I don’t have the biggest software library at my disposal, but every 64-bit app I tried performed flawlessly. Its emulator for running Intel-based software wasn’t yet compatible with 64-bit Intel apps, but that’s changed. The version of Windows for ARM64 available in April was the issue. That made the preview a non-starter for a lot of modern productivity software for Windows, which had long assumed that current PCs used 64-bit processors and the corresponding version of Windows. After installing the preview of the ARM64 Windows 10, you could run 32-bit Intel and ARM apps 64-bit ARM apps but not 64-bit Intel apps. When the preview version of what became Parallels 17 was released last spring, it brought both promise and frustration. I tried to get id Software’s “Doom Eternal” to run on both Intel and M1 systems, and it crashed on startup both times. You’re better off with 2D games, and many games that require additional graphics software just won’t run.
Microsoft has suspended that for now, but Parallels includes a virtual TPM 2.0 chip if necessary.Īnd while no serious gamer is going to consider using Parallels to run state-of-the-art titles, this version does include an improved graphics driver and better performance for Microsoft’s DirectX. It runs the Windows 11 Preview just as well as Windows 10, and those who set up that virtual machine won’t have to worry about the need for a TPM 2.0 chip that was originally part of the requirements. The Intel version can run literally dozens of different virtual machines – 10 versions of Windows and Windows Server, as well as Boot Camp 11 versions of macOS, including the upcoming macOS 12 Montery and eight distros of Linux officially, though a Parallels spokesperson told me that it will run four more unofficially.
Even Windows 10 and 11 Preview boot times are snappy, certainly faster than booting up a real Windows PC. From a cold start, in which the app must launch as well as the virtual machine, it’s about double that to resume, but that’s still pretty impressive. On my Intel iMac, Parallels 17 gets very close to instantaneous suspend and resume times, with three seconds to suspend and just two seconds to resume, when Parallels is running.
It works so well, you can even suspend the guest operating system while it’s doing something as critical as applying a software update without doing harm. When they need to work on it again, they just resume it, and the virtual machine wakes up in the same state as before. This takes the current state of the machine running in the host Mac’s memory and saves it to disk (or an SSD). One of the things many Parallel users do frequently is suspend a virtual machine, rather than shutting it down, when they are no longer using it. That’s true on the Intel side for Parallels 17, though I’d have to say that version 16 was pretty damned zippy.
So, users can no longer be distracted from important tasks, since the shutdown and logon screens will now be displayed in a separate window that can be easily minimized.With each annual release, Parallels is touted as being faster than the previous year’s version. It will allow you to run Windows and Mac applications at the same time without even opening a Windows virtual machine window. The software comes with improvements made to the Coherence mode. It also provides higher frame rates in many 2D games such as Foregone and Smelter. The similar for graphics processing with DirectX 11, that is now 28% faster.Īdditionally, Parallels Desktop 17 introduces an improved display driver that improves the responsiveness and usability of the Windows user interface. Also, drive data transfer is now 20% faster. Macs with Apple M1 chips now run 33% faster on Windows 10 on ARM. In addition, on devices with Intel processors in macOS Big Sur virtual machines (or newer), the network connection speed is 60% faster than before. 2D graphics performance on Windows improved by 25%. Also, it renders OpenGL graphics six times faster. In terms of performance improvements, Parallels says Windows, Linux and macOS systems are now 38% faster to resume on all supported devices.
The release of both systems is scheduled for the end of 2021, but now you can install preliminary versions of them in a virtual machine. The latter can act as both the main and guest operating systems. The main innovation in Parallels Desktop 17, of course, is support for Windows 11 and macOS Monterey.