Parallels Desktop 27 Standard Edition for Macs with Apple Silicon (ESD)

Parallels Desktop 27 Standard for Mac is a virtualization application that allows Windows, Linux and other supported operating systems to run alongside macOS on a Mac. The Standard edition is intended primarily for everyday Windows applications such as Microsoft Office, accounting software, educational applications and other productivity software.

Parallels Desktop 27 is designed specifically for Apple silicon Macs and supports Apple M-series processors. Windows 11 (for ARM) can be installed and run in an Apple-silicon virtual machine, while Parallels provides integration features such as Coherence Mode, shared folders, shared clipboard, drag-and-drop and automatic Windows/macOS input integration.

Standard supports up to 4 virtual CPUs and 8 GB of virtual RAM per virtual machine. It includes 3D graphics support for supported Windows applications, but the new Metal-based OpenGL 4.3 driver introduced in version 27 is a Pro feature, rather than part of Standard.

This version is the perpetual ESD edition providing a digital activation key rather than a physical installation medium. The license is for one user/device. Unlike the subscription-based Pro, Business and Enterprise editions, the Standard perpetual license does not expire, although access to future major-version upgrades is governed by Parallels' upgrade policy.

Parallels Desktop 27 requires macOS 27 Golden Gate, macOS 26 Tahoe, macOS 15.5 Sequoia or macOS 14.7 Sonoma or later. Intel Macs are no longer supported by version 27; Parallels continues to provide security and compatibility updates for version 26 on Intel Macs.

What's new in Parallels Desktop 27

• New Metal-based OpenGL 4.3 driver: Windows virtual machines receive an updated graphics driver using Apple's Metal API, raising OpenGL support from 4.1 to 4.3. Parallels reports up to 2.6× faster OpenGL performance in its testing, with improvements particularly relevant to professional applications such as ArcGIS Pro, ZWCAD and Blender 4.3.
• Improved ArcGIS Pro performance: Parallels reports up to 35% faster performance in selected ArcGIS Pro workloads and up to a 24% reduction in total workflow time.
• Apple SME support: Windows and Linux virtual machines can use Apple's Scalable Matrix Extension (SME) instructions on supported Apple silicon. Parallels reports up to 7× faster matrix operations and up to 1.75× faster neural-network inference in its testing.
• New Linux distributions: Version 27 adds out-of-the-box support for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x86_64 emulation, Fedora 44, Debian 13.6 and Kali Linux 2026.2.
• Linux Parallels Tools improvements: Headless Ubuntu ARM VMs can update Parallels Tools from the command line, while the shared-folder daemon has moved from libfuse2 to libfuse3.
• Enterprise DevOps improvements: A native graphical interface was added for the Parallels DevOps Service, with Jenkins dynamic provisioning for temporary Mac-hosted VM build and test environments.
• SSO improvements: Enterprise deployments receive improved single sign-on integration.
• Security improvements: Version 27 addresses vulnerabilities in the virtual networking stack, virtual GPU command processing and VirtIO subsystem.
• ARM SystemReady: Enterprise certification work for version 27 is underway; Parallels Desktop 26.4 had already achieved Arm SystemReady SR 3.1 (VE band).

Summary of Supported Operating Systems in Parallels Desktop 27 Standard Edition

• Windows 11 ARM64 — Pro and Enterprise editions.
• Windows Server 2025 ARM64.
• Linux ARM64 — Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Kali Linux and CentOS Stream.
• Parallels Desktop 27 Standard supports only ARM versions of guest operating systems on Apple-silicon Macs. The x86/x64 emulation feature is separate and is not included in the Standard edition.