Parallels Desktop 19 Adds Password-Less Sign-In With Touch ID Support, macOS Sonoma Compatibility, and More

[MacRumors]

Parallels Desktop 19 for Mac has been released, bringing some notable new features and performance enhancements to the virtualization software, including password-less Sign-in with Touch ID Integration and full support for Apple's forthcoming macOS Sonoma operating system.

Touch ID on Macs lets users authenticate logins and Apple Pay transactions with their fingerprint, and beginning with Parallels Desktop 19, users with a secure Windows login and password can now use Touch ID to sign in to Windows virtual machines, simplifying the login process.

Parallels Desktop 19 also brings optimized compatibility with macOS Sonoma, including re-engineered Shared Printing via Internet Printing protocol (IPP) that supports printing from Windows apps, with minimal setup required.

In addition, DP 19 promises a richer experience using VMs on Apple silicon Macs, thanks to dynamic resolution adjustments and familiar multitouch gestures with Trackpad support. Meanwhile, Pro Edition users can remotely access a macOS Sonoma 14 VM via port forwarding, which is useful for VMs hosted on Amazon EC2 Mac cloud instances.

The Parallels Desktop software has also been given a design overhaul, with a new app icon and a refreshed UI that aims to make navigation simpler, along with native dialogs for easier interaction with the app.

There are several other improvements highlighted in the release notes for Parallels Desktop 19, including:

• Improved OpenGL support, up to version 4.1, for running more CAD software on Mac, including VariCAD, Deswik.CAD, Vectorworks Vision 2023, and more.
• Improved performance for AcrGIS Pro, a map designing application.
• Compatible to run CentOS 9 Stream on Mac computers with Apple silicon, along with an updated set of ready-to-go Linux distributions, including Ubuntu 22.04.2, Fedora 38, Debian 12, and more.
• New option to create Arm-based Linux VM on Mac computers with Apple silicon using Rosetta to run x86-64 binaries, including containers.
• Enhanced support for the HashiCorp’s Packer and Vagrant with macOS VM on Apple silicon.
• New option to create, group, and manage Parallels VMs and their containers from the Visual Studio Code extension.
• Support for enrolling Windows in Windows management solutions, such as Microsoft Intune and others, when deploying it using Parallels My Account Configuration Profile or as a shared file.

Parallels Desktop 19 for Mac Standard, Pro, and Business editions can be purchased or upgraded to at parallels.com/desktop or from authorized resellers. For more information, including the option to download a free trial, see the Parallels website.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Parallels. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Article Link: Parallels Desktop 19 Adds Password-Less Sign-In With Touch ID Support, macOS Sonoma Compatibility, and More

 

[koil]

beginning with Parallels Desktop 19, users with a secure Windows login and password can now use Touch ID to sign in to Windows virtual machines, simplifying the login process

Very nice!

 

[mectojic]

How about emulating DirectX 12?

 

[Kevrani]

When VMWare Fusion is free and the 2023 preview is REALLY easy to install and has DirectX 11 on ARM, it's a hard sell for Parallels.

 

[4743913]

How about emulating DirectX 12?

came here to post this.

 

[Sir Ruben]

I quite liked Parallels but was really put off by their pricing/upgrade model.

 

[Manzanito]

Now that windows is officially supported via Parallels, couldn’t apple consider bringing back bootcamp?

Maybe it’s harder because of the apple sillicon architecture, but would be a bonus for those considering switching from pc to mac.

 

[Jaziry]

There is no reason to spend money on PD given its ridiculous pricing, considering VM has been excellent on my Mac for some time.

 

[Darth-Kylie]

Can’t wait to find out later if the menu bar in macOS VMs is still missing all the menu names.

 

[N1noodle]

I wouldnt use parallel for games seems like a waste of money.
For games try apple game porting tool, if you dont need the payed support.

 

[sirozha]

I love Parallels and have used it for 15 years now. One knock against them is that this is a Russian company likely cooperating with the FSB just like Kasperski. They can’t not cooperate, so it’s anyone’s guess what Parallels siphons off the Mac and the VMs. Unfortunately, VMware Fusion is so much behind that it’s no longer a competition.

 

[Bearxor]

Does PD or VMW support running a macOS VM through ADE on Mx chips yet?

 

[philstubbington]

I love Parallels and have used it for 15 years now. One knock against them is that this is a Russian company likely cooperating with the FSB just like Kasperski. They can’t not cooperate, so it’s anyone’s guess what Parallels siphons off the Mac and the VMs. Unfortunately, VMware Fusion is so much behind that it’s no longer a competition.

