Parallels Desktop 14 for Mac Business Edition: Updates Summary

What's New in Parallels Desktop 14

Performance

When developing Parallels Desktop 14, we paid much attention to performance:

• Up to 200 percent performance improvement on the iMac Pro® (audio and video encoding, AI, 3D modelling, cryptography and other complex math calculations workloads) thanks to AVX512 processor instructions set support.
• Up to 80 percent faster application launch.
• Up to 10 percent faster boot time.
• Up to 30 percent faster suspend operation on APFS partition.
• Up to 130 percent more frames per second in Shared Camera.
• Up to 17 percent more frames per second in Coherence view mode.
• The Mac's camera shared with Windows consumes up to 3x less CPU resources.

Graphics
A lot of efforts were focused on graphics improvements - how a virtual machine is displayed on multiple monitors, how it switches between view modes, how much graphics memory is consumed, and much more:
The new "Auto" mode for graphics allows Windows 8 and later to use more than 2 GB of Mac system memory for graphics, while allowing Windows applications to use it when possible. To use this feature, you must update Parallels Tools first.

• Not all amount of assigned graphics memory is locked by the virtual machine - the amount which is not used is returned to Mac.
• Parallels Desktop 14 now features improved OpenGL support for enhanced graphics, with notable improvements in SketchUp 2017/2018, CTVox, DIALux 8 and OriginLab.
• Improved the way a virtual machine is displayed on 4K+ monitors:
  • reduced the system and graphics memory consumption;
  • reduced the response time;
  • increased the speed of resizing the virtual machine window;
  • increased performance when 3D acceleration is turned off.
• Improved the way Windows is displayed on an external non-Retina monitor when the "Best for external displays" option is selected.
• Improved the way a virtual machine is displayed in Coherence on a Retina monitor.
• Improved the way a virtual machine is displayed in Coherence:
  • reduced system memory consumption;
  • reduced power consumption;
  • increased performance;
  • improved response time - app windows appear faster and move more smoothly.
• Reduced the number of graphical artifacts when switching a virtual machine between view modes.
• Improved the way a virtual machine is displayed on multiple monitors when the macOS "Displays have separate Spaces" option is turned off. Instead of the black screen on one of the monitors, now the virtual machine is displayed on all screens.
• To avoid black screen and slow functioning, Parallels Desktop doesn't allow a virtual machine to switch to Coherence or Full Screen if there's not enough graphics memory. Instead, there appears a message prompting how to increase the virtual machine graphics memory.
• Resoled an issue with virtual machine windows flashing black during resize when the 3D acceleration is turned off.

Getting ready for macOS 10.14 Mojave

• Parallels Desktop 14 supports Dark Mode. Support for additional Mojave features, which are currently in development, will be tested, finalised and introduced around the forthcoming public release of Mojave.
• Use the macOS Continuity Camera feature in Windows (insert pictures from your iPhone or iPad into Windows applications).
• Quick Look in Windows got the same quick actions as in macOS.
• When you take a screenshot from the Edit menu, Parallels Desktop uses the Mojave technology to take screenshots.

Integration with Mac
The border between your Mac and virtual machine becomes thinner:

• Use the camera (connected to Mac) that supports up to 4K resolutions in a virtual machine
• Use the Touch Bar to work with more Windows applications: OneNote, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Visual Studio, AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit, Quicken, Quickbooks Desktop, SketchUp.
• Support for pressure sensitivity in Windows. You can draw in Windows apps like Microsoft PowerPoint, Leonardo or Photoshop depending on the pressure you apply to the trackpad or using a Wacom tablet connected to Mac or using apps like Astropad.
• The size of the virtual machine hard disk (.hdd file) is optimized automatically in the background by means of native Windows defragmentation. This feature works in Windows 8 or later.
• A paused virtual machine resumes automatically when you drag a file to its window.
• You get notified when a USB device you're trying to connect is being used by some macOS application or process.
• Improved the dialogs appearing when you connect a new USB device or external monitor - you can remember your choice and see where to change it later.
• The Start menu closes automatically when you start a Windows application from the Touch Bar.
• Improved the way virtual machine files are associated with Mac's applications.

