Parallels desktop 9 for mac review mac os x#
Parallels desktop 9 for mac review install#
Parallels desktop 9 for mac review windows 10#

Parallels desktop 9 for mac review install#

Oddly enough, it only showed OS X 10.10 Yosemite, which I definitely didn’t want to install in a virtual machine on a Yosemite-based Mac! What I finally had to do was update the “old” El Capitan beta to a newer version, at which time the recovery partition appeared and the installation proceeded. For OS X installs, it usually looks for the installation files that are stored in the recovery partition on every Mac disk. Would you believe that I actually had more issues installing OS X El Capitan beta on a virtual machine than I did installing Windows 10? Parallels is supposed to look for installers and then display them in the “free appliances” list. After that, the installation was done quickly.

Parallels desktop 9 for mac review windows 10#

It couldn’t tell that the flash drive was valid media, so I had to spend about a half hour downloading a Windows 10 image file from the Microsoft website. For example, I had purchased Windows 10 on a flash drive from Microsoft, thinking that Parallels would just see the installer as it does other media. Most of those issues were easily resolved, though.

Parallels desktop 9 for mac review mac os x#

Of course, Mac OS X is one of the operating systems available, and Parallels Desktop 11 is designed to run the OS X 10.11 El Capitan beta out of the box.ĭuring my two-week review of Parallels Desktop 11, I did have a few problems with installation of the guest operating systems. Many of these are set up as “free appliances”, meaning that the Wizard is set up to install the OS with a click. PC users who are switching to a Mac for the first time will enjoy the migration tool that moves an existing Windows installation, apps, and settings to a virtual machine.Īs mentioned earlier, there’s a choice of operating systems to install. With an installation DVD or image file mounted on your Mac, Parallels “sees” the media and starts installation.

Your choices of operating system are impressive, but the main thing the wizard is there for is to help users set up a Windows installation on a Mac.

Parallels Desktop 11 starts off by displaying the Parallels Wizard (see image above), which makes installation of new virtual machines as easy as a few clicks. There’s an installer app to run, enter the license code that comes with your purchase, and it’s time to set up a virtual machine. Don’t have one? They’re available for as little as $39 from OWC. Purchasing Parallels Desktop 11 from OWC, you receive an installation DVD so you’ll need to have an optical drive on hand. Developers often need to be able to switch between a number of operating systems, like OS X, Windows 10, various Linux distributions, and even Chrome OS.įortunately, Parallels Desktop has made it possible for the Mac to run all of these operating systems and more, and the latest edition - Parallels Desktop 11 ( $79.99 or $39 with a qualified purchase from OWC) - stands out as a fast and reliable method of getting control of OS madness on your Mac. In a world where Mac sales growth is outpacing that of PCs, there’s still - for many users - a need to run Windows applications on a Mac.