Parallels Desktop Installation Image

To mass deploy Parallels Desktop Business Edition, you will need the Parallels Desktop for Mac installation image file (.dmg) and a Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition license key.

You can download the installation image from https://www.parallels.com/products/business/download/.

Parallels Desktop Autodeploy Package

The Parallel Desktop autodeploy package is used to configure the deployment of Parallels Desktop. Download the deployment package here.

Please note that if you already have a configured autodeploy package from an earlier version (or build) of Parallels Desktop, don't use it because it may not be compatible with your build of Parallels Desktop. Always download the latest version of the package from the Parallels website using the link above.

Supported Guest OS Versions

If you are deploying one or more virtual machines together with Parallels Desktop, please keep in mind the differences in supported guest operating systems between Mac computers with Apple Silicon and Mac computers powered by Intel processors. For the latest information, see system requirements at https://www.parallels.com/requirements/.

Kernel Extensions

If your organization's Macs run macOS Mojave or macOS Catalina, their users may need to approve kernel extensions before they can launch Parallels Desktop. For more information, please read the following KB article: https://kb.parallels.com/en/128435.

To prepare the autodeploy package, you need to add the following required and optional components to it:

• Parallels Desktop installation image (optional).

• Parallels Desktop Business Edition license key (required, unless you are using "Activation using corporate account (SSO)").

• One or more virtual machines (optional). The user can later install or download a virtual machine via the link in a configuration profile.

• One or more Windows application stubs (optional). Stubs are special links to Windows applications installed in a virtual machine that can be added to the Dock in macOS during deployment.

• You can also configure deployment options according to your needs by modifying the configuration file included in the autodeploy package.

You will have to take the following steps:

1. Download the Autodeploy package, which comes in a ZIP format.

2. Unarchive it.

3. [OPTIONALLY] Populate the folders with specific installation images and virtual machines.

4. Set the deployment preferences to your liking by amending the deploy.cfg file.

5. Transform the resulting folder into an installable package ready for deployment.

The subsequent sections describe how to add the necessary components and how to configure autodeploy package options.

Parallels Desktop Enterprise Edition can also be deployed to Mac computers using Mac management tools, including, but not limited to:

• Jamf Pro

• Microsoft Intune

• Kandji

• Apple Remote Desktop (ARD)

• IBM Endpoint Manager

• Mosyle

• Addigy

• Munki

• VMware Workspace ONE

This chapter includes detailed instructions on how to deploy Parallels Desktop using Jamf Pro. For instructions on how to use other tools, please see their respective documentation.

Parallels Tools is a collection of utilities and drivers that vastly improve the virtual machine performance and enable some features that are not available otherwise. Parallels Tools are included with every copy of Parallels Desktop and are highly recommended to be installed in every virtual machine right after an operating system is installed in it. Your source virtual machine should have Parallels Tools installed. For instructions on how to install Parallels Tools, please see https://kb.parallels.com/en/115835.

When you want to distribute pre-configured Windows virtual machines to your users, you may need to manage those machines granularly: enroll them into domains, activate Windows licenses, differentiate PC names, enforce specific policies, enable company-wide licensing tools, etc. All that and more can be achieved with the help of Microsoft's Sysprep utility. To learn more, refer to this article.

When preparing a source virtual machine for mass deployment, you may change any of its configuration settings to fit your needs. The following list describes a few common options:

• CPU & Memory. Beginning with Parallels Desktop 17, you can configure a virtual machine to select CPU and memory settings automatically depending on the available hardware resources. This option is preselected for all new virtual machines. To ensure it is selected, open the virtual machine configuration, and select Hardware > CPU & Memory. In the right pane, check that the Automatic option is selected.

• Shared Folders and Profiles. Parallels Desktop offers great flexibility in bridging the capabilities of macOS and your guest operating system by configuring shared folders and profiles. Think over which files and folders you wish to share between the two operating systems and set them up beforehand.

• Enforce USB Device Policies. Specify what types of USB devices can be connected to the virtual machine. See Enforcing USB device policies for complete details.

• Installing Applications. You can install all the necessary applications in the virtual machine before deploying it.

For the complete information about Parallels virtual machine configuration, please refer to the Parallels Desktop User's Guide.

This section describes how to mass deploy Parallels Desktop Business Edition using Mac management tools.

