Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac Run Windows on Your Mac. Optimized for the latest Windows 10 updates, macOS Catalina and macOS Big Sur 11; Includes Parallels Toolbox–essential utilities for your Mac and PC. AutoCAD, Revit, A Plague's Tale, Resident Evil 2 and Dead or Alive 6 all running on Apple Silicon, thanks to the power of Windows 10 Dev and Parallels 16.TES. Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro Edition is the easiest and most powerful application to run Windows on Mac for developers, testers, and experienced power users. Specifically tailored for users who need the best performance and extended functionality for running non-Mac applications on Mac. Version 16.5.0 This update for Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac 16.5.0 brings full native support for Mac computers with the Apple M1 chip, addresses overall stability and security issues, and includes the following fixes and improvements.
We’re very excited to announce the highly anticipated Parallels® Desktop 16.5 for Mac with full, native support for Mac computers with either Apple M1 or Intel chips. Users will now be able to run Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview and its applications as well as the most popular ARM-based Linux distributions on Apple M1 Mac computers.1
The M1 chip’s superior performance delivers the world’s fastest integrated graphics in a personal computer, revolutionary power efficiency and was designed to work with macOS Big Sur’s legendary ease-of-use 2 —which transforms Parallels® Desktop 16.5 into a new standard of seamless Windows-on-Mac experience.
“Apple’s M1 chip is a significant breakthrough for Mac users,” said Nick Dobrovolskiy, Parallels Senior Vice President of Engineering and Support. “The transition has been smooth for most Mac applications, thanks to Rosetta technology. However, virtual machines are an exception and for that reason, Parallels engineers implemented native virtualization support for the Mac with M1 chip. This enables our users to enjoy the best Windows-on-Mac experience available.”
100,000+ M1 Mac Users Tested the Technical Preview
We are beyond thankful for the feedback of more than 100,000 M1 Mac users that tested the Technical Preview of Parallels Desktop 16.5 for M1 Mac. They ran Microsoft’s Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview, as well as tens of thousands of different Intel-based Windows applications—including Microsoft Office for Windows, Microsoft Visual Studio, SQL Server, Microsoft PowerBI and MetaTrader.
“We received enthusiastic feedback about the remarkable performance of both the Technical Preview of Parallels Desktop 16.5 for M1 Mac and Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview as well as x86 applications and games, including Rocket League, Among Us, Roblox, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Sam & Max Save the World and many others. Google update mac. Testers loved Parallels Desktop’s easy-to-use features and seamless integration of Windows with macOS Big Sur, which increases productivity,” said Dobrovolskiy.
Applications Run Faster and More Efficiently
With Parallels Desktop 16.5 for Mac, users benefit from Apple’s M1 chip performance advancements and experience applications that run faster and more efficiently.
Performance advancements include:
- Up to 250%less energy used: On a Mac with an Apple M1 chip, Parallels Desktop 16.5 uses 2.5X less energy than on a 2020 Intel-based MacBook Air computer.3
- Up to 60%better DirectX 11 performance: Parallels Desktop 16.5 running on an M1 Mac delivers up to 60% better DirectX 11 performance than on an Intel-based MacBook Pro with Radeon Pro 555X GPU.4
- Up to 30% better virtual machine performance (Windows): Running a virtual machine (VM) of Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview on Parallels Desktop 16.5 on an M1 Mac performs up to 30% better than a Windows 10 VM running on Intel-based MacBook Pro with Intel Core i9 processor.5
“I installed Parallels Desktop 16.5 for Mac and Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview on my M1 Mac Mini because, as a math teacher, several software apps that I use are no longer supported on M1 Mac,” said Daniel Dudley, Albuquerque, NM, United States. “Running Windows on my M1 Mac in Parallels Desktop 16.5 has been awesome. It’s the fastest version of Windows that I have ever had!”
Run Linux Distributives on M1 Mac Computers
With Parallels Desktop 16.5 for Mac, users can not only run Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview in a virtual machine on M1 Mac computers but also Linux distributives Ubuntu 20.04, Kali Linux 2021.1, Debian 10.7 and Fedora Workstation 33-1.2.
“I absolutely love being able to run Linux environments within Parallels Desktop 16.5 on my M1 Mac,” said Darren Paxton, United Kingdom. “The performance is simply amazing.”
