Apple has yet to release macOS Monterey for its desktops and notebooks, but Parallels Desktop 17.1 is already available for the upcoming operating system. The new software comes just days before Apple's event on October 18, where the company is expected to launch macOS Monterey along with next-generation MacBook Pro laptops. Also, Parallels 17.1 boosts Windows performance on Macs.
Parallels Desktop 17 virtualization software released in August already had general support for macOS Monterey and Windows 11 both on x86 and Apple Silicon Mac, but since neither operating systems were officially released at that time, it was not clear how the final versions of the OSes will work with the program. At this time Parallels claims that Parallels Desktop 17.1 now fully supports Apple's upcoming OS as well as Windows 11. Furthermore, it is now possible to copy and paste between macOS Monterey and a virtual machine.
Launching Windows 11 on Apple's Macs is tricky because the latest OS from Microsoft requires TPM support and Apple's Macs do not have it. To that end, Parallels had to introduce default support for vTPMs to offer compatibility with both x86 and Apple Silicon-powered Apple computers. One thing to keep in mind is that Microsoft does not officially support Apple Silicon or launching Windows 11 in a virtualized environment (at least for now).
"Knowing that Parallels Desktop plays a critical role in enabling users to run the latest versions of Windows on their favorite Mac device today, we've developed a simple solution to help all users upgrade to Windows 11 with the enablement of vTPMs by default on all Mac devices," said Elena Koryakina, Vice President of Engineering at Parallels. "The latest version of Parallels Desktop also builds on our customers’ top requests with new gaming and 3D integrations to further enhance the user experience."
Among other improvements, Parallels notes increased graphics performance for numerous Windows games, including (but not limited to): World of Warcraft, Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition, Tomb Raider 3, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, World of Tanks, and Raft.
Last but not least, Parallels Desktop 17.1 adds support for VirGL in Virtio GPU to enable Linux 3D acceleration out of the box on all supported Macs.
