Manually Creating a Configuration Profile

In addition to using tools such as iMazing Profile Editor, you can create a Parallels Desktop configuration profile manually by defining the required payload in XML format. This approach can be useful when working with MDM solutions that do not provide a dedicated user interface for configuring Parallels Desktop settings, or when you want full visibility and control over the deployed configuration.

A configuration profile is a .mobileconfig file that contains one or more payloads. To configure Parallels Desktop, use the following payload identifier:

com.parallels.desktop.managedprefs

Create a configuration profile

You can create a configuration profile using any text editor (for example, Notepad, TextEdit, or Visual Studio Code).

1. Create a new file with the .mobileconfig extension (for example, parallels-config.mobileconfig).

2. Add the basic configuration profile structure:

Note: The below structure opts for the SSO activation experience, where you can optionally draft a custom message for your users by matching the SsoEmailDialogDescriptionText, SsoEmailDialogHeaderText, and SsoEmailDialogLabelText keys with the values of your choice. For the license key activation experience, change the ActivationExperience key value to <string>License Key</string>, and replace the three optional SSO keys with <key>LicenseKey</key>

<string>{YOUR-LICENSE-KEY}</string>.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>PayloadContent</key>
    <array>
      <dict>
        <key>PayloadType</key>
        <string>com.parallels.desktop.managedprefs</string>

        <key>PayloadVersion</key>
        <integer>1</integer>

        <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
        <string>com.company.parallels.desktop.settings</string>

        <key>PayloadUUID</key>
        <string>REPLACE-WITH-UNIQUE-UUID</string>

        <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
        <string>Parallels Desktop Settings</string>

        <!-- Parallels Desktop configuration keys go here -->

        <key>ActivationExperience</key>
        <string>SSO</string>

        <key>SsoEmailDialogDescriptionText</key>
        <string>Enter the SSO dialog description text here.</string>

        <key>SsoEmailDialogHeaderText</key>
        <string>Enter your header text (optional).</string>

        <key>SsoEmailDialogLabelText</key>
        <string>Customized label:</string>

      </dict>
    </array>

    <key>PayloadType</key>
    <string>Configuration</string>

    <key>PayloadVersion</key>
    <integer>1</integer>

    <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
    <string>com.company.parallels.desktop.profile</string>

    <key>PayloadUUID</key>
    <string>REPLACE-WITH-UNIQUE-UUID</string>

    <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
    <string>Parallels Desktop Configuration</string>
  </dict>
</plist>

1. Replace the placeholder values:

   • Generate unique values for PayloadUUID (for example, using an online UUID generator or the uuidgen command in macOS Terminal).

   • Adjust PayloadIdentifier and PayloadDisplayName to match your organization’s naming conventions.

   • Modify or add Parallels Desktop configuration keys as needed.

2. Save the file and upload it to your MDM solution as a custom configuration profile.

Recommendations

We recommend you follow these practices:

1. Use documented keys. Configuration profiles do not include a built-in schema. You must use keys supported by Parallels Desktop, as described in this guide or provided examples.

2. UI tools generate the same payload. Tools such as iMazing Profile Editor create configuration profiles using the same com.parallels.desktop.managedprefs payload. Manually creating a profile gives you direct visibility into the resulting configuration.

3. Validation and testing. After deploying the profile, verify that it is applied correctly by checking managed preferences on a client Mac. For example:

   defaults read /Library/Managed\ Preferences/com.parallels.desktop.plist

4. Editing existing profiles. You can also export a profile created in iMazing or another tool and modify it in a text editor if additional customization is required.

This method provides a flexible, MDM‑agnostic way to configure Parallels Desktop and can be used in any deployment environment that supports custom configuration profiles.