Once your Parallels Desktop for Mac Enterprise License is registered in your Parallels Business Account, you can proceed to set up and configure your Parallels Management Portal where you can dynamically change user group policies and monitor virtual machines. Access it by clicking the following button:
Learn more about the Parallels Management Portal in this section of the guide.
In large organizations with multiple Macs, there may be groups of Parallels Desktop users with very different needs in terms of capabilities and restrictions, from a software engineer who develops for multiple platforms and needs a dozen virtual machines to test every possible scenario to a back-office staff who would benefit the most from Single Application Mode.
The best way to maintain flexible arrangements is by creating user groups, each of which would require a sublicense. To create a user group, follow these steps:
Attention: Your primary license key cannot be used to create a user group. All user groups require secondary license keys, as described below.
For security reasons, we strongly advise against using your primary key directly. Any compromised secondary keys can be deleted and replaced with new ones.
Go to your My Account customer area and select Dashboard in the top-right corner;
In your Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition card, click on the Subscription Renewal line;
Scroll down to the License Keys card and click Create License Key in its top-right corner;
Click on the key name at the top and change it to reflect the name of the group;
If you want to group Parallels Desktop for Mac installations, activating them with sublicense keys is not the only way. If your organization is large and uses an identity provider (e.g., Microsoft Azure/Entra ID, or Okta), you could benefit from mapping existing user groups created in your identity provider to Parallels Desktop sublicense keys, benefitting from groups with custom policies and restrictions. Learn more here.
Note: Beginning in December 2024, you will be able to maintain a mix of per-device (sublicense key) and per-user (SSO) activations in the same Enterprise Edition setup.
When you purchase a Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition license, you must register it with a Parallels Business Account to activate Parallels Desktop installations with it.
To create a Parallels Business Account, go to this page and select the I am a new user option. Once you log into your customer dashboard, select the Register Key option in the top-right corner. Enter your purchased key, add a display name, and click Register.
The information about your Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition license and setup will appear in your dashboard, and you can proceed with the deployment process.
There are three main ways to install Parallels Desktop: manually, via email invitations, and as part of a mass deployment procedure.
As an organization, you can choose what type of license you want to use: a per-device one where you activate each individual installation with a product key, or a per-user (available later in Fall 2024) one that requires .
Note: Once per-user licensing becomes available for Parallels Desktop for Mac Enterprise Edition, you will be able to mix both types of licenses in your setup as you see fit.
To learn more, we suggest that you read Parallels Desktop Licensing Guide
Download the installation image from ;
Use your license key from your My Account dashboard to activate.
You can invite users to install Parallels Desktop directly by sending out group emails. Do the following:
In your My Account dashboard, go to the Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition card and click on Invite Users;
Choose one of the license keys/subkeys available for the product and click Next;
Fill out the fields in the invitation window:
Choose the language of inviation;
Set the expiration (between 3 days and 1 month);
Add individual email addresses to the group using the Add button, or use the Select File button to add a CSV list instead;
Click Send Invitations.
As a result of this procedure, your users will receive an email that looks like this:
Assign a maximum number of Parallels Desktop installations available with this license key, select the key type, and click Save. To learn more about the differences between Dynamic and Reserved keys, see in our Licensing Guide.
To learn about the mass deployment procedure using MDM solutions, refer to of the guide.
This section explains everything you need to know to start using Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition as quickly as possible.
You can read about each individual step in the respective chapters of this section, but the overall outline is:
Register your license using your Parallels Business Account.
Your license must be registered to a Parallels Business Account before it may be used to activate Parallels Desktop. Registration is critical to:
Protect the ownership of your license.
Unlock features that make the lives of IT administrators easier.
Access Premium Support and get visibility into your open tickets;
Download the latest version of the Parallels Desktop installation image;
Install Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition, following one of the ways outlined in this chapter;
Create and configure a virtual machine golden image, complete with all the required software and settings, and upload it to an accessible location that allows direct file links;
Deploy Parallels Desktop for Mac using one of the methods described in the respective chapter;
Make use of the main advantage of Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition, the Parallels Management Portal, as outlined in this section of the guide.
Should you experience any unexpected difficulties setting up Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition, contact our support team.
