Parallels Desktop for Mac
Stable release
Developer(s)	Parallels
Operating system	Mac OS X
Platform	Apple–Intel architecture
Available in	English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, German, Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Polish, Czech
Type	Hypervisor
License	Proprietary
Website	www.parallels.com/desktop/

Parallels Desktop for Mac, by Parallels, is software providing hardware virtualization for Macintosh computers with Intel processors.

Parallels Access 2.0 is a remote-access app that lets you view and control your Mac or Windows machine from any iOS device. You can connect either over a local network, or (as long as both. Parallels Desktop is powerful software that permits the users to easily create the virtual machine and it enables to run Windows OS on a Mac Computers. Through this software, you can basically use any application like it on Windows, Android, Mac or Linux.

1Overview
2Version 2.5
3Version 3.0
4Version 4.0
5Version 5
- 5.1Feature update
15Supported operating systems

Overview[edit]

Parallels, Inc. is a developer of desktop and server virtualization software.

Historical[edit]

Released on June 15, 2006, it was the first software product to bring mainstream virtualization to Macintosh computers utilizing the Apple–Intel architecture (earlier software products ran PC software in an emulated environment).

Its name initially was 'Parallels Workstation for Mac OS X', which was consistent with the company's corresponding Linux and Windows products. This name was not well received within the Mac community, where some felt that the name, particularly the term “workstation,” evoked the aesthetics of a Windows product. Parallels agreed: “Since we've got a great Mac product, we should make it look and sound like a Mac product...”, it was therefore renamed ‘Parallels Desktop for Mac’.^[1]

On January 10, 2007, Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac was awarded “Best in Show” at MacWorld 2007.^[2]

Technical[edit]

Parallels Desktop for Mac is a hardware emulation virtualization software, using hypervisor technology that works by mapping the host computer's hardware resources directly to the virtual machine's resources. Each virtual machine thus operates identically to a standalone computer, with virtually all the resources of a physical computer.^[3] Because all guest virtual machines use the same hardware drivers irrespective of the actual hardware on the host computer, virtual machine instances are highly portable between computers. For example, a running virtual machine can be stopped, copied to another physical computer, and restarted.

Parallels Desktop for Mac is able to virtualize a full set of standard PC hardware, including^[4]

A virtualized CPU of the same type as the host's physical processor,
ACPI compliance system,
A generic motherboard compatible with the Intel i965 chipset,
Up to 64 GB of RAM for guest virtual machines,
Up to 2 GB of video RAM (VRAM),
VGA and SVGAvideo adapter with VESA 3.0 support and OpenGL and DirectX 10.1 acceleration,
A 1.44 MB floppy drive, which can be mapped to a physical drive or to an image file,
Up to four IDE devices. This includes virtual hard drives ranging in size from 20 MB to 2 TB each and CD/DVD-ROM drives. Virtual CD/DVD-ROM drives can be mapped to either physical drives or ISO image files.
DVD/CD-ROM “pass-through” access,
Up to four serial ports that can be mapped to a pipe or to an output file,
Up to three bi-directional parallel ports, each of which can be mapped to a real port, to a real printer, or to an output file,
An Ethernet virtual network card compatible with Realtek RTL8029(AS), capable of up to 16 network interface connections,
Up to eight USB 2.0 devices and two USB 1.1 devices,
An AC'97-compatible sound card.
A 104-key Windows enhanced keyboard and a PS/2 wheel mouse.

Version 2.5[edit]

The first official release of version 2.5 was on February 27, 2007, as build 3186.

Version 2.5 brought support for USB 2.0 devices, which expanded the number of USB devices supported at native speed, including support for built-in iSight USB webcams. The amount of video RAM allocated to the guest OS was made adjustable, up to 32MB. Full featured CD/DVD drives arrived in this version, which allowed the user to burn disks directly in the virtual environment, and play any copy-protected CD or DVD as one would in Mac OS X. In addition, a shared clipboard and drag-drop support between Mac OS X and the guest OS was implemented. This version brought the ability for users with a Windows XP installation to upgrade to Windows Vista from within the VM environment.^[5] A new feature known as Coherence was added, which removed the Windows chrome, desktop, and the virtualization frames to create a more seamless desktop environment between Windows and Mac OS X applications. This version also allowed users to boot their existing Boot Camp Windows XP partitions, which eliminated the need to have multiple Windows installations on their Mac. A tool called Parallels Transporter was included to allow users to migrate their Windows PC, or existing VMware or Virtual PC VMs to Parallels Desktop for Mac.

Netsys lawsuit[edit]

In 2007, the German company Netsys GmbH sued Parallels' German distributor Avanquest for copyright violation, claiming that Parallels Desktop and Parallels Workstation are directly based on a line of products called “twoOStwo” that Parallels developed on paid commission for Netsys, of which it says, Netsys has been assigned all copyrights. Additionally, the lawsuit claimed that Parallels Desktop 2.5's compatibility with “twoOStwo” showed that the two software products are run by essentially the same functional core.^[6] When Netsys lost its initial urgency proceeding, it filed a new suit, in which it requested a temporary injunction from the Landgericht district court of Berlin.^[7]

Version 3.0[edit]

On June 7, 2007 build 4124 was released as the first publicly available version of Desktop 3.0.

Version 3.0 retained all of the functionality from previous versions and added new features and tools. Support for DirectX 8.1 and OpenGL^[8] was added, allowing Mac users to play some Windows games without the need to boot into Windows with Boot Camp.^[9] A new feature called SmartSelect offers cross OS file and application integration by allowing the user to open Windows files with Mac OS X programs and vice versa. Parallels Explorer was introduced, which allows the user to browse their Windows system files in Mac OS X without actually launching Windows. A new snapshot feature was included, allowing one to restore their virtual machine environment to a previous state in case of issues. Further, Parallels added a security manager to limit the amount of interaction between the Windows and Mac OS X installations. This version included a long-awaited complete “Parallels tools'” driver suite for Linux guest operating systems. Therefore, integration between Mac OS X and Linux guest-OS's was greatly improved.^[10]

Despite the addition of numerous new features, tools and added functionality, the first iteration of Parallels Desktop for Mac 3.0 was missing some of the features that Parallels had planned for it. A Parallels, Inc. representative stated at MacWorld in January 2007 that version 3.0 would bring accelerated graphics, “multi-core virtual machines/virtual SMP, some SCSI support, a more Mac-like feel, as well as a more sophisticated coherence mode, dubbed Coherence 2.0”.^[11] While accelerat

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