Mac users rejoice: the all-new Parallels Desktop 14 has been out for a few days now. For those of you who don't know what Parallels is here's a quick intro: Parallels is the top selling software for running Windows on your Mac device. It's a virtual machine (VM) so you don't have to keep rebooting to switch between either OS – Windows essentially becomes a window! With Parallels 14 comes a truckload of new improvements and innovations, the first being enhanced storage optimisation. VMs typically take up a ton of space, anywhere from 15 to a 100GB. The newly engineered storage optimisations take both Windows and Mac mechanisms into account to give you significant storage savings. Newly created snapshots using Parallels 14 have shown to occupy 15% less disk space. Its most obvious use is enabling users to run Windows applications while staying booted on MacOS. Uniquely-Windows features like Microsoft Ink are also available when editing MS Office documents on Mac OS. This also includes pressure sensitive support in various applications like PowerPoint, MS Edge and Photoshop. Parallels Desktop 14 is even capable of using the pressure sensing on the Macbook touchpad!

The Touch Bar on the latest iterations of the MacBook Pro is a pretty nifty tool for owners of the Macbooks that possess it. And though not new, Parallels Desktop 14 has added more preconfigured Touch Bar sets for many applications like SketchUp, OneNote and AutoCAD. These join the other Touch Bar sets (Windows Start Menu, various browsers) that have already been part of Parallels. The software is all ready for MacOS Mojave, the upcoming iteration of MacOS currently still undergoing beta testing. Parallels Desktop 14 will support Dark Mode, along with quick actions. Other features optimised for Mojave are in development and will be released to users around the public release of the OS. arallels Business Edition will come with new tools to improve the management of workflows and security systems. The Parallels Toolbox has more than 30 useful single-click functions. You can now do things like make a screen capture of a full webpage, free much-needed RAM and resize images all with a few clicks. Some other tools in the box include downloading videos from YouTube and other video hosting sites, simplifying an otherwise tedious process. Parallels claims up to 80% faster application launch times and 10% faster boot times – meaning that your Mac could potentially launch Windows OS faster than your PC!