Parallels® Desktop is a powerful, easy-to-use software that lets you run Windows® and other operating systems with their applications in fast, secure virtual machines side-by-side with Mac OS® X on Intel®-based Macintosh® computers. Parallels Desktop is powered by a lightweight hypervisor, a thin layer of software that “works” between the host computer’s hardware and Mac OS X. This results in dramatically more stable, more secure, and higher-performing virtual machines.

Parallels Desktop fully supports Intel virtualization technology (VT-x). See the Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x) Support (page 8) topic.
To enhance your experience of running more than one operating system on your Macintosh computer, Parallels Desktop for the Mac includes two utilities: Parallels Image Tool and Parallels Compressor™.

Parallels Desktop has a set of special tools (utilities and drivers) that will help you use your virtual machines efficiently (mouse synchronization tool, clipboard synchronization tool, etc.). See the Parallels Tools Overview (page 67) topic for the full list of tools and their descriptions.

Key terms used in this Guide:
Primary operating system (primary OS) to designate the operating system that controls the input /output devices on the computer and that is loaded when the physical computer is turned on. Actually, it’s Mac OS X.

Guest operating system (guest OS) to designate an operating system that runs under virtual machine control. One primary OS and multiple guest OSes can run at the same time on a single computer.

Download pdf Parallels Desktop for Mac User Guide