

There’s improved support for Mac trackpads when running Windows apps, including gestures for zoom and rotate. Parallels also told us that they’re planning an update with some additional features when the final version of Big Sur is launched this autumn.Īlongside that major rewrite, Parallels also managed to add a number of other new features as well: They’ve fine-tuned Parallels Desktop so that your virtual machines start up and quit more quickly than before. We were pleased to see that it ran well on the beta version of Big Sur that we had installed on our MacBook – and it even allowed us to create a VM running the beta of Big Sur as well, so we could return the MacBook to its more reliable Catalina set-up, and then just use the VM to explore Big Sur. This has forced Parallels to make major changes to Parallels Desktop 16 simply in order to ensure that it will still be able to run on Big Sur. However, Apple has decided that kexts from outside companies such as Parallels are a security risk, so it has banned kexts from the forthcoming Big Sur. Virtualisation apps such as Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion rely on pieces of software called kexts – kernel extensions – that dig deep into the macOS in order to improve performance when running Windows on your virtual machines.


Upgrades to Parallels Desktop always include new features and performance improvements, but the biggest change in Parallels Desktop 16 is actually a major under-the-bonnet programming rewrite that won’t be immediately obvious to most people. The Toolbox is a handy set of utilities, which run on both Mac and Windows, while Access is an app for iOS and Android that allows you to remotely control VMs on your Mac using your mobile devices. All versions of Parallels Desktop 16 also include Parallels Toolbox and Parallels Access as well.
