Parallels Desktop 13 System Requirements

Parallels Desktop® for Mac empowers millions of users to go beyond the limitations of hardware to achieve their end goals.

Interested in getting started with running Windows, Linux, and other popular OSes on your Mac without restarting? Check out the list below to see if your machine’s hardware specifications and desired operating system are supported.

Hardware:

Late 2012 Mac® computer or later
4 GB of memory (8 GB recommended).
850 MB of disk space on the boot volume (Macintosh HD) for Parallels Desktop installation.
Additional disk space for virtual machines (varies on operating system installed).
SSD drive is recommended for better performance.
Internet connection for product activation and selected features.

Software:

macOS® High Sierra 12.13
macOS® Sierra 10.12.5 or later
OS X® El Capitan 10.11.6 or later
OS X® Yosemite 10.10.5 or later

32-Bit Guest Operating Systems

Windows 10
Windows 10 Creators Update
Windows 8.1
Windows 8
Windows Server 2012 R2, SP0
Windows 7 SP1, SP0
Windows Server 2008 R2, SP2, SP1, SP0
Windows Vista Home, Business, Ultimate, Enterprise SP2, SP1, SP0
Windows Server 2003 R2, SP2, SP1, SP0
Windows XP Professional SP3, SP2, SP1, SP0
Windows XP Home SP3, SP2, SP1, SP0
Windows 2000 Professional SP4
Windows 2000 Server SP4
Windows NT 4.0 Server SP6
Windows NT 4.0 Workstation SP6
Windows ME
Windows 98 SE
Windows 95
Windows 3.11
MS-DOS 6.22
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 6, 5
Fedora Linux 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19
Ubuntu 18.04, 17.04, 16.10, 16.04 LTS, 15.10, 15.04, 14.10, 14.04 LTS, 13.10, 13.04, 12.10, 12.04 LTS, 11.10, 11.04, 10.10, 10.04 LTS
CentOS Linux 7, 6, 5
Debian Linux 8, 7, 6, 5
Suse Linux Enterprise 12, 11 SP3, 11 SP2
openSUSE Linux 13.2, 13.1, 12.3
Linux Mint 18, 17, 16, 13
Kali Linux 2018.1, 2017.1
Zorin OS 12.1
elementary OS 0.4
Manjaro Linux 17.0.1
Mageia 5, 4.1, 3
Solaris 11.3, 11, 10
OpenBSD 6
FreeBSD 11, 10, 10, 9, 8
OS/2 Warp 4.5, 4
eComStation 2, 1.2
Mac OS X Leopard Server 10.5.x
Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server 10.6.x
Android OS (only the one downloaded with help of Installation Assistant)

64-Bit Guest Operating Systems

Windows 10
Windows 10 Creators Update
Windows 8.1
Windows 8
Windows Server 2012 R2, SP0
Windows 7 SP1, SP0
Windows Server 2008 R2, SP2, SP1, SP0
Windows Vista Home, Business, Ultimate, Enterprise SP0, SP1, SP2
Windows Server 2003 R2, SP2, SP1, SP0
Windows XP Professional SP2
boot2docker
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 6, 5
Fedora Linux 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19
Ubuntu 17.04, 16.10, 16.04 LTS, 15.10, 15.04, 14.10, 14.04 LTS, 13.10, 13.04, 12.10, 12.04 LTS, 11.10, 11.04, 10.10, 10.04 LTS
CentOS Linux 7, 6, 5
Debian Linux 8.3, 7, 6, 5
Suse Linux Enterprise Server 12, 11 SP3, 11 SP2
openSUSE Linux 13.2, 13.1, 12.3
Linux Mint 18, 17, 16, 13
Kali Linux 2017.1
Zorin OS 12.1
elementary OS 0.4
Manjaro Linux 17.0.1
Mageia 5, 4.1, 3
OpenVZ 7
Solaris 11.3, 11, 10
OpenBSD 6
FreeBSD 11, 10, 10, 9, 8
macOS Sierra 10.12.x
OS X El Capitan 10.11.x
OS X Yosemite 10.10.x
OS X Mavericks 10.9.x
OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.x
OS X Lion 10.7.x
OS X Lion Server 10.7.x
Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server 10.6.x
Mac OS X Leopard Server 10.5.x

Read our knowledge base article surrounding System Requirements for Parallels Desktop 13!

Note:
Parallels Desktop for Mac emulates PC hardware, so operating systems that are not present in this list could potentially work as well. If they are not on the list it is due to a low request for support testing or our engineers found some critical issues.

You can download the Parallels Desktop trial and install an operating system of your choice. If it doesn’t work and you believe it should be supported, let us know on the Parallels Forum.

Want to Move Your PC to Your Mac as a New Virtual Machine?

700 MHz (or higher) x86 or x64 processor (Intel or AMD)
256 MB of RAM
50 MB of available hard disk space for installation of Parallels Transporter Agent
Ethernet or WiFi network adapter for migrating over network
External drive storage for migrating via external disk
Supported Windows: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000
Supported Linux: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, Ubuntu 8.0

Need to Buy Microsoft Windows?

Windows 10 Home

Windows 10 Pro

Parallels Desktop for Mac Trial Download

Parallels is the #1 solution for running Windows on Mac for over 10 years. Curious to see if your specific non-Mac application can run through Parallels Desktop? Feel free to try it out yourself—download a free 14-day trial.

Happy virtualizing!