The IT Nerd

It’s late summer and the universe is expecting a new Apple OS to hit the streets. That means it must be time for Parallels to drop a new version of the visualization software Parallels Desktop for Mac onto the world. This year it’s Parallels Desktop 11 and as usual it brings a bunch of new features to the table.

The biggest piece of news is full support for Windows 10. That includes support for Cortana which is Microsoft’s virtual assistant that competes against Apple’s Siri. One cool thing is that you can run Windows 10 in Coherence mode which integrates Windows apps inside OS X so that they are seamless. That means you can run Cortana in OS X and it works perfectly. I’m sure that once some people at 1 Infinite Loop see this, they will make a concerted push to get Siri onto OS X sooner rather than later.

Next up are multiple editions of Parallels Desktop. You now get three versions to choose from. There’s a Parallels Desktop Pro Edition and a Business Edition that give you the ability to create a virtual machine with up to 64 GB virtual RAM and up to 16 virtual CPUs. That’s perfect for power users such as developers. Plus they support the Microsoft Visual Studio Plug-in as well as for popular development, design, and test tools including Docker, Jenkins, and Chef. Support for Business Cloud Services is also included in these editions. One thing that is unique to the Pro Edition is complimentary Parallels Access support which means that you can remotely access the virtual machine from anywhere. Finally, both the Pro Edition and Business Edition have unlimited licenses. However, while the “normal” Parallels Desktop which only lets you have five licenses is a one time fee. The other additions are yearly subscriptions.

What you really care about is performance. Here’s what Parallels promises along my thoughts:

• For Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, boot time and shut down time can be as much as 50% faster: Part of my problem in terms of judging this is that I have recently moved to a MacBook Pro that has screaming fast storage. But I can see that starting and shutting down up my Windows 10 virtual machine is way faster than what it was before on this machine. But I cannot confirm that it is 50% faster:
• Battery life is extended by up to 15%: There’s a new trick that Parallels has added called Travel mode that does extend battery life based on my testing. Again I cannot confirm that it does so by 15%. But you do notice it.
• Virtual machines suspend up to 20% faster: This might sound familiar, but while I found that virtual machines do suspend faster than before, I cannot say that it is 20% faster.
• Many tasks in Windows are up to 25% faster: I did find that Windows virtual machines were faster from my “seat of the pants” testing. But my Windows Experience scores on either my Windows 7 virtual machine or my Windows Vista virtual machine did not change so I am unable to quantify that.

Another thing that Parallels did add is the ability for virtual machines to get location services from OS X. It does prompt you when the requests happen so that you can make a choice about whether you want to provide that info or not. Finally, this version of Parallels Desktop is ready for Apple upcoming version of OS X which is El Capitan.

Oddities? I had my Windows 10 virtual machine crash a couple of times on boot after I first installed Parallels Desktop 10 which caused the application to send an error report to Parallels. Then it behaved normally. Bug? That’s possible. This version of Parallels Desktop has only been out for a few days so that’s possible. Temporary gremlin? That’s possible. I couldn’t tell you, but I thought I would mention it.

In terms of pricing, it depends on the version:

• Parallels Desktop: $79.95 USD. Upgrade available for $49.95 USD.
• Parallels Desktop Pro Edition: $99.95 per year USD. Upgrade available for $49.95 USD.
• Parallels Desktop Business Edition: $99.95 per year.

Parallels Desktop 11 is a winner on all fronts. It is fast, it works, and it is a pain free way of running Windows on your Mac. Consider this a must get if you are in need of running Windows on your Mac.

This entry was posted on September 8, 2015 at 10:00 am and is filed under Products with tags Parallels Desktop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.