Last updated on September 28, 2018
Parallels Desktop 14 System Requirements
Parallels Desktop 14 System Requirements are fully listed below. We encourage users to read them thoroughly to understand the capabilities prior to downloading or buying our product. Users may be pleasantly surprised at the incredible performance of Windows, Linux, and other popular operating systems on their Mac® with Parallels Desktop.
Hardware:
Check your Mac hardware to ensure you can run Parallels Desktop without experiencing future issues. We’d love to make sure you get the most out of Parallels Desktop and the virtual machines you create.
- A Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Core i9, Intel Core M, or Xeon processor.
- Minimum 4 GB of memory—8 GB is what we recommend. This will improve general performance, especially if you intend to use resource-heavy tasks within the virtual machine, such as gaming, 3D, or CAD.
- 600 MB of disk space on the boot volume (Macintosh HD) for Parallels Desktop application installation.
- Additional disk space for virtual machines. (Varies on desired operating system and applications installed, e.g. at least 16 GB of disk space is required for Windows 10.)
- SSD drive is recommended for better performance.
- Internet connection for product activation, select features, and future updates.
macOS Minimum Requirements to run Parallels Desktop:
- macOS Mojave 10.14
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 or later
- macOS Sierra 10.12.6 or later
- OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 or later
Guest Operating Systems Supported as Virtual Machines within Parallels Desktop:
- Windows 10
- Windows 8.1
- Windows 8
- Windows Server 2012 R2
- Windows 7 (SP0-SP1)
- Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP0-SP2)
- Windows Vista Home, Business, Ultimate, Enterprise (SP0-SP2)
- Windows Server 2003 R2 (SP0-SP2)
- Windows XP (SP0-SP3)
- Windows 2000 Professional SP4
- Windows 2000 Server SP4
- MS-DOS 6.22*
- Boot2Docker
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7, 6, 5
- CentOS Linux 7, 6, 5
- Fedora Linux 28, 27, 26
- Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, 17.10, 16.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS, 12.04 LTS
- Debian GNU/Linux 9.4, 9, 8, 7
- Suse Linux Enterprise 12 SP3, 11 SP3, 11 SP2
- openSUSE Linux 15, 42.3, 13.2, 13.1, 12.3
- Linux Mint 19, 18, 17
- Kali 2018.2, 2018.1, 2
- Elementary 0.4
- Manjaro 17
- Mageia 6, 5, 4, 3
- Gentoo Linux*
- Solaris 11.3, 11, 10*
- openBSD 6*
- FreeBSD 11.1, 10, 10, 9, 8*
- openVZ 7
- eComStation 2, 1.2*
- ReactOS 0.4*
- Android OS**
- macOS Mojave 10.14.x
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.x
- 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
*Parallels Tools are not available for this operating system.
**Only the one downloaded with help of Installation Assistant.
Note: Parallels Desktop for Mac emulates PC hardware, so operating systems that are not present in this list can work as well. They are not on the list because our engineers have not tested them in our lab yet, or we found some critical issues and cannot confirm compatibility.
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 at Parallels Forum.
Need to migrate your PC to a virtual machine in Parallels Desktop?
- 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 USB drive for migrating via external disk
- Supported Windows: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000
Note: Virtual machines that were created in Parallels Desktop 3 or 4 and never run in any other version are not going to work in Parallels Desktop 14.
Need to Buy Microsoft Windows 10? Buy below and get started in minutes:
Parallels Desktop for Mac Trial Download
Parallels Desktop is the #1 award-winning solution for running Windows on Mac for over 10 years. Are you curious to see if your specific non-Mac application can run through Parallels Desktop? Try it out for yourself—download a free 14-day trial.
Happy virtualizing! Feel free to reach out to our team on Twitter @ParallelsCares or Facebook @ParallelsInc if you have any additional questions or concerns. We’re happy to help!
