Important: To take advantage of much of the functionality Parallels Desktop offers, Parallels Tools must be installed.
Parallels Tools can be installed in the following Windows guest operating systems:
Windows 11
Windows 10
Windows 8, 8.1
Windows 7
Windows Server 2008
For information on support for older versions of Windows, consult this KB article.
If you chose Express Installation when you first installed Windows, Parallels Tools were installed automatically after the installation.
If you didn't choose Express Installation, do the following to install Parallels Tools:
When Windows boots up, connect the Parallels Tools image to the virtual machine: in the menu bar, click Devices > CD/DVD > Connect image....
Browse to the image location Application > Parallels Desktop.app > Contents > Resources > Tools > select prl-tools-win-arm.iso if your Mac runs on Apple silicon or prl-tools-win.iso for Intel Macs.
This will mount a virtual CD/DVD with the Parallels Tools.
Click on the autorun file to start the installation.
When the installation is complete, click Restart to restart the virtual machine or wait for it to restart automatically.
To reinstall Parallels Tools:
Once Windows starts, if Parallels Desktop is in Coherence mode, click the Parallels Desktop icon in the menu bar and choose Exit Coherence.
When Windows boots up, choose Reinstall Parallels Tools from the Actions menu in the menu bar.
This option is available only if Parallels Tools are up-to-date. If Parallels Tools are outdated, you will see the Update Parallels Tools option instead.
You can easily confirm whether Parallels Tools were installed. Start your virtual machine and look at the status bar of its window. If the tip "Press Ctrl + Alt to release the mouse and keyboard" appears in the status bar of the virtual machine's window, this means that Parallels Tools were not installed. When Parallels Tools are installed, you do not need to press any key to release the mouse and keyboard, as they are released automatically.