Parallels Desktop 16 launched on the Mac today. It's the latest major release of the software used by developers and others to run Windows, Linux, and macOS applications and virtual machines under macOS. Its most notable offering is full support for macOS Big Sur.
According to the Parallels representatives Ars spoke with, Big Sur support was no small task: Big Sur ended support for the third-party kernel extensions that Parallels built on. That meant an enormous amount of work was required to play nice with Big Sur—25 human-years of engineering work, they claimed.
Beyond DirectX 11 support, Parallels Desktop 15 will also support macOS Catalina’s new Sidecar feature. This means you’ll be able to use Windows apps on an iPad once you’re using it as a second screen for your mac, and it conjointly includes improved Apple Pencil support. Why isn’t DirectX 11 supported in Parallels Desktop? One of the mandatory DX11 features is called “compute shaders.” The name “shaders” usually refers to graphical functions that calculate the appropriate color and brightness for an image, but “compute shaders” are quite different.
In addition to supporting Big Sur for both host machines and virtual machines, Parallels Desktop 16 has a slightly different look to fit the different appearance Apple has gone with in Big Sur.Cisco meeting app download mac. While Big Sur support is the flagship feature here, there's a laundry list of small improvements in this release. For example, Parallels Desktop 16 supports 3D in Metal applications when running a macOS Big Sur virtual machine on a macOS Big Sur host.
- Parallels Desktop 11 and 12 only partially support macOS 'High Sierra': A Coherence Mode windows may appear under MacOS windows, and some graphics artifacts may occur. B Neither Parallels Desktop 11 nor 12 fully support APFS disks, including virtual disks and Boot Camp partitions. Therefore, a 'High Sierra' guest machine must be installed.
- Parallels Desktop, DirectX 11 and Metal The recently released Parallels Desktop® 15 for Mac has a number of excellent features that will benefit its huge user base in a variety of ways.
Printers can be shared between host and virtual machines across operating systems, and support has been added for zoom and rotate gestures on multitouch trackpads for Windows apps that have zoom/rotation functionality. Parallels Desktop 16 also promises faster performance than the previous version; it claims to launch twice as fast and offer a 20-percent improvement in DirectX performance, as well as 75-percent faster 'git status' in Linux virtual machines. Support for newer versions of OpenGL has expanded which Windows apps will run in a virtual machine via Parallels.
Pro Edition users can now name their custom networks, and they can export virtual machines in a compressed format that Parallels claims are a fraction of their precompression size. Also, Parallels has launched a plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio to simplify testing on different OSes.
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We asked about any plans for supporting Windows on Apple Silicon in Big Sur, but Parallels reps declined to talk about that, saying they would discuss it at a later date.Parallels Desktop 16 will be available starting today. The standard edition is a one-time purchase at $99.99, while the Pro and Business Editions require a $99.99 per year subscription. Upgrading from Parallels Desktop 14 or 15 to the new version costs $49.99 once for the standard edition.
That package includes Parallels Toolbox, which was recently updated with new tools and features as well. Those include a screen-break tracker, a unit converter, and show desktop and window manager options for Macs.
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Today, popular virtualization software Parallels Desktop 15 for Mac becomes available to new and current users. The flagship feature is support for DirectX in virtual Windows machines via Apple's proprietary Metal graphics API. Other additions include a handful of new macOS Catalina-related features and improvements to transitions between Mac and Windows software running on the same machine.
When we wrote about Parallels Desktop 14 around this time last year, we asked about Metal support. The application then still relied entirely on OpenGL in macOS, and Apple had already announced that continued support for OpenGL would end. We were told it was coming, and we were not misled: the new version of Parallels Desktop now supports DirectX 9, 10, and 11 via Metal. Previously, DirectX 9 and 10 were supported via OpenGL and DirectX 11 was not supported at all. Parallels' rep noted to us that 'Metal and DirectX work best in Catalina.'
Apple's new macOS Catalina software for Macs launches this fall, and Parallels Desktop 15 supports a few of the key features of that new release. That includes Sign In with Apple, which can now be used to authenticate with a Parallels account. Catalina also means you can use your iPad as an external display alongside a Mac via Apple's new Sidecar feature—and Parallels makes this work not just for macOS applications but for Windows as well. Apple Pencil support is included for both environments.There's a plethora of additional features both Catalina-related and otherwise—Bluetooth low-energy support, the ability to drag items from Safari or Photos in macOS to your virtual Windows machine, and more—which you can read about on the Parallels website. But one of the recurring themes we noticed during a presentation of the new software by Parallels was improvements to how Coherence mode works.
AdvertisementCoherence facilitates seamless movement between Windows and macOS apps; it essentially puts Windows apps in macOS windows, which includes macOS-like behaviors, a place in the Mac's dock, and so on. Sometimes, this might create confusion for users unfamiliar with it, so many small aspects of the transitions and workflow for Coherence have been improved for clarity and efficiency.
Additionally, Parallels Desktop 15 Pro and Business editions now feature a Virtual Platform Trusted Module, which is 'a new virtual machine hardware to VM configuration required by Windows to enable additional security features.'
Ottawa-based Corel acquired Bellevue, Washington-based Parallels in December. Corel also includes WinZip, CorelDraw, PaintShop Pro, WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, and numerous other software products in its portfolio. Download csgo on mac. This is the first major Parallels release since the acquisition.
Perpetual license upgrades to Parallels Desktop 15 start at $49.99. Meanwhile, new subscriptions start at $79.99 annually while new perpetual licenses start at $99.99.
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