To install and set up Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac, you need:
Minimum To run most applications such as Microsoft Office, accounting, trading, SAP, Matlab and more |
Best Performance For graphics-intensive applications, high loads and running multiple virtual machines |
|
Processor |
Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Core i9, Intel Core M or Xeon processor |
Intel Core i5, Core i7, Core i9 or Xeon processor |
Memory | 4 GB of RAM | 16 GB of RAM or more |
Storage |
500 MB for Parallels Desktop application installation Additional disk space for the guest operating system (at least 16 GB is required for Windows 10)
|
SSD drive |
Graphics | Intel, AMD Radeon or NVIDIA | AMD Radeon Pro graphics card |
Operating System |
macOS 11.0 Big Sur (when released) macOS Catalina 10.15.5 or newer |
macOS Big Sur 11.0 (when released) macOS Catalina 10.15.5 or newer DirectX 11 requires at least macOS Mojave 10.14, but works best on macOS 10.15.3 Catalina or newer. |
Internet connection is required for product activation, updates and select features.
Supported Guest Operating Systems
To install and set up Parallels Desktop 15 for Mac, you need:
Minimum To run most applications such as Microsoft Office, accounting, trading, SAP, Matlab and more |
Best Performance For graphics-intensive applications, high loads and running multiple virtual machines |
|
Processor |
Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Core i9, Intel Core M or Xeon processor |
Intel Core i5, Core i7, Core i9 or Xeon processor |
Memory | 4 GB of RAM | 16 GB of RAM or more |
Storage |
500 MB for Parallels Desktop application installation Additional disk space for the guest operating system (at least 16 GB is required for Windows 10)
|
SSD drive |
Graphics | Intel, AMD Radeon or NVIDIA | AMD Radeon Pro graphics card |
Operating System | macOS Catalina 10.15 macOS Mojave 10.14.6 or newer macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 or newer macOS Sierra 10.12.6 or newer |
macOS Catalina 10.15 DirectX 11 requires at least macOS Mojave
|
Internet connection is required for product activation, updates and select features.
Supported Guest Operating Systems
For Parallels Desktop 14 for Mac, you need:
Hardware:
- A Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Core i9, Intel Core M or Xeon processor
- Minimum 4 GB of memory, 8 GB is recommended
- 600 MB of disk space on the boot volume (Macintosh HD) for Parallels Desktop application installation
- Additional disk space for virtual machines (varies on operating system and applications installed, e.g. at least 16GB is required for Windows 10)
- SSD drive is recommended for better performance
- Internet connection for product activation and select features
Mac Software:
- macOS Mojave 10.14
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 or later
- macOS Sierra 10.12.6 or later
- OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 or later
Guest Operating Systems:
- Windows 10
- Windows 8.1
- Windows 8
- Windows Server 2012 R2
- Windows 7 (SP0-SP1)
- Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP0-SP2)
- Windows Vista Home, Business, Ultimate, Enterprise (SP0-SP2)
- Windows Server 2003 R2 (SP0-SP2)
- Windows XP (SP0-SP3)
- Windows 2000 Professional SP4
- Windows 2000 Server SP4
- MS-DOS 6.22 **
- Boot2Docker
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7, 6, 5
- CentOS Linux 7, 6, 5
- Fedora Linux 29, 28, 27, 26
- Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, 17.10, 16.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS, 12.04 LTS
- Debian GNU/Linux 9.4, 9, 8, 7
- Suse Linux Enterprise 12 SP3, 11 SP3, 11 SP2
- OpenSUSE Linux 15, 42.3, 13.2, 13.1, 12.3
- Linux Mint 19, 18, 17
- Kali 2018.2, 2018.1, 2
- Elementary OS 5.0, 0.4
- Manjaro 17
- Mageia 6, 5, 4, 3
- Gentoo Linux **
- Solaris 11.3, 11, 10 **
openBSD 6 **- FreeBSD 11.1, 10, 10, 9, 8 **
openVZ 7- eComStation 2, 1.2 **
- ReactOS 0.4 **
- Android OS*
- macOS Mojave 10.14.x
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.x
- macOS Sierra 10.12.x
- OS X El Capitan 10.11.x
- OS X Yosemite 10.10.x
- OS X Mavericks 10.9.x
- OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.x
- OS X Lion 10.7.x
- OS X Lion Server 10.7.x
- Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server 10.6.x
- Mac OS X Leopard Server 10.5.x
*Only the one downloaded with help of Installation Assistant.
