Parallels 19 is out (the thread previously about Parallels 17 and 18)

Feek · 10 Aug 2021 at 07:49

Just had a ping to let me know that Parallels 17 has been released and it's fully M1 compatible - It's still not entirely clear whether it emulates Windows x64 or if it's just the ARM version though.

Armageus · 10 Aug 2021 at 08:00

Sounds like if running on M1 you'd need to use the Arm version of Windows and then rely on that to emulates x64

https://www.theverge.com/platform/a...ows-11-preview-emulation-performance-upgrades

Feek · 10 Aug 2021 at 08:05

Well that's still garbage.

Terminal_Boy · 10 Aug 2021 at 08:15

What does Parallels do that VMWare Fusion doesn’t?

I always got the feeling that Parallels was a more enthusiast/expert user tool and Fusion was the “Set it up once and leave it” option for regular users.

ChrisD. · 10 Aug 2021 at 08:40

Terminal_Boy said:
What does Parallels do that VMWare Fusion doesn’t?

What do you mean exactly?

ChrisD. · 10 Aug 2021 at 17:21

I paid £39.99 to renew Parallels in April and now they want another £39.99 to upgrade to 17, I find that a bit cheeky.

Going to run an internal build of Fusion I think as it's free for me and I have access to the dev builds.

Feek · 10 Aug 2021 at 17:27

ChrisD. said:
I paid £39.99 to renew Parallels in April and now they want another £39.99 to upgrade to 17, I find that a bit cheeky.

They release a new version every year - I'm on their subscription programme and I downloaded Parallels 16 on the 11th August 2020 so it's been almost exactly a year.

This may be my last year. I still need Windows for one or two little tasks but I have a little Dell SFF PC I might repurpose for that and run headless.

ChrisD. · 10 Aug 2021 at 17:38

Feek said:
They release a new version every year - I'm on their subscription programme and I downloaded Parallels 16 on the 11th August 2020 so it's been almost exactly a year.

This may be my last year. I still need Windows for one or two little tasks but I have a little Dell SFF PC I might repurpose for that and run headless.

I only got it as the dev build of Fusion at the time wasn't entirely stable, but it's much better now. Parallels is good, really good. It's been better than Fusion for some time however it's a dedicated company for one product; Fusion (and Workstation) are more of an accidental discovery years ago and VMware only has a small team looking after it now. However the latest builds are much better so will be fine to run the odd VM on my M1 Air when needed.

I think it's incredibly cheeky however of Parallels to claim it's Windows ready when there's still no formal license agreement to run Arm based Windows virtualised. Effectively they've been breaking Microsoft's EULA in order to get their Windows Arm ready product to the market and I wouldn't be surprised if there's backlash over it. VMware are still waiting for Microsoft to respond to the licensing questions.

MacRS4 · 11 Aug 2021 at 16:03

Terminal_Boy said:
What does Parallels do that VMWare Fusion doesn’t?

I always got the feeling that Parallels was a more enthusiast/expert user tool and Fusion was the “Set it up once and leave it” option for regular users.

I use both - a lot. I tend to use Parallels for my desktop type stuff, so Windows 10/11. I find the feel of performance is better - 'feel' is important, as benchmarks seem to indicate they're both very similar. Parallels just feels nicer for my everyday office stuff.

All my work stuff though - mostly Server based - is all on Fusion. I tend to connect to them over RDP. I find Fusion scales a lot better - I get far more guests per host - and it's easy to port over to ESX later on.

I find the every year upgrade to Parallels a little....suspect tbh. They always seem to claim it's x% faster even back from the early days. How they justify that is a bit mystical. Running 17 now on my live stuff and can't say I've noticed any difference.

Feek · 11 Aug 2021 at 16:08

MacRS4 said:
They always seem to claim it's x% faster even back from the early days.

That's the bit that always makes me chuckle. If I were to run up a VM on an old version of Parallels and then look at all the claimed speed increases over the years, the new version should be able to open a VM before I've even clicked on it.

I started moving some of the few apps I still run in a VM onto a spare PC yesterday evening. I should be able to get everything done before my Parallels license renews at the start of December and then I'll cancel it.

MacRS4 · 12 Aug 2021 at 08:54

Yeah - it seems a bit disingenuous doesn't it.

As an update on PL17, I've today rolled back to 16. Had some very odd behaviour the last few days that I don't see under 16. Couple of solid lock ups, as well as the Parallels full screen space just randomly taking focus. I.e., I could be typing in Word and it'll just switch full screen to a Windows desktop. I've also had the guests not accepting keyboard input on both units too.

Lockups on both Mac Minis I have running it. Very annoying - may not be PL17 of course but a hell of a coincidence if it isn't on two updated units.

Terminal_Boy · 12 Aug 2021 at 08:58

ChrisD. said:
What do you mean exactly?

Just interested to know why people picked one of the other.

Bluecube · 12 Aug 2021 at 10:39

Feek said:
Well that's still garbage.

To be fair, it’s not just Windows that has to be an ARM version. It’s the same with Linux too. We’re seeing the dividing line between virtualisation and emulation.

Feek · 12 Aug 2021 at 11:46

Bluecube said:
We’re seeing the dividing line between virtualisation and emulation.

Yup, and that's why I mentioned emulation in the first post

Steedie · 17 Aug 2021 at 11:34

Just got my refund on Parallels after 4 years of subscriptions with them

Their support is utter garbage. Paying customers and they expect you to message them on Facebook, Twitter, and a forum that is dead. Messaged on all 3 and was completely ignored for a week. Ironically, the refund request was acknowledged and completed within an hour

Shame as it's a cracking product, but their renewal process is junk and it always causes problems every year for me. This year, they didn't even bother to try and fix it

ChrisD. · 20 Aug 2021 at 11:15

Going to try out Fusion for Arm later on, see how it plays when importing a Parallels VM for a start.

(please don't ask me for a copy, it's an internal build)

ChrisD. · 14 Sep 2021 at 09:43

Turns out Parallels are being naughty after all:

https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/mac-and-macos/256250/microsoft-says-no-to-woa-support-on-m1-macs

explicit4u · 15 Sep 2021 at 00:10

Hopefully that's more of a 'not currently supported' than a 'we're never going to support it' as that'll kill my plans for an Apple silicon 16" MBP for work.

whitecrook · 15 Sep 2021 at 00:24

is there a way to make parallels just totally independent of the mac os. I don't need the integration type stuff. I want basically a separated windows install that just runs inside the mac. I hate all the documents and shared desktops etc this isn't for me but someone uses it was asking me about it. I tend to keep any windows stuff of my mac including vms

explicit4u · 15 Sep 2021 at 23:55

whitecrook said:
is there a way to make parallels just totally independent of the mac os. I don't need the integration type stuff. I want basically a separated windows install that just runs inside the mac. I hate all the documents and shared desktops etc this isn't for me but someone uses it was asking me about it. I tend to keep any windows stuff of my mac including vms

Bootcamp unless I'm misunderstanding what you're after?

Partitions your hard drive and gives you the option to boot into MacOS or Windows.

Edit: Just re-reading it, you can disable the file and application sharing within parallels, just open it and go to Actions > Configure > Sharing (for removing folder sharing) and Actions > Configure > Applications to disable opening windows apps within MacOS.