Choosing the Deployment Method

Adding a virtual machine to the autodeploy package is optional. You can mass deploy Parallels Desktop only and install virtual machines on individual Mac computers later. Consider the following possible scenarios:

• If you are deploying Parallels Desktop on either Apple Silicon or Intel-based Mac computers (but not both at the same time), you can include a virtual machine in the autodeploy package, so it will be installed on a Mac as part of the deployment process.

• The recommended approach is to deploy without any virtual machines in the autodeploy package and instead provision a corporate VM image using a Configuration Profile in Parallels My Account. This method is especially useful when you plan to deploy Parallels Desktop on both Apple Silicon` and Intel-based Mac computers at the same time. For more information, please see Using Configuration Profiles and Corporate VM Image Provisioning.

There are two ways to include a virtual machine in the autodeploy package: as a downloadable link or as a local file manually added to the package. Regardless of which one you choose, take the following steps first:

1. Configure the virtual machine as described in the subsections of this chapter;

2. FULLY STOP the virtual machine by opening Actions in the macOS menu bar and choosing Shut Down. Suspending or pausing it will not suffice;

3. Reduce the size of the selected virtual machine by doing one of the following:

   • Open the Parallels Desktop Control Center, right-click on the virtual machine, and select Prepare for Transfer;

   • Alternatively, open the Parallels Desktop Control Center, right-click on the virtual machine, and select Show in Finder. Right-click on the virtual machine .pvm file and select Compress {vm_name}.

[RECOMMENDED] Including a Virtual Machine as a Downloadable Link

Several popular MDM solutions have been known to experience issues with deploying large packages. As a way to mitigate this, you can amend the deploy.cfg file to include a link to a file share location with the virtual machine file instead of including it in the package. Take the following steps:

1. Upload the compressed file to a permitted cloud storage that would be accessible to all target Macs (e.g., OneDrive or Google Share). Make sure the resulting link is direct and open to all the users affected by the deployment. The best way is to choose Share with anyone.

2. Open the deploy.cfg file in a text editor, same as when specifying a license key, scroll to the Virtual Machines section and add the download link there exactly as described, following the instructions carefully.

[ALTERNATIVE] Adding a Virtual Machine File to the Autodeploy Package

To add a virtual machine to the autodeploy package directly, simply copy the virtual machine file to the Virtual Machine(s) sub-folder that can be found under Bundle > Virtual machine(s) . More than one virtual machine can be added to the autodeploy package if needed.

Read on to learn about modifications that you can make to the virtual machine configuration before adding it to the autodeploy package.

The autodeploy package contains a special script, which is automatically executed on a target Mac after the package is transferred to it. When executed, the script reads the configuration parameter values from the deploy.cfg file, which you can modify according to your needs.

To modify the parameters, expand the License Key and Configuration folder in the autodeploy package and open the deploy.cfg file in a text editor. The configuration parameters are organized in sections, which are described below.

License

The License section is used to specify the Parallels Desktop Business Edition license key.

Software Updates

The Software Updates section is used to configure automatic updates for Parallels Desktop.

Please note that a configuration profile can be used to control upgrades over major versions of Parallels Desktop. But if the updates_url variable is used (see the table below), then the configuration profile option is ignored. The recommended approach is not to use the updates_url variable and instead, use a configuration profile to enable upgrades when the IT feels confident about the new version.

Help & Support

The Help and Support section is used to specify the action for the Help > Support Center menu item in the Parallels Desktop graphical user interface.

Technical Data Reports

The Technical Data Reports section is used to specify whether Parallels Desktop issue reports should contain screenshots of the macOS and virtual machine desktops. You can exclude screenshots for security reasons.

Customer Experience

The Customer Experience section allows you to specify whether the Macs should participate in the Parallels Customer Experience Program (CEP). The Parallels Customer Experience Program is a feedback solution that allows Parallels Desktop to automatically collect usage statistics and system information that will help Parallels develop new features and updates for future releases. For more information, please see https://www.parallels.com/pcep/.

Security

The Security section allows you to enable or disable the password requirement for a number of Parallels Desktop operations.

User Experience

The User Experience section allows you specify options related to user experience.

A Parallels Desktop for Mac license key is required to activate Parallels Desktop on target Macs. The key must be specified in the autodeploy package.

You can find the primary key in your Business Account customer area as described in this chapter. There, you can also issue secondary keys that we recommend to use for activation.

To specify the license key:

1. In the autodeploy package, expand the Parallels Desktop Autodeploy > Scripts > License Key and Configuration folder.
2. Open the deploy.cfg file in a text editor.

