Microsoft issued a new reminder earlier today that Windows 11 21H2 and 22H2 PCs will be force-upgraded to version 23H2 from next month onwards. The company is also gearing up for the general availability of the next feature update, version 24H2, which should be available for all eligible systems soon.
As such, software support from third-party app makers is starting to arrive as well. Parallels Desktop, which is a popular virtualization application for running Windows on Macs, is the latest major software to add support for the next feature update of Windows 11 with its newest release, version 20.
The Parallels Desktop dev team notes that improvements have been made to the NVMe driver, installation, mouse cursor, display resolution, and more. Up to 80% performance boost is also being promised.
It writes:
Improving the stability and integration of this major Windows 11 update in a virtual environment has been a major goal since Windows 11 24H2 appeared in the Canary channel in early 2024.
These efforts include fixes for the NVMe driver, express Windows 11 installation on Intel-based Mac computers, mouse cursor positioning, and a fix for the dynamic resolution to sustain the ability to resize a Windows 11 VM window with automatic resolution adjustments.
From the Microsoft side, optimizations for the new major Windows 11 version 24H2 ensure users’ workflows remain uninterrupted while running legacy Windows apps (built for the Intel platform) and get up to 80% performance boost for certain computational workloads thanks to the improved Prism emulator built into Windows 11 on Arm OS.
Keep in mind though that the performance claim is based on PassMark's Floating Point Math test against Windows 11 23H2 and so you may not see it everywhere. It is also noteworthy that the uplift takes into consideration the performance boost offered by the new Prism Emulator. Back in June, Microsoft explained how Prism can help boost gaming performance with its seamless code conversion from AMD64 to Arm64.
On the topic of Windows support, the Parallels Desktop team also adds that application compatibility has been greatly improved with this release. It says:
The latest release offers improved compatibility with ArcGIS Pro, LabVIEW, Ninja Trader, and other applications so you can now seamlessly install and run on a Mac with Apple silicon—all with the help of Parallels Desktop for Mac.
It’s also great to see software companies shift their strategy and start delivering product updates that run natively in Windows 11 on Arm which means more apps will soon become available for Apple silicon users. Recent examples include Malwarebytes ThreatDown, Opera browser, Adobe Illustrator, LibreOffice, and others.
In addition to Windows 11 24H2 support and improvements, the new Parallels Desktop 20 also received support for macOS Sequoia, which is expected to be out soon.
Besides these, there are many more improvements with the latest version 20 of Parallels Desktop. You can read all about them here in the official blog post.
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