Parallels Desktop 16

Run almost any operating system as a guest on an Intel Mac

- Howard Oakley

from £79.99 (perpetual) or £69.99 (annual sub); upgrades £39.99 (perpetual) FROM Parallels, parallels.com NEEDS macOS 10.13 or later FEATURES Fully compatible with Big Sur host and guest, runs 10.15 and older macOS guests, runs 32-bit and incompatible apps in macOS 11, runs Windows 10 and older guests, compacts VMs to reclaim storage

We’re now at peak virtualisation. Whichever operating system you want on your Mac, this is the easiest time to go virtual, and the latest version 16 of Parallels Desktop should prove an excellent platform for almost any Intel Mac.

Parallels has long been a convenient way of running Windows on your Mac without having to resort to Boot Camp, although if you have that already installed, Parallels can also run it as a guest operating system or virtual machine (VM). If you haven’t got a copy of Windows 10 to hand, Parallels can download and install it for you, and other methods are demonstrated at bit.ly/MAC357parwin10.