3. Find the License section (second from the top) and enter your Parallels Desktop Business Edition license key as a value of the license_key variable. The key must be supplied in the following format: "XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX" (including quotes and dashes).

4. Save the deploy.cfg file.

Starting from Parallels Desktop 18, 'Activation using corporate account (SSO)' option became available. This option works only if you have purchased a special license type and set up integration with your identity provider in Parallels My Account. Please check your license certificate for details. To enable 'Activation using corporate account' experience, comment the line with the license_key variable.

To invite users to install Parallels Desktop via email:

1. Log in to your Parallels account at https://my.parallels.com/.

2. On the Dashboard page, locate the Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition product card and click the Invite Users button.
3. In the dialog that opens, select a license key that you want to use to activate Parallels Desktop on users' computers and click Next.

4. In the Invite Parallels Desktop Users dialog, specify the following options:

   • Language of Invitation: Select a language for the instructions in the invitation email.
   • Invitation Expires in: Use the drop-down list to select when the invitation should expire. After it expires, the temporary activation code included in it will no longer work.

   • Email address: Type a user's email address and click Add. Repeat for all intended users. You can also specify a CSV file containing email addresses of your users. The CSV file must contain a single column (a valid email address) with multiple rows (one email address on each row). Please note that if the number of users included in this list exceeds the number of available licenses for the specified key, the activation of Parallels Desktop will happen on a first-come, first-served basis.

   • The Download Invitations button allows you to save the invitation email information to a CSV file. The information includes email addresses that you specified, a temporary activation code (generated individually for each user), and the Parallels Desktop download URL (also generated individually for each user). You can use the information in the downloaded file to create your own invitation email or to answer helpdesk questions, should any arise. Hint: To see how the invitation email looks and to test it, you can send it to yourself first.

5. Click Send Invitations to send the email to users.

The invitation email that the users receive contains the following information:

• Installation instructions and a link from which a user can download the Parallels Desktop installation file.

• A temporary activation code. The code will be used automatically when a user installs Parallels Desktop on their computer. If for any reason automatic activation fails, the user can use the code included in the mail to manually activate Parallels Desktop. Please note that this is not the actual license key that you selected when you created the invitation email. This is only a temporary activation code with a limited scope and duration. The real license key is never shown to your Parallels Desktop users.

Once the users have installed and activated Parallels Desktop on their computers, you will be able to see the list of active installations in your Parallels account.

Setting Up a Virtual Machine

Once Parallels Desktop is installed on a Mac computer, the user needs to set up a virtual machine to run Windows on their Mac. This can be accomplished using one of the following methods:

• A user can create and configure a virtual machine and install Windows in it manually.

• An administrator can prepare a virtual machine and put it on a corporate network storage from where users can download it to their computers.

• An administrator can set up a Configuration Profile and provision a virtual machine to end users through it. For more information see Using Configuration Profiles and Provisioning a corporate VM image. This is the recommended method.

Windows application stubs are special links to Windows applications installed in a virtual machine that can be added to the Dock in macOS during deployment.

About Application Stubs

Application stubs are created in macOS when you create a virtual machine and install Parallels Tools in it. To see application stubs for a virtual machine:

1. In macOS, navigate to /Users/<user-name>/Applications (Parallels)

2. Expand a desired virtual machine folder. For example, Windows 11 Applications, as shown in the screenshot below:

The icons in the folder are Windows application stubs. If you double-click an icon, the corresponding Windows application will be started in the virtual machine.

You can add one or more application stubs to the autodeploy package to be added to the Dock on a target Mac computer. For example, if your Mac users use a particular application most of the time, it would make sense to add it to the Dock so they can quickly launch it without dealing with the user interfaces of Windows or Parallels Desktop.

Windows application stubs are mandatory when you deploy Parallels Desktop using Single Application Mode. For more information, please see the Single application mode section.

Adding Application Stubs to the Autodeploy Package

To add one or more application stubs to the autodeploy package, simply copy it to the Windows Application(s) stubs to add to Dock folder of the package.

If you haven't already, use the link below to download the Parallels Desktop Autodeploy Package directly to a Mac computer.

Download the deployment package here.

The autodeploy package archive contains a folder named "Parallels Desktop Business Edition mass deployment package vxxx", where "vxxx" is the autodeploy package version number.

The folder contains the following files:

• Changelog.txt — contains a record of changes that were made to the autodeploy package over time.

• Deploy.cfg — contains all the parameters that you'll need to check and set, as described here.

