Parallels Desktop

Parallels Desktop for Mac App Store Edition 1.9.2 (build 23872) update addresses the overall stability and security issues and includes the following additions and improvements:

General
· Introduces a new approach to VM cloning using native APFS mechanisms that drastically improves cloning operation speed;
· Fixes an issue where a VM window becomes half transparent while running on a Mac with multiple displays;
· Fixes an issue where Parallels Desktop loses network communication in an IPv6-only network.

Windows 11
· Fixes an issue where Windows VM fails with BSOD while running on an external drive with macOS Sonoma as a primary OS;
· Fixes an issue where a video timeline was not displayed correctly in the VIRBE video editor;
· Sets A4 as a default paper size for new shared printers added to Windows machines.

Look and Feel
• Adds redesigned dialogs and alerts for easier interaction with the application;
• Adds a "Do not show again" checkbox to the warning dialog when reverting to a snapshot.

Windows on Mac
• Integration with Mac: Enables using your Mac’s Touch ID to log into your Windows 10 or Windows 11 virtual machine. Your Windows account credentials are securely stored in macOS Keychain, protected with Touch ID, and available only on this Mac.
• Graphics: Adds support for OpenGL up to version 4.1 in Windows, enabling you to run ArcGIS CityEngine 2023, Vectorworks Vision 2023, VariCAD, and more. This version also improves the performance of ArcGIS Pro software.
• Printing: On macOS Sonoma, Parallels Desktop 1.9.0 now uses an Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) for printing from Windows that provides better compatibility with hardware-supported features.
• Keyboard: In Microsoft Edge, Command+W now closes a tab instead of quitting the application.

Linux
• Adds support for several newest Linux distributions, including Ubuntu 22.04.2, Fedora 38, Debian 12, CentOS 9, and more;
• Enables installing and running the Arm version of CentOS 9 Stream on Mac computers with Apple Silicon.


What was removed from Parallels Desktop 1.9.0:
According to the statistics from the users who participate in the Parallels Customer Experience program, some product features are rarely used or not at all. We have decided to either stop supporting and remove them from Parallels Desktop or focus on frequently used features and further enhancements.

• macOS 10.14, 10.15, and 11 (as primary OS) will not be able to run Parallels Desktop 1.9.0. As a user, you can still use previous versions of Parallels Desktop on these macOS systems;
• On Mac computers with Intel processors, older Windows OS versions (2000, XP, Vista, 8, and 8.1) are no longer supported. As a user, you can still install or use them, but they are no longer maintained. Parallels recommends upgrading to the latest versions;
• The “Print to PDF (Mac Desktop)” printing option is no longer available. Use Microsoft’s "Print to PDF" instead;

- New application icon that reflects the latest macOS design guidelines.
- Adds support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1 on Mac computers with M-series chips.
- Fixes an issue of broken video playback on Ubuntu 22.04 VMs after suspension and resumption.
- Fixes an issue of inability to write or delete files on a VM-connected SD card.
- Fixes an issue of Pytha CAD software incorrectly displaying black lines on 3D objects.

This is a major update for Parallels Desktop™. We made it more stable, secure and comfortable to use—and it’s compatible with macOS® 10.15 Catalina.
The product has been renamed to Parallels Desktop.
Though some features of Parallels Desktop™ for Mac are still unavailable in this App Store edition, the new version contains the following new features, fixes and improvements.

macOS 10.15 Catalina
-Use “Sign in with Apple” to create a Parallels account.
-Get improved support for Apple Pencil® drawing capabilities when you work with Windows applications on an iPad® using Sidecar.
- Tilt support for Apple Pencil
- Double-tap Apple Pencil to get new Touch Bar™ options
- Toggle between Pen, Eraser and Mouse modes
- Easily take a snip, enable Windows Tablet mode or open the Windows onscreen keyboard from Touch Bar

Graphics
-With the help of Apple Metal®, Parallels introduces support for DirectX® 11. Now you can run Autodesk 3ds Max 2020, Lumion, ArcGIS Pro 2.3, products from MasterSeries and more.
-Play popular games including Madden NFL 19, Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, Anno 2205, Railway Empire, Space Engineers, Frostpunk, Risk of Rain 2 and many more.
-DirectX 3D graphics are now accelerated by the Apple Metal engine.
-Enjoy enhanced compatibility with new Linux distributions due to Virtio GPU. This supports sliding mouse (Parallels Desktop captures the mouse cursor), dynamic resolution (the screen resolution changes dynamically if you resize the virtual machine window) and multimonitor support—even without Parallels Tools.

Performance
-Some applications can use DirectX 11 and thus are much faster, compared to being unusably slow in previous versions.
-3D graphics are up to 15% faster.
-User interface is more responsive.

