Parallels Toolbox 3 for Windows and Mac Both Add New Time-Saving Tools to Simplify PC and Mac User Life. New tools provide a faster way to clean up PC and Mac desktops, reclaim disk space, batch. If your Mac has multiple monitors, and you run Windows inside macOS using Parallels, you know how great a full-screen virtual machine on the second display can be.It’s almost like you’ve got two computers using the same mouse and keyboard: one running Windows, the other running macOS. May 07, 2018  install on multiple computers. Discussion in 'Installation and Configuration' started by mc_, Nov 24, 2017. Hello mc_, 25, Parallels Desktop for Mac retail license can only be used for activation of Parallels Desktop for Mac on a single Mac machine at a time, it is a normal behavior. In order to use Parallels Desktop for Mac on several Mac.

1. Parallel Software For Mac
2. Parallels
3. Microsoft Office For Mac Multiple Computers
4. Parallels Desktop 13 For Mac

Editors' note, October 30, 2014: This review has been updated with new features added after the release of the Windows 10 technical preview.

Parallel Software For Mac

Parallels Desktop for Mac has been letting people run Windows and other operating systems on their Macs for years. And with every major update, Parallels has added yet another feature that makes switching between your regular operating system and virtual machines even more seamless.

There are other apps that do virtualization, such as $60 VMWare fusion (also available for £36, or AU$64) or Virtual Box (free). These will both let you run Windows on your Mac (as long as you own a copy) and might be good enough for your purposes.

But what makes Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac special, is the way it incorporates Mac OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 features. Some of the new features give you more interactivity between operating systems, letting you place Windows apps on the Mac Launchpad or Dock, for example, and even as far as letting you use new features in Mac OS X Yosemite straight out of a Windows environment.

What is Parallels for?

Parallels Desktop ($80, £50, or AU$86) is a virtualization system for running other operating systems on your Mac. As an example, this would be useful if you use Windows at work, but have a Mac laptop at home because it means you can run all the Windows specific tools from work on the Mac without having to buy a separate computer.

Virtualization is used by software developers as well, because it allows them to run an operating system that has no ties to the computer it's on. This way, even if a virtual system gets a virus, it can only infect that enclosed system, leaving the host computer virus free. From there all they need to do is shut down and restart from an earlier healthy snapshot of the virtual system to start again fresh.

Parallels is also useful for people who play video games because it lets them pick from the much larger library of Windows titles and play them on a Mac. In this particular case, your mileage may vary because your Mac may not have the video processing power of high-end video cards.

If you're going to use Parallels with one of the free operating systems offered in the app (more on this later), you'll only need to spend the $80 for Parallels. But be warned, that in order to use this software with Windows as I did in this demo, you're going to be spending $80 for Parallels, plus the price of Windows 8.1 (currently available for about $120, £70, or AU$130). While it is not cheap, if you identify with one of the use cases above, it's worth the money.

Installing an operating system

To get Parallels up and running, you're going to need to have the full version of another operating system on hand. From the Parallels launcher, you can download free operating systems including Chrome OS, Ubuntu Linux, Android OS, or even another version of Mac OS X using your Mac's recovery partition.

Past versions of Parallels had the option to purchase and install Windows 7 from within the software, so you could get started right away. Microsoft no longer has a deal with Parallels, but Parallels Desktop 10 enables you to download and install a 90-day trial of Windows. The wizard also lets you move a PC, including Windows and all of its applications and files to your Mac so you have everything you need on one computer

If you know you'll need to run Windows for the long term, the easiest option is a box copy of Windows 8 on a DVD. As long as you have an internal or external DVD drive, you can select it from the Parallels Launch Center, and start installing straight away. In the latest version of Parallels, you also can drag and drop a .ISO file straight into the interface to start the installation.

If you downloaded Windows from Microsoft hoping (like I did) to just select the installer executable, you're going to have a tough time. Parallels requires either a DVD or image file (ISO), or you can use the Parallels Transporter Agent to migrate Windows from another PC.

To create an ISO file, you'll need to start the installation on another Windows PC, download all the data files, then select create as image, and choose either DVD or thumb drive. It took me some time to figure it all out, but I finally used a thumb drive to transfer the installer and get it running on my Mac. This is all just a precaution to make sure you don't make the same mistake I did and already have an ISO image or boxed version of Windows before you get started.

While I think it's OK that Parallels has specific requirements for the installation file, it would be nice if the app took care of the conversion for you. Without knowing, it's pretty easy to buy and download an operating system in the standard way (resulting in an .exe file) that requires a lengthy process for conversion before it will work.

When a client needs documentation for Windows-only software, I need to fire up Windows to explore that software. I mention this because my everyday computer is a Mac.

Before I submit documents to my clients, I like to run them through WordRake, a “plain language” plugin for Microsoft Word. I have Word on my Mac, but the plugin only works on Office for Windows, so I need to use Windows to use WordRake.

These are but two of the reasons I periodically use Windows. I didn’t buy another computer to do this work, though. Instead, I installed Windows inside a “virtual machine” on my Mac called Parallels Desktop 10.

The convenience of running both my Mac and Windows (as a program on the Mac) on the same computer can’t be overstated. I can quickly take screen shots from the Windows side, save them to the Mac and use them in the documents I create on the Mac side of my, well, Mac.

The Mac offers a tool called Boot Camp that allows you to start your Mac in the operating system of your choice. In other words, you can bypass Parallels by running only Windows, or only the Mac OS. However, if you prefer to run multiple operating systems simultaneously the way I do, Parallels is invaluable.

I’ve been using Parallels for years, and I’ve learned a few things about how to make previous versions run faster. Here are a few things I’ve done:

• maxed the RAM on my Mac (this makes a big difference)
• replaced the hard disk on my Mac with a solid state drive (this makes an even bigger difference)
• emailed screen shots to myself of Parallels settings taken from a Mac at the Apple Store (there’s at least one Mac in each Apple Store that runs Parallels, and it’s configured to run as quickly as possible.)

This last tip may no longer make any sense. The Parallels 10 Control Centre lets you choose presets, the complexity of which Parallels hides behind four buttons.

image courtesy Parallels

It’s better than searching online or visiting the Apple Store to determine the settings you need. (Of course, you can still manipulate Parallels settings individually.)

Parallels

In the few months I’ve been running Windows 8.1 using the Parallels 10 virtual machine, I’ve found it performs better than its predecessor, and it adds a few neat features.

Foremost among these is Control Centre. I run both Windows 8.1 and Google Chrome on my Mac, and I like going to them via the Control Centre. Clearly whoever uses Parallels on this Mac needs to switch between many more operating systems.

Microsoft Office For Mac Multiple Computers

Using Control Centre to switch between six VM operating systems. Image courtesy Parallels.

Parallels Desktop 13 For Mac

Other Parallels 10 features include: up to 30 per cent better battery life (if you use a MacBook); faster launching of Office applications; and greater integration with Mac features like iCloud Drive and iMessage. Real-time optimization of virtual machines keeps them as compact as possible, a welcome development for Mac owners who don’t have much free disk space.

Parallels is a much more sophisticated system than I can explain in a short blog post, and I haven’t even touched the enterprise features. To get a better idea of what Parallels is about, check out the website and YouTube channel.

Meanwhile, enjoy this short review from renowned technology reviewer David Pogue: