New features in Parallels Desktop for Mac

What's New in Parallels Desktop for Mac?

You can run Windows applications like they were made for your Mac. Use Mac OS X Mountain Lion features in Windows applications, run Windows and Mac applications side-by-side without rebooting, and experience the seamless, intuitive and fast way to work simultaneously in Windows and Mac program.

Life Simplified

Whether you are a hard-core Mac enthusiast, a multi-platform pro or a first-time Mac user, the brilliant essentials of Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac — quick installation, a user-friendly interface, and the Parallels Wizard—makes moving to the Mac seamless and everyday use easier than ever.

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New! Mac OS X Mountain Lion Support

Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac works with Mountain Lion, the latest Mac OS X. From Multi-Touch gestures, Mission Control, Full Screen support, Launchpad integration and more, Parallels Desktop makes it feel like your Windows applications were made for Mac.

Mountain Lion integration includes:

Full screen support for Windows applications
Use of Launchpad for Windows apps
Mission Control support
Mountain Lion as a guest OS
Mountain Lion gestures support
Retina display support for Windows
Notification Center support for Parallels Desktop and Windows alerts

New! Presentation Wizard

The new Presentation Wizard allows you to easily and beautifully show presentations from your Mac on any external monitor or projector.

New! Open in Internet Explorer button

Switch from Safari to the same page in Internet Explorer with a single click when you need to view a page that doesn't render well.

New! Mountain Lion Dictation in Windows apps

Speak, don't type - Use Mountain Lion's new Dictation tool across both Windows and Mac applications

New! Drag & drop attachments to Outlook

Simply drag & drop files from the desktop onto the Dock icon for Outlook for Windows to attach them to a new email

New! Multi-language Keyboard Sync

Keyboard language changes made on the Mac automatically sync in Windows to simplify switching languages

New! Consolidated Notification Center

Integration of Windows notifications into the Mountain Lion Notification Center makes it easy to stay updated on Windows virtual machine operations as well as alerts from Windows 8 Mail and Messenger Metro apps.

New! Shared Bluetooth

Seamlessly share Bluetooth devices between Mac and Windows just like you do with your FaceTime HD camera.

Enhanced! Mac OS X Guest support

New! Shared Trash

Continuing to integrate Windows and Mac, now even your Mac Trash and Windows Recycle Bins are identical so you only have one trash can to manage.

Enhanced! Spaces & Mission Control Integration

Get a more natural full screen experience for Windows applications with enhanced support for Spaces and Mission control.

Full support for Windows 8

Enjoy full support for Windows 8. Enjoy "Metro-style" apps in full screen or Coherence, a Windows 'launchpad' to manage your apps and full copy & paste and drag & drop integration once Windows 8 is available.

Microsoft Office 2010 – the gold standard of productivity software

Don’t compromise – you can run the full version of Office on your Mac. Don’t sacrifice features and programs – run Office 2010 and enjoy Mountain Lion features like Launchpad, gestures and Mission Control even in Access and One Note

Enhanced! Application shortcuts

Use the standard Mac OS X system preferences to set keyboard shortcuts.

A more Mac-like appearance

If you love the look and feel of Mac OS, make Windows invisible but still use its applications. Or keep the familiar Windows background and Start menu on your Mac. Either way you can run Windows and Mac applications side-by-side—with no compromises in performance—and work the way that’s best for you.

Immediate preferences without OK button
Apple style standard help and documentation
Enhanced user interface has a more polished look-and-feel

Mac OS parental controls apply to Windows programs

Manage and control your virtual machines as easily as you do your Mac. With Parallels Desktop for Mac, peace-of-mind comes easy thanks to the automatic apply capabilities that place the same parental controls you set for your Mac on to your Windows applications. And any restrictions set for the Mac OS will also be enforced in the virtual machine.

Visually Stunning

Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac delivers an even more immersive environment for gaming, music, movies, and more with support for Retina display, Surround Sound 7.1 and superior 3D graphics rendering speeds.

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New! Brilliant Retina display resolution

Enjoy stunning Retina display resolution in Windows and Windows applications to see crisper fonts, vivid photos, images and animations

New! Full screen on demand

The new Full screen on demand feature makes presentations interruption-free by disabling screen savers on Mac and Windows, optimizing the full screen display and automatically adjusting resolution

Enhanced! 3D Graphics

Parallels Desktop 8 gives your Mac a more enhanced Windows 3D graphics experience and offers up the fastest way to run the most graphical intensive Windows programs and cross-platform Windows development tools. And you can use a wide-variety of design programs and games with DirectX 9.0c/9Ex and Shader Model 3 support.

Up to 1GB video memory can be assigned to a virtual machine
Support for high-quality audio formats (up to 192KHz)
More modern games supported

Surround Sound 7.1

Immerse yourself in games, movies, and music with Surround Sound 7.1 support for Windows 7, Windows XP, and Windows Vista: use any external Surround Sound 7.1 USB or FireWire device simultaneously in your Mac and the virtual machine.

Proven Performance

With improved battery life, up to 1GB of video memory, enhanced security, and more Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac features the best overall performance and stability in the market.

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Enhanced! Improved performance and stability

Improved Virtual Machine boot time/Windows boots time are up to 25% faster than previous version
Pause & resume Windows up to 25% faster than previous version
Input/output (I/O) operations are up to 35% faster than previous version
Games run up to 30% faster than previous version

Enhanced! Longer battery life

Now, running Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac has improved battery life so you can be on-the-go longer than ever.

Advanced encryption support

Get improved data security through fast virtual machine encryption with Intel AES-NI. All your Windows programs are securely encrypted.

Enhanced! Snapshots

It's easy to see how much hard drive space your virtual machine is using with a visual indicator and improved Snapshots.

Enhanced! Virtual Machine Management Tools

Easily monitor your Mac's resources with the new graphical view of how much of your Mac's processor and memory are being used by your virtual machine.