**Parallels tools are not available for this operating system
Note:
Parallels Desktop for Mac emulates PC hardware, so operating systems that are not present in this list can work as well. They are not on the list because we didn't test them in our lab yet or we found some critical issues.
You can download Parallels Desktop Trial here and install an operating system of your choice and if it doesn't work and you believe it should be supported, let us know at Parallels Forum.
PC system requirements to move your PC to your Mac (using Parallels Transporter Agent)
- 700 MHz (or higher) x86 or x64 processor (Intel or AMD)
- 256 MB of RAM
- 50 MB of available
hard disk space forinstallation of Parallels Transporter Agent - Ethernet or WiFi network adapter for migrating over
network External USB drive for migrating via external disk- Supported Windows: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or later), Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit only), Windows Server 2008, or Windows 2000 Professional (32-bit only).
For Parallels Desktop 13 for Mac, you need:
Hardware:
- Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Intel Core M or Xeon processor
- 4 GB of memory (8 GB recommended)
- 850 MB of disk space on the boot volume (Macintosh HD) for Parallels Desktop installation
- Additional disk space for virtual machines (varies by
operating system installed) - SSD drive is recommended for better performance
- Internet connection for product activation and select features
Software:
- macOS High Sierra 10.13 or later
- macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or later
- OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 or later
- OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 or later
Supported Guest Operating Systems:
- Windows 10
- Windows 8.1
- Windows 8
- Windows Server 2012 R2
- Windows 7 (SP0-SP1)
- Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP0-SP2)
- Windows Vista Home, Business, Ultimate, Enterprise (SP0-SP2)
- Windows Server 2003 R2 (SP0-SP2)
- Windows XP (SP0-SP3)
- Windows 2000 Professional SP4
- Windows 2000 Server SP4
- Windows NT 4.0 Server SP6 **
- Windows NT 4.0 Workstation SP6 **
- Windows ME **
- Windows 98 SE **
- Windows 95 **
- Windows 3.11 **
- MS-DOS 6.22 **
- Boot2Docker
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7, 6, 5
- Fedora Linux 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19
- Ubuntu 18.04, 17.10, 17.04, 16.10, 16.04 LTS, 15.10, 15.04, 14.10, 14.04 LTS, 13.10, 13.04, 12.10, 12.04 LTS, 11.10, 11.04, 10.10, 10.04 LTS
- CentOS Linux 7, 6, 5
- Debian GNU/Linux 9, 8, 7, 6, 5
- Suse Linux Enterprise 12, 11 SP3, 11 SP2
- OpenSUSE Linux 13.2, 13.1, 12.3
- Linux Mint 18, 17, 16, 13
- Kali 2
- Zorin OS 12.1
- Elementary 0.4
- Manjaro 17, 16.10
- Mageia 5, 4, 3
- Solaris 11.3, 11, 10 **
openBSD 6 **- FreeBSD 11, 10, 10, 9, 8 **
openVZ 7- OS/2 Warp 4.5, 4 **
- eComStation 2, 1.2 **
- ReactOS 0.4 **
- Android OS*
- macOS Mojave 10.14.x
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.x
- macOS Sierra 10.12.x
- OS X El Capitan 10.11.x
- OS X Yosemite 10.10.x
- OS X Mavericks 10.9.x
- OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.x
- OS X Lion 10.7.x
- OS X Lion Server 10.7.x
- Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server 10.6.x
- Mac OS X Leopard Server 10.5.x
*- Only the one downloaded with help of Installation Assistant.
** - Parallels tools are not available for this operating system.
Note: Parallels Desktop for Mac emulates PC hardware, so operating systems that are not present in this list can work as well. They are not on the list because we didn't test them in our lab or found some critical issues. You can download Parallels Desktop Trial here and install an operating system of your choice. If it doesn't work and you believe it should be supported, let us know at Parallels Forum
PC system requirements to move your PC to your Mac (using Parallels Transporter Agent)
- 700 MHz (or higher) x86 or x64 processor (Intel or AMD)
- 256 MB of RAM
- 50 MB of available
hard disk space forinstallation of Parallels Transporter Agent - Ethernet or WiFi network adapter for migrating over
network - External drive storage for migrating via external disk
- Supported Windows: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000
- Supported Linux: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, Ubuntu 8.04