Cortana arrives on Mac with Parallels 11

Last updated Jun 23, 2017 488

Parallels today announced the availability of the new version of its suite of virtual machine, which stands out among the new support for Windows 10 and Cortana, the latter also ” always-on “.

Parallels announced Wednesday the availability to the public of Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac, along with versions Pro Edition for developers, designers and power users, and Business Edition, formerly known as Enterprise Edition, for companies and IT administrators. The new versions offer a performance increase up to 50% and Travel mode that optimizes fuel consumption for improved battery life.

There are also substantial innovations in terms of compatibility: Parallels 11 now supports both Windows 10 and Mac OS X El Capitan, the latter of course still experimental. Very interesting implementation of Cortana that, through the Coherence mode, can also be used on Mac OS as if it were a normal application compatible with the Apple ecosystem.

Cortana is ” always-on “, that is always ready to respond to user requests even if the rest of the operating system is apparently loaded. To take advantage of the functionality is of course necessary to have a genuine copy of Windows 10 installed on Parallels virtual machine and is also available to support the command ” Hey Cortana “, to activate the virtual assistant.

Uttering the words, the typical screen of Cortana will be launched directly from the dock of OS X, enabling the detection of voice dictation for information about weather, sports scores and more so as they normally last operating system from Microsoft. We list below all the news of the new version of the suite of virtual machines to the Mac, differentiating them by the various versions.

Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac.

Always on Cortana allows customers to use the virtual assistant of Microsoft with Mac applications, even when Windows 10 is not the foreground application.
Travel mode extends battery life up to 25%, temporarily stopping the resources, they consume energy.
Quick Look for Windows extends this feature of Mac files, and Windows documents.
Support of pressure Force Touch allows a quick preview of the file with Quick Look or look up the definition of an unfamiliar word.
The window controls improved Mac include a new button to the Coherence mode.
The files used most recently can be viewed on Mac regardless of storage location: on Mac, virtual machine, cloud or on a file server.
New and simplified printing, supporting all printer options Mac and a new intuitive solution for OS X that allows you to save time.
Support to the ” New ” to create new files in the Windows app, including Microsoft Outlook, Excel and Word.
Ability to easily cancel operations more demanding in terms of time on virtual machines.
The location services are now also available for Mac Windows applications.
Automatic synchronization on the volume of a virtual machine with that of the Mac.
File Associations enhanced thanks to smart notification messages that help change the file association in OS X.
Improvements in the configuration and use of a car Virtual to directly access the Windows Boot Camp partition, with no need to reboot.
Japanese Keyboard improved (specifically for the Japanese version).

Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac Pro Edition.

All features of Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac more :

Integration with leading tools for developers, as Docker, Visual Studio (plug-in), and Chef Jenkins.
Support to Vagrant and other developer tools.
User Profiles additional developers, power users and testers for an optimal configuration of particular scenarios.
Tools of advanced network and configuration of virtual networks to test complex network scenarios, including the ability to simulate some network instability.
Access to the archive of the cloud by Box.net, Dropbox for Business and Business OneDrive, for sharing from Windows to Mac.
Mode ” Headless ” for running virtual machines in the background without a user interface.
Ability to create clones bound to conserve disk space and optimize installations. – Enhanced memory (64 GB RAM) and processing power (16 vCPUs) for improved performance.
Nested virtualization for Linux guests.
The test environments Modern. IE in the new wizard to Parallels virtual machines offer access to free trials of browser for testing.
Support Phone and e-mail 24 hours 24.

Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac Business Edition.

All features of Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac Pro Edition more :

Ability to provide centralized management and administration for IT to control virtual machines.
Parallels License Management Portal web-based with unique activation key to eliminate the manual handling of individual license keys.
Support of enterprise-wide, with options including priority support via telephone and email 24 hours a 24.
Application of criteria for USB devices for added security.

All versions of the suite Parallels Desktop 11 are now available both for existing users and for the new official website and at local retailers worldwide. The sale price of the basic version is $ 79.99, which become $49.99 when upgrading from previous versions.

Pro Business Edition versions and are available at a price of $ 99.99 a year, while only the first includes a complimentary subscription to Parallels Access to remotely access to your Mac from any device.