® Desktop uses system extensions, and then more details will follow.
- Parallels Desktop uses a hypervisor technology to create a high-performance virtual machine, so you can run Windows, Linux, macOS, and other operating systems inside it.
- There are 2 types of hypervisors on macOS that Parallels can use: Apple’s built-in hypervisor or Parallels’ proprietary hypervisor. Parallels proprietary hypervisor is implemented as a system extension.
- System extensions in macOS enable developers to integrate deep into the macOS system to achieve better performance or provide some unique functionality.
Parallels 16, Big Sur, Windows 10, MacBook Pro 2015 15 ...
- When Parallels Desktop attempts to load the Parallels hypervisor system extensions, macOS prompts a user to ‘allow’ this. System extensions have elevated privileges and if they are coming from a non-trusted source, can be used maliciously. So, it is a security precaution, similar to how your phone apps ask to access your camera.
If you downloaded Parallels Desktop from parallels.com and the system extension is signed by “Parallels International GmbH”, then you are in good hands.
- Parallels recommends you use Apple’s built-in hypervisor. That way macOS won’t bother you with System Extension approval or the need to reboot. However, if you need to use the Nested Virtualization feature or a specific workload where Parallels hypervisor shows higher performance scores, you may keep using Parallels hypervisor.
- To change a hypervisor type, first, you need to shut down or stop your virtual machine. Note that for this you might need to start or resume the virtual machine and approve Parallels hypervisor system extension.
When your VM is stopped, go to VM configuration > Hardware > CPU & Memory > Advanced Settings > click on the “Hypervisor” dropdown > select “Apple” or “Parallels” respectively.
If you have multiple virtual machines, you may need to change the setting for every one of them.
Now, if you’re not bored yet, I’d love to tell you more about this story.
For more than a decade, Parallels developed its proprietary drivers (aka system extensions) for running Windows and other OSes on top of the macOS. These drivers made Parallels Desktop the best virtualization solution, the fastest, and the most technologically advanced.
At the same time, for several years, Apple has been moving towards making macOS the most secure and reliable desktop OS (and I should say, Apple succeeded in many ways). One of the key aspects is not to let developers intrude on the OS kernel by loading those extensions (aka “kexts”), as those who have access to the kernel can do things at the very heart of your Mac, which may prove quite dangerous. In order to do that, Apple must replace 3rd-party kernel extensions with the native system APIs that ultimately enable the same product features, and that is massive engineering work even for such a big enterprise as Apple.
Since 2017, with the macOS High Sierra 10.13 release, Apple started to block 3rd-party kexts automatically, and users have had to enable them manually since. At that time, we published this blog post that can tell you even more about Parallels Desktop using system extensions.
In March 2020, with the release of macOS Catalina 10.15.4, Apple started to warn users that some of their apps (that use deprecated system extension) would “be incompatible with a future version of macOS” (read: with macOS Big Sur).
At WWDC20, Apple was quoted as saying that “System Extensions improve the reliability and security of macOS, and deprecated kernel extensions will not load by default in macOS Big Sur”. Eventually, to make Parallels Desktop fully compatible with the new macOS Big Sur 11.0, Parallels Engineering has gone through years of engineering work of rebuilding Parallels Desktop and its features using the new macOS system APIs. This extensive and time-intensive development resulted in the all-new Parallels Desktop, explicitly designed to work and integrate with new macOS Big Sur technologies, and at the same time, deliver performance and productivity improvements to benefit Parallels Desktop customers.
This scheme below visually describes the difference between the default Parallels Desktop modes on the corresponding macOS version. The old Parallels Desktop design using Parallels system extensions is shown on the left, and the newly-invented Parallels Desktop 16, using macOS Big Sur APIs, is shown on the right.
For now, our team continues to work on supporting both Parallels and Apple hypervisors and continues collaborating with Apple on implementing the rest of Parallels Hypervisor features to Apple Hypervisor. We recommend using Apple hypervisor, and if you notice any difference between Apple and Parallels hypervisors for your use case, please let us know.
Download a free trial of Parallels Desktop for Mac and try it out yourself.