It’s an annual tradition to see an update to Mac virtualization software Parallels Desktop a few weeks before the next major macOS release. Like clockwork, we’ve come to that time again: Parallels Desktop 19 is available now, with a handful of improvements for users who want to run Windows or Linux on their Macs.

It’s not the most radical year-over-year update we’ve seen, but there are some welcome optimizations and tweaks. The headlining feature is the ability to use Touch ID to sign in to your Windows virtual machine. When you next launch your Windows VM, your Windows password can be saved to your Mac’s keychain with a Touch ID-specific record that is unique to your device. It’s important to note that this is just for signing into the VM, though; this is not full Touch ID support for all the places Windows Hello appears throughout Microsoft’s operating system.

There are also various tweaks to make Parallels macOS Sonoma-ready, what with Apple’s annual OS update coming sometime this fall. For example, a change in Sonoma would have broken the Shared Printing feature that allows you to print from your Windows VM. Parallels’ engineers re-configured the feature to get it working within the new release and made some improvements to it.

There are also numerous tweaks to running macOS VMs on Apple Silicon, addressing some recent user frustrations, like limited use of multi-touch gestures on the trackpad. And for users who are trying to run Windows applications, an upgrade of OpenGL support to 4.1 makes more applications—particularly CAD software like VariCAD, Deswik.CAD, and Vectorworks Vision 2023—run. There’s unfortunately still no DirectX 12 support, though.

Support for Linux distros has been expanded, and you can now run x86 binaries and containers within a Linux ARM VM on Apple Silicon Macs thanks to some creative application of macOS’s Rosetta 2. All those changes are topped off with some rebranding on Parallels’ part, with some different design elements, including a new application icon.

Perpetual licenses of Parallels Desktop releases go for $129, or you can pay $99.99 annually for the software-as-a-service option with continual updates, if that’s your preference. Upgrading a previously purchased perpetual license costs $69.99. All the changes in Parallels Desktop 19 are available today to users who have a current license.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1962932

Mac-based virtualization software Parallels launched a new version today. As with most updates to the suite, Parallels Desktop 18 adds support for new Apple hardware features, improves Windows virtualization, and expands compatibility.

The two headlining features of Parallels Desktop 18 are ProMotion support and several new features and optimizations for playing Windows games on Macs.

The first feature is pretty straightforward: Parallels now fully supports automatic refresh rate changes up to 120 Hz, matching the ProMotion feature in the M1-based 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro.

As for Windows gaming, the update is mostly about game controllers. macOS has supported Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 (called DualShock 4) controllers for a while, and Apple has more recently added support for the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller and the revised Xbox controller made for Series S and Series X consoles. The next major macOS release will add support for the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and Joy-Cons.

With Parallels Desktop 18, you can now sync Xbox or PlayStation controllers in macOS on your host system, then jump right in and use them in your Windows virtual machine.

The Parallels team says that users can additionally expect smoother Windows UI and video playback, plus higher frame rates.

The standard edition of Parallels also improves x86 application compatibility when virtualizing Windows 11 on ARM, and it improves USB 3.0 support with a specific focus on devices like game streaming hardware from Elgato.

There are two more editions of Parallels Desktop beyond the Standard release: Pro and Business. Pro includes everything from Standard, plus the ability to configure network conditions for VMs, the ability to use network boot with Linux ARM VMs, and a few other small additions.

Business includes everything from Standard and Pro but adds some IT-specific functionality like deploying, provisioning, and transferring Windows 11 VMs on Mac machines across your org, plus signing into Parallels with a corporate account via SSO/SAML authentication.

Version 18 of Parallels is available now, with the usual pricing model of $99.99 for an annual subscription with continual updates or $129.99 for a perpetual license specifically for this version. You can add $20 to go from Standard to Pro and $30 more to go from Pro to Business. There’s also a $69.99 perpetual license upgrade for Standard.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1872456