How do we know that we are in the middle of summer? Of course, we are dying of heat. But early August is also traditionally the time for Parallels — Corel-owned since 2018 — to update its flagship virtualization tool, Parallels Desktop.
Version 18 of the software is already optimized for macOS Ventura, whether on a Mac host or as a virtual machine. Stage Manager will also be there.
This update also brings support for the ProMotion screens of the 14 and 16 inch MacBooks with their dynamic refresh rate and above all, Parallels is fully compatible with the M1 Ultra chip of the most high-end Mac Studios. The publisher had let it be known last May that Desktop 17 would not be able of this feat.
The (happy) owners of such a machine will be able to assign more resources to the Windows 11 virtual machine and obtain a performance gain of up to 98%, and bim. Parallels also promises improved compatibility of x86 applications with the ARM version of Windows 11, including reading and writing from the Mac disk (99.99% of Intel apps work well on Desktop 18, according to Corel). The software is also compatible with the new M2 chip.
USB 3.0 support is also improving for devices dedicated to streaming video capture. Paired gamepads on the Mac will work on the Windows VM without further ado. Still in terms of games, compatibility is improving with some big titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive which can now start on this new version.
Parallels Desktop 18 comes in three flavors: the Mac Standard edition with the above features, the Mac Pro edition with additional features like virtual machine network isolation for added security, and a Mac Business edition that notably allows admins to deploy and transfer Windows 11 VMs to a fleet of Macs.
The price for the Mac Standard edition is €129.99 perpetual license, or €99.99 per year. An upgrade from a previous version costs €69.99. Parallels Desktop 18 runs on a Mac with at least macOS Mojave.