Where’s your evidence they’re a Russian company?

 

[Darth-Kylie]

I love Parallels and have used it for 15 years now. One knock against them is that this is a Russian company likely cooperating with the FSB just like Kasperski. They can’t not cooperate, so it’s anyone’s guess what Parallels siphons off the Mac and the VMs. Unfortunately, VMware Fusion is so much behind that it’s no longer a competition.

They’re owned by a Canadian company these days.

 

[sirozha]

Where’s your evidence they’re a Russian company?

It’s a company with the Russian roots. The founder is from Russia, and all the development was in Russia for many years.

 

[b0fh]

Does it support shared folders from the host for virtual Macs?

 

[Alwis]

And still only 8GB RAM for VMs in die Standard Edition.

If my current Parallels version does not run under Sonoma this is probably the year I will completely switch to VMWare, which I am using on two of my Macs for years without any problem.

@sirozha
Thanks for the background, that is certainly something to consider!

 

[AppleTO]

Cool… but bootcamp would still be much preferred. I can still hope.

 

[DaveFlash]

It’s a company with the Russian roots. The founder is from Russia, and all the development was in Russia for many years.

also incorrect, it always was a US company, but at one time had R&D facilities in Russia, these days it's a part of Corel which is Canadian.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Since ARM Windows is far from full Windows, another option for about Parallels annual rate times 5 or 8 is to buy an actual PC. That kind of budget can buy a surprisingly robust Mac Mini-like PC that will then run anything that runs on Windows, not just some things that run in Windows ARM. That's what I did: "old fashioned bootcamp."

I also chose a 5K2K monitor with more than one video input so that both Mac and PC can share the same monitor without switching cables. Monitor has built-in hub so that both can share the same keyboard and mouse too. Monitor is an ultra-wide so- if desired- I can split screen to have both Mac and PC on the same screen at the same time. That "feels" very much like Parallels, minus the annual fee.

A modest Mac budget will buy a LOT of PC power and PC key upgrades like RAM and SSD have lots of competition driving down prices and margins so that most of the money one might spend on either is actually buying RAM and SSD... instead of deepening the cash pool in another vault.

Windows 11 is not nearly as bad as Mac fans spin. And all that stuff that we wish Windows emulation could do fully works on an actual PC. Bonus: since PCs are focused on Power instead of PPW, some things that lean on raw power get done faster on PC. So now I just parse out computing tasks accordingly. Some stuff I used to do on Mac now gets done on PC.

"Think different" works well this way for me. Perhaps for some of you too?

 

[twolf2919]

I love PD - never used VMWare Fusion, but VMWare VM products weren't as easy to setup when I used them at work. PD replaced a very slow VirtualBox solution I had used before then.

For years I've used PD for only two reasons: to build/test my own software installers on x86-Windows/Linux and to run TurboTax for Business - which is only available as an x86 Windows installer. With Apple having moved to Apple Silicone I feel a bit left behind. PD doesn't provide instruction-level x86 emulation, so I can't really be 100% certain that my x86 Windows 10 and Linux binaries work on ARM-based Windows 11 and Linux VMs. Similarly, I'm not 100% certain that TurboTax won't have any issues on an ARM-based Windows 11 VM (I did try installing x86 TurboTax for Business on an eval version of PD with ARM Windows and it did start and seem to work, but do I really want to risk it working when I most needed come March 15th?) So in the end, I simply kept my old x86 around and kick the problem down the road until that Mac falls apart or PD stops producing an x86-based PD.

 

[capriciousconor]

Looks like some nice updates and improvements The Touch ID support is a great thing to see added.

It's annoying you can buy an owned license for the standard version, but the professional version is only available as a subscription.

I was running Parallels 18 on my MacBook Pro before the license expired. I haven't renewed the subscription and have since reset the laptop and not even considered re-installing/re-licensing it. $99 a year is too steep for my occasional Windows use.

 

[antic]

The only thing things that parallels offer over VMware fusion is easier install and file sharing though both can be done on VMware fusion without too much trouble

For the amount they are charging they really should be supporting DX12 graphics.

 

[chrfr]

Does PD or VMW support running a macOS VM through ADE on Mx chips yet?

This is a limitation from Apple- the virtualization framework, which is required to virtualize macOS on Apple Silicon, doesn't support it.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Now that windows is officially supported via Parallels, couldn’t apple consider bringing back bootcamp?

Maybe it’s harder because of the apple sillicon architecture, but would be a bonus for those considering switching from pc to mac.

I think the problem is that Microsoft hasn't agreed to license Windows on ARM to run natively on Apple Silicon machines.