The Best Features for Parallels Desktop 16.5 for M1 Mac
Discover some of the best Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac features that have been re-engineered for the Apple M1 chip:
- Coherence™ Mode: Run Windows applications on your Mac as if they were native Mac applications, without managing two separate desktops or rebooting.
- Shared Profile: Share your Mac desktop, pictures, documents, and other folders with a VM for easy access.
- Touch Bar controls: Quickly access apps in your virtual machine and customize your Touch Bar shortcuts to feature the apps and commands you use most.
- Mac keyboard layouts: Easily customize your keyboard menu and shortcuts for a more personalized experience.
- Hundreds of other Parallels Desktop features are included to help make it simple for customers to be more productive.
- macOS Big Sur in a VM is a feature that Parallels hopes to add support for in Parallels Desktop later this year.
Check out all of the highlights of Parallels Desktop 16.5’s extensive features for Intel-based Mac computers on our website. Intel-based Parallels Desktop for Mac customers can run more than 50 supported guest OSs, including several versions of Windows, macOS, OS X, Linux, as well as Android OS and dozens more.
Howto Get Your Copy of Parallels Desktop 16.5
If you…
…are an existing customer: Anyone with a Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac license can get an automatic update to Parallels Desktop 16.5 at no additional cost.
…are a new customer: All editions of Parallels Desktop 16.5 update for Mac support both M1 and Intel Mac computers (Standard Edition, Pro Edition and Business Edition). Purchase your copy here—or test it for 14 days for free.
Running VMs on Apple M1 Mac computers in Parallels Desktop 16.5 requires ARM-based operating systems (OSs). Customers who install guest operating systems in Parallels Desktop virtual machines are responsible for making sure that they are compliant with each OS’s end-user licensing agreement (EULA).
System Requirements
Discover if Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac can run on your Mac Computer with Intel or M1 chip: System requirements.
- Running VMs on Apple M1 Mac computers in Parallels Desktop 16.5 requires ARM-based operating systems (OSs). Customers who install guest operating systems in Parallels Desktop virtual machines are responsible for making sure that they are compliant with each OS’s end-user licensing agreement (EULA).
- Apple M1 chip performance, power efficiency, and information is from https://www.apple.com/mac/m1/.
- Performance measurements were conducted by Parallels by measuring Mac power consumption with Windows 10 running. Tested with a pre-released version of Parallels Desktop 16.5 on MacBook Air 10,1 with Apple M1 chip and 16GB RAM versus MacBook Air 8,2 with Intel Core i5-8210Y and 8GB RAM. The performance will vary based on usage, system configuration and other factors.
- Performance measurements were conducted by Parallels by running the Unigine Valley benchmark for DirectX 11 API and comparing an average score out of five iterations on each computer. Tested with a pre-release version of Parallels Desktop 16.5 on MacBook Pro17,1 with Apple M1 chip and 16GB RAM versus MacBook Pro 15,1 with Intel Core i9-8950HK, 16GB RAM and Radeon Pro 555X GPU. The performance will vary based on usage, system configuration and other factors.
- Performance measurements were conducted by Parallels by running the Geekbench 5 benchmark and comparing an average score out of five iterations on each computer. Tested with a pre-release version of Parallels Desktop 16.5 on MacBook Pro 17,1 with Apple M1 chip and 16GB RAM versus MacBook Pro 15,3 with Intel Core i9-8950HK, 32GB RAM and Radeon Pro Vega 20 GPU. The performance will vary based on usage, system configuration and other factors.
It’s finally here! We’re so excited to introduce a new version of Parallels® Desktop: Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac.
With Parallels Desktop, you can run Windows, Linux and other popular operating systems on your Mac without rebooting. For 14 years, we’ve been the #1 solution for over 7 million users worldwide.
Learn more about the hottest new features in Parallels Desktop 16—and stay tuned for more blog posts coming this week detailing everything you need to know about Parallels Desktop 16.
What are the top new features in Parallels Desktop 16?
Incredibly fast
This version of Parallels Desktop is THE fastest version ever released. Ibook for mac os x. It starts up twice as fast as previous versions. Plus, Windows resumes and quits up to 20% faster.
