Using a Mac in a Windows environment and having an admin role makes it necessary to keep a Windows computer handy to perform many Active Directory tasks since there is no native macOS domain admin tools for Windows Active Directory, or at least none that are reasonably priced. So for the longest time, I’ve kept my old Windows laptop at my desk connected to the network, and I would initiate a Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection session to it and use Active Directory Users & Computers and any other Windows RSAT admin tools that I needed. This gets the job done, as long as I’m either on the work office network either in person or remotely via VPN, and as long as the network is performing well, which is usually is. Not a lot of hoops to jump through; It only requires an extra swipe of my trackpad, but I do have to log in back into the Windows session a lot since we have a group policy that automatically locks your computer screen after 15 minutes of inactivity. It’s only mildly inconvenient, but I wanted to try something new.
I recently got the idea of instead running a Windows virtual machine locally on my Mac, mainly to take advantage of a feature I’ve read about that allows you to have your VM app windows appear as standalone windows that you can move around among your native macOS windows, instead of having to flip over to your full Windows VM. There are 3 virtual machine apps that can do this: Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, and VirtualBox.
I actually tried a trial of Parallels Desktop 15 first and began reading reviews of the others. The general consensus I saw was that Parallels was the better choice overall due to it being faster when it came to VM startup and app window performance, and this was both for general VM mode and “Coherence” mode, (which is what Parallels calls the feature I’m looking for.) All of the reviews also cited Virtual Box’s “seamless” mode as being the worst performer, with VMware Fusion falling somewhere in between. I’m probably not going to bother with VirtualBox due to not only the reviews, but that mixed with me being a little jaded when it comes to expectations of open source software doing anything fancy, but I did want to give the other premium option a try.
Parallels Desktop gave me a pretty decent experience, and was easy to figure out. With my Parallels trial running out in a few days, I installed VMware Fusion 11.5 and imported my VM file from Parallels into it and gave its “Ubiquity” mode a try, and I’m just going to cut to the chase: It was immediately apparent that Parallels is better when it comes to the presentation of the seamless window modes. With Parallels, while moving the app windows around isn’t exactly smooth, it’s very comparable to using RDP; just slightly choppy at its best. With VMware Fusion, dragging the Windows ADUC window around results in the window getting really deformed while dragging, leaving all sorts of nasty graphical artifacts in its wake until you’re finished moving the window. As I pointed out, Parallels windows aren’t exactly as graceful and smooth as native macOS windows when dragging them around the screen, but the graphics at least hold together and it doesn’t give you the feeling like you’re using some kind of sketchy, buggy software that might crash at any moment.
One interesting and ironic difference in this, however, is the performance of the actual Windows apps when it comes to the interface. In the ACUC window or even an Explorer window, when leaving them in place and actually using them, scrolling and navigating through the folder trees is incredibly responsive on Fusion to the point where it feels like a native macOS window. With Parallels, much like dragging windows around the screen, scrolling around in an app is just “slightly choppy” and very RDP-like. I can see where this would be more important to some people, especially if they keep the VM window full screen and don’t have a need to be moving it around the screen throughout the day. In these cases, VMware might win out over Parallels when you factor in the licensing costs and options.
But for me, I’m big on look and feel, and the slight choppiness of Parallels wins out over the mess that Fusion makes when moving app windows around. And that leads me to the final nail in the coffin for VMware: access to the Windows Start Menu while using Coherence/Ubiquity modes. In Parallels, the icon in the dock for the VM itself doubles as the Windows Start button, and clicking it brings up the initial Windows Start menu perfectly, allowing you to either start typing to search to launch an app or giving you access to apps you may have pinned to Start. (You can also pin individual Windows apps to your macOS dock in both, which seems to work well enough with the exception of the Windows RSAT tools in both cases.) With VMware, clicking your VM dock icon does bring up a Start menu of sorts, but it’s not the native Windows 10 one, and apps I have pinned do not seem to appear. There were also some odd glitches after launching an app, with some of them seemingly failing to launch until you click the VM icon again, and it then brings up the app window as though it were hidden due to VMware not having focus, even though it did.
So, for my money and needs, Parallels Desktop wins. I may give Virtual Box’s “Seamless mode” a try someday.