Security
To avoid data loss, please don't forget to back up your virtual machine:

• Backing up a virtual machine with Time Machine has been simplified. Now if you want to add a virtual machine to the backup list or exclude it from this list, just do what you need in the Time Machine preferences.
• Backing up a virtual machine with Acronis True Image has been improved.
• Some virtual machine controls are greyed out when Parallels Tools are being updated. This is done to prevent Windows from damage.
  

Usability
We continue working to make Parallels Desktop more easy-to use, more understandable and more user-friendly. Thanks a lot for your feedback!

• The "Free Up Disk Space" dialog has been redesigned and simplified. Now you can use it to reduce the amount of disk space occupied by all your virtual machines.
• Parallels Desktop offers to increase the virtual disk size when Windows is running out of disk space.
• Parallels Desktop prompts you to save disk space by importing the Boot Camp partition (i.e. creating a Boot Camp virtual machine) and then deleting the partition.All its contents will remain in a virtual machine and Parallels Desktop will optimize the amount of disk space being used.
• Many minor improvements in the graphical user interface. For example:
  • Many UI messages and warnings have been rephrased. In order not to bother users with the term "virtual machine", we've decided to use the virtual machine name instead.
  • As most of Windows customers have switched from Windows 8 to Windows 10, the "Enable swipe from edges" option is disabled by default in order not to confuse users.
• Windows Maintenance feature has been improved:
  • users are notified in 5 minutes before the maintenance starts;
  • users are notified if Windows didn't perform maintenance for 30 days;
  • users can start maintenance manually.
• Parallels Desktop Help is no longer stored on your Mac. Instead, it's displayed from the web. This allowed us to make Parallels Desktop occupy up to 200 MB less disk space and update the user's guide in real time.
• For new virtual machines, the SmartGuard backup functionality now keeps 3 snapshots by default (not to occupy additional disk space).
• The Resource Monitor has been redesigned. Use it to check how much CPU and memory is consumed by your Mac and all virtual machines.
• Monitor the virtual machine CPU usage in the virtual machine status bar.
• Optimized the "Productivity" and "Games only" virtual machine profiles.
• Use the "Show and hide spaces on all displays simultaneously" option to switch to the virtual machine or non-virtual machine Spaces on all displays simultaneously.
• When inactive, Windows doesn't pause automatically for some time after start. This prevents Windows from being paused when the boot process hasn't finished yet.
• Increased the size of the progress bar on Dock icons for users to comfortably see how the progress is going on.
• New splash screens inform the user when a virtual machine is starting, shutting down, switching to Coherence or Full Screen, etc.
• A notification informs the user when archiving or unarchiving a virtual machine is finished.
• When you click a macOS notification that a technical data report has been sent, the report ID is automatically copied to the clipboard.
• The "Sign In" screen has been redesigned and simplified.
• The "Special characters" menu item in the virtual machine's "Edit" menu has been renamed to "Emoji & Symbols" for consistency with Mac.

Linux support

• Install Ubuntu 18.04, Fedora 28, and Linux Mint 19 in virtual machines right from Parallels Desktop.
• Support for mmap() in Linux Shared Folders.

Support for keyboard layouts
To make your experience of working with Parallels Desktop more comfortable, we have:

• Improved support for the German keyboard layout.
• Improved support for the Japanese keyboard layout.
• Added support for the Brazilian Portuguese keyboard layout.

Games

• Auto-detect keyboard for games. When you start a game, the Mac's keyboard activates Game Mode.
• When a game is launched in Full Screen, a notification informs that you should press Control + Option to access the macOS menu bar.

For Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition only

• Adapted the Mass Deployment package to Parallels Desktop 14.
• Use your Mac's smart card readers in Windows.

Present for Parallels Desktop users

• Simplify your everyday tasks with more tools using Parallels Toolbox® for Mac and for Windows. (Both versions are completely free for Parallels Desktop customers.)

Additional information

• OS X Yosemite 10.10 is no longer supported as a host operating system (Parallels Desktop cannot be installed in it).

System Requirements

• Any Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Core i9, Intel Core M or Xeon processor.
• Mac's operating system: 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.
• 4 GB of memory (8 GB recommended).
• 600 MB of disk space on the boot volume (Macintosh HD) for Parallels Desktop installation.
• Additional disk space for virtual machines (SSD drives recommended for better performance). For example, for Windows 10 you need at least 16 GB of disk space.
• Internet connection (for product activation, some features, etc.).

* Once macOS Mojave 10.14 is officially released, you may need to update Parallels Desktop.