• Prepare — contains the build script that creates a flat package ready for deployment.

Read on to learn how to add the necessary components to the autodeploy package.

By default, you can skip this step and allow the Autodeploy package to simply download the latest version of Parallels Desktop installation image from the Parallels Server.

However, if you wish to include a specific build in the package, open the Parallels Desktop DMG folder and copy the Parallels Desktop installation image file to it (the .dmg file). If you don't have the file, you can download it from here.

The package should now look like this:

Please note that the Parallels Desktop installation image file name on the screenshot above is just an example. In your case, the file name will also include the current build number information.

Once you have the Parallels Desktop autodeploy package configured, you can test it on a single Mac before you mass deploy it to other Mac computers in your organization.

To test the package:

1. Copy it to a Mac on which you want to test it. The Mac should have a configuration similar to other Mac computers on which you'll be deploying Parallels Desktop. Specifically, if your target Mac computers don't have Parallels Desktop and virtual machines installed, the test Mac shouldn't have them installed either. If target Macs have an older version of Parallels Desktop, the test Mac should have it installed too, so you can see what the results will be.

2. To speed up the execution of the package during testing, consider running it from the command line using /System/Library/CoreServices/Installer.app. When executed this way, the package will not be tested by macOS for digital signature, and the usual package verification procedure will be skipped. Please note that if you run the package by double-clicking on it, macOS will warn you that the package is not signed and will not install it. If you run the package by right-clicking and choosing Open, the signature check will be skipped but the verification of the package will take a long time if you have one or more virtual machines in it (because of the large size of a typical virtual machine). When you use the Installer.app to run the package, the installation will commence installing immediately, without any checks or verifications. All of the above only applies when you run the package manually. When you mass deploy it on Mac computers, verification is not performed, and the installation is completely silent.

3. When the installation is complete, verify that Parallels Desktop is installed, activated, and is functioning properly. If your package is configured to deploy Parallels Desktop in Single Application Mode, try running the application and see that it starts and runs as it should.

4. Please note that when the package is executed, it writes logs into /var/log/install.log. If you experience issues, examine the logs. If that doesn't help, you can contact for business customers which is available 24/7.

Read on to learn how to mass deploy the package using one of the Mac management tools.

Once you have added all the files to the package and in the deploy.cfg file, it's time to turn the resulting folder into a flat package suitable for deployment via your MDM solution of choice.

Do the following:

1. Inside the Autodeploy Package folder, locate the Scripts folder, right-click on it, and choose Services > New Terminal at Folder. This will open a Terminal window right in the Scripts directory where the build script is located.
2. Launch the package building script by typing the following command and pressing Enter:

E.g.,

This action creates a .pkg file in the destination folder that is ready for distribution.

When you need to change configuration settings of all virtual machines that are already registered on a Mac computer, you can use the Parallels desktop command-line interface. To do so, you first need to create a script to perform a desired configuration modification. You can then execute the script on a Mac computer using one of the remote Mac management tools described earlier in this chapter.

The following is a script example that disables the auto pausing option for all virtual machines registered on a Mac computer:

The script above uses the prlctl list command to first obtains a list of registered virtual machines and then (inside the loop) sets the --pause-idle option for every VM to "off", which disables pausing of an idle virtual machine.

The complete command-line reference is documented in the .

Enrolling Parallels virtual machines in Azure Active Directory with Microsoft Intune enables managing and securing your virtual machine environment. To achieve that goal, you will have to create a provisioning package and deliver it to your end users. To learn more about provisioning packages for Windows, follow .

Follow these steps:

1. Install Windows Configuration Designer from Microsoft Store or download it directly from the Microsoft website.

2. Once installed, launch it and create a new project following the Provision desktop devices template.

3. Once the project is created, you will see the following page:

At this point, you need to choose a name convention. Once done, click Next and switch to the Set up network tab. There, you need to switch off the setup network toggle and click Next, proceeding to the Account Management page.

4. The following step is important: You need to select the Enroll in Azure AD option and obtain a bulk token.

Here, you need to sign in with your Microsoft Azure credentials. Once you’ve successfully signed in, you’ll see the message confirming the successful receipt of the token.

5. Click Next. Feel free to skip the remaining steps by clicking Next on each one of them.

6. Finally, you need to double-check your configuration summary and ensure everything is correct.

Click Create and memorize the path to the package file.

From this point, you have three possible ways to proceed:

1. Share the package with users who will need to launch it to enroll their virtual machines in Azure;