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This being a virtual machine, you can also take snapshots of your Windows system whenever you like, and roll back to previous states at will. Your personal folders in Windows are mapped directly to their Mac equivalents, helping to smooth out cross-platform workflows, and you can even copy and paste text and images between Windows apps and Mac ones. This lets Windows applications float freely among your Mac windows, and puts their icons in the Dock alongside native apps.
#Parallels desktop mac m1 chip install
In fact, when we tried to set up the Dropbox client, the regular installer detected a platform error and smartly directed me to install the Store edition instead, which worked perfectly.Īs usual with VMs, Windows appears as a desktop in a window, but with a click you can enable Parallels’ signature Coherence mode.
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We’re not saying it necessarily makes sense to run these apps in Parallels, but they illustrate how broadly Windows on ARM can stand in for the x86 edition.Īnything in the Microsoft Store ought to work too, since WoA fully implements the UWP framework, and any other required resources should come bundled into the installation package. WoA looks and feels exactly like regular Windows 10, and it works like it too: initial releases were limited to running 32-bit code, but that restriction is now gone, and we were able to install and use a whole stack of industry-standard apps and tools with zero fuss, including Chrome, Office, Photoshop, 7-Zip and Zoom. Once you’ve got past the thrill of seeing Windows boot up on your Mac desktop, the experience is pretty anticlimactic. Parallels Desktop 16.5 review: Compatibility and features There’s nothing to customise on the OS side accept the default settings in Parallels and you’ll be looking at a Windows 10 desktop in no more than ten minutes. Microsoft provides the WoA installer in the form of a VHDX image file, which you can simply drag onto the Parallels window and boot to kick off the installation. Happily, installing Windows is almost as easy.
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