Hardware
-Support for non-volatile memory express (NVMe) disk controller—the next generation of storage controllers. NVMe is more virtualization friendly and effective than Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI). NVMe leverages not just solid-state storage (SSD) but also modern multicore CPUs.
-Support for Intel HDA audio card:
- Supports up to 8/2 channels (out/in), 192kHz sample rate and 32-bit samples
- Improved sound quality of VoIP phones
- Support for “jack sense”
-Automatic detection when the microphone is muted. If access to the Mac microphone is not allowed by the user or macOS preferences, Windows shows the microphone as muted.
-Automatic detection when sound output is disabled. If it is disabled in the virtual machine settings, Windows also shows sound output as disabled.
-Support for Bluetooth Low Energy. This allows you to use more devices, including Logitech Craft, IrisPEN and some IoT devices (such as smart home appliances and smart bands).
-Version of the Bluetooth driver is 4.0.

Convenience
-When reverting to a snapshot, Parallels Desktop offers to save the current VM state as a new snapshot.
-Though dragging and dropping images has been supported from the very beginning, some of the latest macOS screenshots cannot be simply dragged to Windows because of the new format. We have enhanced drag-and-drop functionality—now you can drag screenshot previews, images from Safari, Photos and other macOS applications and drop them to your Windows applications.
-Completely redesigned keyboard layouts support several improved aspects, including:
- Excel shortcuts Ctrl+ and Ctrl- are now supported
- Improved support for JIS keyboard
- Fixed input with CAPS LOCK on for most of non-English layouts

This update for Parallels Desktop Lite 1.4.0 addresses overall stability and performance issues, and includes the following fixes and improvements:

Performance
• Up to 80 percent faster application launch.
• Up to 30 percent faster suspend operation on APFS partition.
• Up to 130 percent more frames per second in Shared Camera.

Linux support
• Install Ubuntu 18.04, Fedora 28, and Linux Mint 19 in virtual machines right from Parallels Desktop.
• Support for mmap() in Linux Shared Folders.
• New pre-configured virtual machines with Debian GNU/Linux 9 and CentOS 7.
• Resolves an issue with Parallels Tools not installing in openSUSE Leap 15 and Ubuntu Linux.
• Resolves an issue with Parallels Tools not working in Linux virtual machines with X Server 1.20.
• Resolves an issue with Ubuntu 18.04 virtual machines periodically crashing or locking up.
• Resolves an issue with Ubuntu 18.10 virtual machines not installing.
• Resolves an issue with not being able to mount the same shared folder twice in a Linux virtual machine.

Graphics
• The new “Auto” mode for graphics allows Windows to use more than 2 GB of Mac system memory for graphics, while allowing Windows applications to use it when possible.
• Support for OpenGL 3.x in Windows virtual machines.
• Improved the way a virtual machine is displayed on 4K+ monitors:
• reduced the system and graphics memory consumption;
• increased performance when 3D acceleration is turned off.
• Improved the way a virtual machine is displayed on multiple monitors when the macOS “Displays have separate Spaces” option is turned off.

Ready for macOS 10.14 Mojave
• Parallels Desktop Lite supports Dark Mode.
• Use the virtual machine’s Edit menu to insert pictures from your iPhone or iPad into Windows applications.
• Quick Look in Windows has the same functionality as that in macOS.
• Parallels Desktop Lite uses the Mojave technology to take screenshots.

Integration with Mac
• Use your Mac’s camera that supports up to 4K resolutions in a virtual machine
• Use the Touch Bar to work with more Windows applications.
• The size of the virtual machine hard disk (.hdd file) is optimized by means of native Windows defragmentation.

Security
• Backing up a virtual machine with Time Machine has been simplified. Now if you want to add a virtual machine to the backup list or exclude it from this list, just do what you need in the Time Machine preferences.
• Backing up a virtual machine with Acronis True Image has been improved.

Usability
• Easier way to get help from Parallels - click Help > Support Center to access the webpage where you can find the most popular knowledgeable articles, links to the Parallels forums, social media and technical documentation, get personalized support and much more.
• The “Free Up Disk Space” dialog has been redesigned and simplified. Now you can use it to reduce the amount of disk space occupied by all your virtual machines.
• A paused virtual machine resumes automatically when you drag a file to its window.
• As most of Windows customers have switched from Windows 8 to Windows 10, the “Enable swipe from edges” option is disabled by default in order not to confuse users.
• Windows Maintenance feature has been improved.
• For new virtual machines, the SmartGuard backup functionality now keeps 3 snapshots by default (not to occupy additional disk space).
• The Resource Monitor has been redesigned. Use it to check how much CPU and memory is consumed by your Mac and all virtual machines.
• Monitor the virtual machine CPU usage in the virtual machine status bar.
• When you click a macOS notification that a technical data report has been sent, the report ID is automatically copied to the clipboard.

Support for keyboard layouts
• Improved support for the German keyboard layout.
• Improved support for the Japanese keyboard layout.
• Added support for the Brazilian Portuguese keyboard layout.