You can also run Mac operating systems back to High Sierra, 10.13. It is also interesting that Parallels will now run macOS Monterey as a virtual machine, meaning you can run two Macs on one machine, which might be of use, particularly for application testing, or if you need to run Monterey for testing before migrating to the OS on your main Mac. Microsoft has made no announcement concerning its plans, if any, to sell the ARM version of Windows to Mac users for use with Parallels, though the Windows 11 Insider Preview works fine on Apple’s computers, including M1-powered models. The biggest obstacle to Mac users hoping to use Parallels to support Windows 11 on their systems is that Microsoft hasn’t yet officially released the ARM version of Windows for sale. You’ll also find Intel Macs will support a wider range of guest OSes, mainly because ARM support is only available via Windows 10, 11, Monterey, and Linux distros Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian GNU, and Kali. Business Edition also includes security capabilities such as enforcing USB thumb drive device policies and restricting users from altering VM settings or creating new VMs.One important limitation is that Parallels will work with macOS versions up to High Sierra on Intel Macs, but M1 Macs must run Big Sur or later. Admins can also link Parallels Desktop for Mac with an update server to ensure that the guest OS stays up-to-date. Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition includes centralized deployment and management capabilities for IT administrators to streamline Windows VM delivery.

Full Screen mode creates a full guest desktop, and Modality lets users resize and customize virtual machine windows running on top of the macOS. Coherence mode runs guest and Mac applications side by side in one window. Parallels Desktop for Mac comes with three modes.

Users can also swap between macOS and Windows without rebooting their computers and select which OS they want specific applications to open in. Similarly, users can drag and drop documents, folders and other data from Windows File Explorer to Finder and vice versa. Users can choose to run Mac and guest apps side by side on the Mac OS or as a full-fledged guest virtual desktop. For example, users can open a Windows app such as Internet Explorer or Windows Media Player from the Mac Finder utility. Parallels Desktop for Mac is desktop virtualization software that allows Microsoft Windows, Linux and Google Chrome OSes and applications to run on an Apple Mac computer. The software integrates the guest OS into macOS, allowing it to mimic native OS performance.

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