Improved graphics
Parallels Desktop 16 users can now run even more graphic-heavy, resource-hungry Windows apps with ease. Version 16 delivers up to 20% faster DirectX 11 and improved OpenGL graphics support for both Windows and Linux so you can run more Windows applications and games, including DIALux evo 9, ProPresenter 6, Samson Connect and more. Plus, the new version includes the world’s first support for applications with 3D capabilities running in a macOS Big Sur VM.
Parallels Desktop users collectively run more than 200,000 Windows applications and with Parallels Desktop 16 can run even more applications.
Ready for macOS Big Sur and other OSes
Parallels invested more than 25-person-years of engineer programming to take full advantage of the new architecture in macOS Big Sur. We also revamped kernel extensions to deliver our best Windows-on-Mac performance ever. That’s why we’re proud to say that version 16 is optimized for macOS Big Sur 11.0 (when released) with a refreshed design, easier setup, and much more. Plus, our developers continue to update Parallels Desktop for future releases of Windows, macOS and Linux.
Better productivity
- Wouldn’t it be nice to get extra screen time while traveling? Windows in Travel Mode now uses less energy and extends battery life by up to 15%.
- 10% of Parallels Desktop users are short on available disk space. We’ve included a feature that will help you better manage disk space, with the option to reclaim available disk space to Mac automatically.
- Set “Do Not Disturb” on your Mac and Parallels Desktop will make sure that Windows 10 doesn’t disturb you either. This is especially useful when you’re in an important presentation.
- Do you usually work with a Trackpad instead of a mouse? Now you can zoom and rotate objects smoothly in Windows applications with Trackpad gesture support.
Enhanced integration
Every year we develop new features to perfectly integrate Mac and Windows with each other. In Parallels Desktop 16, we’ve added some powerful new features that make it even smoother to run Windows apps as if they were native on the Mac.
- Do you want to use duplex printing from Windows applications, with paper sizes ranging from A0 to envelope? Good news—you now can with new print options.
- Now you can confidently work on Mac files in Windows by engaging the “safe removal check” to ensure files in shared folders aren’t accidentally deleted.
Linux and Mac VMs
Everyone who is passionate about using Linux virtual machines (VMs) has reason to cheer. With version 16, you can be more productive when working with Git repositories in Linux Shared Folders with up to 75% faster “git status” execution. In just one click, you can use and download the latest Linux distributions including Ubuntu 20.04, CentOS 8, Fedora 32 and Debian 10. Plus, Linux OpenGL improvements now let you run Steam.
Parallels Desktop 16 For Mac Free
Do you want to achieve picture-perfect quality and performance using macOS Big Sur in a VM? You can now, thanks to the first-in-the-world Metal graphics acceleration in a VM with macOS Big Sur.
Parallels Desktop and Apple Silicon
We’re all very excited about this demo shown at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which depicts a prototype of a forthcoming version of Parallels Desktop running on Mac with Apple Silicon. Parallels and Apple work closely to bring virtualization capabilities to Mac with Apple Silicon. Learn more.
New features in Pro Edition and Business Edition
For our professional and business customers, we recommend Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro Edition and Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition. Of course, all new features of Parallels Desktop 16 are included in these editions. Pro Edition and Business Edition now offer improved virtual machine deployment, including export capabilities to reduce the network load when deploying to many Mac devices on a corporate network. For developers, Parallels Desktop 16 enables users to name their custom networks for more organized testing.
Check out all new features that are exclusive to Pro Edition and Business Edition.
Special gift for Parallels Desktop users
In all subscriptions of Parallels Desktop 16, users get more than 30+ single-click utilities from Parallels Toolbox for Windows and Mac, plus Parallels Access to remotely access your PC or Mac from your iOS or Android device or any web browser.
Check out all the recently released features in Parallels Toolbox and Parallels Access.
There are lots more new features to discover! Check it out yourself and let us know which feature you like most in the comments, or on Facebook or Twitter.
How to get your copy of Parallels Desktop 16
If you…
Parallels 16 Mac Free
…are an existing customer, upgrade now.
…are a new customer, purchase your copy here—or test it for 14 days for free.
…have just recently purchased Parallels Desktop 15, check out our Tech Guarantee to see if you get a free upgrade.