But anyone can check out Parallels Desktop for free through a full-featured 14-day trial. People upgrading from a previous version can snag the Standard Edition for $50 and the Pro Edition for $50 a year. Parallels Desktop 17 costs $80 for the standard edition, $100 a year for the Pro Edition and $100 a year for the Business Edition. You will need a product key for Windows to activate it within Parallels Desktop.

Windows 11 runs as a virtual machine within Parallels Desktop, similar to the way it would run under a Windows VM application, such as VMware Workstation or Oracle VM VirtualBox. But you can make this work via Microsoft's new Insider build for Windows 11 for ARM. The new Macs powered by Apple's M1 chip are more finicky as they can handle only ARM-based versions of Windows. Using the latest version of the popular Parallels Desktop application, you can install the x86 version of Windows 11 on an Intel-based Mac without much fuss. Windows 11: Tips on installation, security and more (free PDF).Ten Windows 10 network commands everyone one should know.Why Windows 11's security is such a big deal.Windows 11 cheat sheet: Everything you need to know.