Last updated on January 10, 2020
What is New in Parallels Desktop 15 for Mac Business Edition
The influx of Mac® computers in businesses has made the ability to run Windows applications on Mac an absolute necessity. Since that need has long been addressed by Parallels Desktop® for Mac Business Edition, a lot of companies should be happy to know that this top-of-the-line variant of Parallels Desktop—the #1 solution for running Windows, Linux and other popular operating systems on Mac without rebooting—is getting a brand-new update.
The new version, Parallels Desktop 15 for Mac Business Edition, comes with all the awesome new features and capabilities of Parallels Desktop 15, including:
- Extensive support for macOS® Catalina features – Users can take advantage of the Sidecar feature in Catalina to extend the screen real estate of Windows applications running on their Mac computer onto their iPad®. You can then use the new Apple Pencil® support to make changes in those applications using Apple Pencil.
- DirectX 11 support via Apple® Metal API – This extremely powerful feature boosts the ability of graphics-intensive Windows applications and games to run on Mac computers much faster and more efficiently. Examples include Autodesk Revit 2020, Autodesk 3ds Max 2020, Lumion, ArcGIS Pro 2.3, Master Series, Madden 19, Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, Crysis 3, Anno 2205, Railway Empire, Space Engineers and Risk of Rain 2.
- More integration points – Parallels Desktop 15 has the greatest number of integration points ever. A few examples include the ability to save Windows passwords in Keychain, drag and drop files from Safari and attach a file from the macOS desktop to a Windows-based Outlook email through a context menu (as shown in the below video).
These are just some of the many features in Parallels Desktop 15. While that might be enough to whet the appetite of the average Mac and Windows user, enterprise power users will be delighted to know that Parallels Desktop Business Edition offers even more.
Some of the hottest new features in Parallels Desktop 15 Business Edition include:
- Ability to connect/mount physical disks to a virtual machine (VM) and treat them as internal disks – This means that users can install Windows or another OS on that disk. They can also boot to that installed OS and use non-native Boot Camp® installations.
- Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) support – Some Windows security features now require the presence of a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip in order to work. In the virtualization world, the analog to the TPM is (as you might have guessed) the virtual TPM. Bitlocker’s full-disk encryption, the Windows Hello PIN, Virtual Smart Card logons and many others all require a vTPM when used in a VM. With the new vTPM support, companies can now enforce stringent security policies on users who run Windows on Mac (see Figure 1).
- UX consistency throughout the enterprise – Whenever Mac laptops and physical desktops are shared by more than one user, one user may come in and switch to their preferred view mode (say Coherence/Full Screen mode). This can be a problem for the next user who might not know how to switch back to Window mode. In Parallels Desktop 15 Business Edition, it’s possible to lock the display to one view mode and avoid any confusion.
- Support for DNS requests over TCP in Shared Network mode – This allows organizations to support long DNS lists in Active Directory, while retaining 802.1x authentication and shared networking.
- Python 3.0 support – Python 3.0 support should be a welcome development for organizations who use the Parallels Virtualization SDK to query, create, delete and manage virtual machines, networks, port forwards and snapshots.
- Support for archived VM deployment – This allows organizations to use the *.pvmz VM format in a deployment package and reduce the network load and time needed to deliver that package to a target Mac device.
- Convenient ways of sharing support tickets with other members of a Business account – When one admin creates a ticket, all other admins can automatically view that ticket. What’s more, the ticket creator can also add more ticket watchers—and even add regular members of the business account as ticket watchers. Each ticket watcher will then be able to receive update notifications as well as view the tickets in their respective Parallels accounts.
Learn more about all the features in Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition!
References
ZDNet | https://www.zdnet.com/product/parallels-desktop-15-for-mac/
MacRumors | https://www.macrumors.com/2019/08/13/parallels-desktop-15-catalina-sidecar-support/
Windows Central | https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-bitlocker-encryption-windows-10
Microsoft | https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/identity-protection/hello-for-business/hello-why-pin-is-better-than-passwor
Microsoft | https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askds/2016/05/11/setting-up-virtual-smart-card-logon-using-virtual-tpm-for-windows-10-hyper-v-vm-guests/
