Parallels Desktop for Mac version 19.2.0 is available!

Introducing the Parallels Desktop 19.2.0 update! I’m excited to share how the Parallels team keeps pushing the boundaries of the virtual machine experience within a Mac — be it Windows, Linux, or macOS itself.

This update addresses various critical issues reported by our customers and introduces quality improvements to some of the frequently used functionalities. See the full list of changes in this KB article.

Want to experience Parallels Desktop for Mac for yourself? Get a 14-day free trial now.

Use Apple ID with security keys

By listening to our users, we learned that some of our users have an extra protection layer enabled for their Apple ID — hardware security keys.

“A security key is a small external device that looks like a thumb drive or tag, which can be used for verification when signing in with your Apple ID using two-factor authentication.” says Apple’s support article.

Those users couldn’t sign into their Parallels accounts in Parallels Desktop UI using the “Sign in with Apple” option — a very convenient way to get into a Parallels account.

While investigating this situation, our engineers identified that we need to use another method from the Authentication Services macOS framework to support Apple IDs with security keys.

19.2.0 uses this new method and allows users with security keys configured for their Apple ID to sign into their Parallels accounts! We are eager to get feedback from our users about how it works for them.

Clone a virtual machine instantaneously

A growing number of software developers, testers, and IT professionals around the world rely on Parallels Desktop as an integral part of their workflow.

In many scenarios, users need to clone a virtual machine from a golden image or a template. It used to take noticeable time with a linear dependency on the size of the virtual machine.

With the new approach using APFS capabilities, cloning a virtual machine becomes incredibly fast or almost instantaneous instead of taking 10-30 seconds or even more depending on the VM size.

Technically speaking, the time it takes to clone a virtual machine residing on an APFS partition using the new approach doesn’t depend on the size of the virtual machine.

Running a virtual machine from an external drive is improved

With fast external SSD drives, running a VM that is stored on those drives provides nearly the same level of performance and user experience as if it were located within a Mac, plus it frees up Mac storage. With that being said, some of our customers have their Windows machines stored on external disks.

The macOS Sonoma 14 operating system brought changes to exFAT and MS-DOS file systems, and “these file systems are now provided by services running in user-space instead of by kernel extensions”, as stated in the macOS Sonoma release notes.

Those changes, combined with our virtual disk implementation, resulted in significant stability issues with running Windows VMs from an external exFAT-formatted drive. In some situations, Windows used to fail with BSOD and won’t boot again.

In this release, we are excited to announce stability improvements for running virtual machines from external drives with an ex-FAT file system by tuning our virtual disk implementation to accommodate changes in the latest macOS version.

Improve CI/CD workflows with Terraform and REST API

The Parallels team is dedicated to continuously investing in better ways to help developers and DevOps teams streamline their workflows and automate their processes.

Accordingly, I am excited to announce our latest effort in this regard – the launch of two new open-source projects that provide the tools needed for seamless automation within the world of CI/CD.

REST API wrapper

The first project is a REST API wrapper around our already powerful command-line client. This wrapper enables remote management of a Parallels Desktop instance, allowing you to create, clone, start, stop virtual machines and more. It comes with built-in security and RBAC controls to ensure everything is secure.

Parallels Desktop Terraform provider

When combined with the new Parallels Desktop Terraform provider, this project makes it incredibly easy to manage and deploy remote instances for use with CI/CD.

Terraform is a popular Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool that enables the management of large and complex infrastructures in a consistent and repeatable manner. The addition of Parallels Desktop provider for Terraform provides companies with the ability to manage their virtualization infrastructure with the same benefits.

Both projects are open-source and free to use, which means that anyone can improve upon them. Check out these projects at:

REST API wrapper: https://github.com/Parallels/pd-api-service
Parallels Desktop Terraform provider: https://github.com/Parallels/terraform-provider-parallels-desktop

To conclude, we want to thank all our customers who share their feedback about using Parallels Desktop with our team whether it’s in the forum, via the surveys, or through customer support.

As a team, we continue to stay true to our commitment to provide the best experience, performance, and reliability for running virtual systems on a Mac, be it Windows 11, Linux distros, or macOS itself. Let us know your thoughts and experience with the latest Parallels Desktop 19 update here.

New to Parallels Desktop for Mac? Get a 14-day free trial now.