Parallels Software Desktop 14 for Mac [Mac Disc]

Very easy to install, configure. Appears to run faster than VMware. So far - so good...

I bought this in July of 2019. Parallels 14 is my version and now there is a Parallels 15. Is that why it won't accept my key code? Looks like $70 dollars down the drain as the Parallels website wants me to purchase it new again. Wow! This isn't your daddys' Parallels program. Boot Camp here I come.

Unless you read the fine print ... you will not realize you are actually agreeing to a "One-Year Subscription" with this retail "Parallels Desktop 14" box purchase. Previously, buying the retail "Parallels Desktop 13" was actually for a permanent license. I find this borderline behavior, as this fact is barely mentioned anywhere, and is stated on the packaging in just one small location on the bottom left corner of the box. Would have been nice to offer a permanent license option, and or at least have a big sticker on the box that this is a 1 year license only.

I would like to give this software a 5 star rating. It deserves it based on performance alone. But I just can't can't bring myself to do that because of the weak disclosure of the software sales terms. While you can discover that the cost of the software only covers a year if look search long & hard enough, it is not abundantly clear as it should be. So...you will be paying for it every 12 months, basically a subscription. I have pretty much quite subscribing to that kind of software because the cost mounts up quickly over time.That being said, if you need Parallels virtual machine functionality to run...say...Windows 10 software on your Mac - there is nothing better to do this than I have ever seen. Beats the crap out of Apple's own Bootcamp which has severe limitations - like playing friendly with some GPU's and other fairly basic stuff.Windows 10 OS works perfectly on my Mac mini as does Steam, all my Windows Games, Windows software like Office and TNT and most important, my Sonnet 550 Breakaway Box eGPU. All my Mac peripherals are available and everything on my local network including the NAS's and printers.All this is possible because of the magic of Parallels. Simply incredible software!It will run other OSs within the virtual machine as well including Linux and even another walled off copy of MacOS itself. It does depend solely on sharing the resources available on your Mac but I have not noticed appreciable problems as long as I don't do heavy concurrent parallel computing with both the Mac and the Windows OSs at the same time (I guess that is where the name of the software comes from). But I do have a 6 core i7 in my Mac mini so even if I load all 6 cores and the AMD 480 GPU pretty hard, it stills works very well and doesn't get jerky or hesitate.Most impressive!

Parallels has always been a perpetual license. I know the Amazon description says this is a subscription, but why would I look for that when I feel I know the product? It's not fair to change to the subscription model and charge the same price. Sure, you do have to update the software and buy new versions, but I don't do it every year. For a program that I only use once or twice a month and I also have to buy a windows license for, I'm not going to pay for a subscription too. I'm changing to other options.

My MacBook Air is over 3 years old and I am running Windows 10. While I am still trying to learn how to use Windows, Parallels runs seamlessly and integrates my documents between platforms without a hitch.

i suggest spending $60 more on a cheap computer with real win 10. Your pretty much renting a cheap bootleg of window 10 for 1 year. you gotta keep downloading crap to get this thing working. my mac going crazyflickering on and off. i want i money back.

Let me start with the bad, because this is why I knocked 2 stars off the rating. Parallels switched to a subscription only license – they no longer offer lifetime licenses that you once got by purchasing a box. It’s the same price, but now you must pay every year (at least when Microsoft switched Office to a subscription they lowered the price and threw in some extras. Paralleles is charging the same price with nothing extra added). That’s bad enough. But unless you read the fine print, you will not realize this is only a one year subscription. I find this borderline scam behavior, this is barely mentioned anywhere and is stated on the packaging in just one small location on the bottom left corner of the box. It’s bad enough that they now make us rebuy it every year – but it’s completely unacceptable to try to hide the change.Now with that said, Parallels is still a great way to run Windows apps on your Mac almost as if they were running natively. Bootcamp is free, but it makes you reboot into a separate Windows installation. With Parallels you can run Windows right alongside macOS apps, it will even download Windows 10 for you if you don’t have W10 media around. You can also convert an existing Bootcamp install into one that will work with this, letting you use you Bootcamp partition in whichever way suits you best. Programs running in Parallels haven’t given me any issues.The Parallels software would get 5 stars. But their deceptive marketing deserves a lower score. Either stop the subscription or make it obvious this is only for one year.