Parallels Desktop for Mac saved me from spending a lot of money on a Windows laptop
Hello, dear readers. My name is Victor and I am a blind gaming, technology, and entertainment journalist. I am also an advocate for accessibility and an accessibility consultant. In today’s article, I want to tell you all a little story about how installing Parallels Desktop on my MacBook Air with M1 saved me from spending around 2000 euros on a Gaming PC.
About half a year ago an idea entered my head that I should get a Windows computer so that I can try out Windows 11 to see what’s new with accessibility since I am a Mac user for more than 12 years, a time in which I didn’t touch Windows. Also, I wanted to check out some potential games that received mods from people who want to make them accessible for blind gamers.
I asked Alina to assist me in this endeavor and we visited a few electronics stores here in Oslo, looking for a nice laptop that will suit my needs. The thing is that like so many others, I love my MacBook Air. It’s nice, easy to use, it has a premium build and it’s also completely silent. I checked out a lot of different laptops, from 6000 NOK to 20000NOK, in Euros that’s between 600 and 2000, but couldn’t find even one that was to my taste. I do almost all my work on my iPhone in combination with my iPad Pro, and when I need to write long articles I do it on this MacBook Air. When it comes to gaming I definitely prefer to have a controller in hand, so consoles such as PS5, Xbox Series X and lastly Nintendo Switch would be the first choice.
So, you can imagine my frustration when I realized that none of the available offerings would be good for me because almost all of there were bulky, plasticky, with really bad battery life, and were doing a lot of noise when put to work. As I didn’t just want another machine that I would move around from place to place if I found out that actually I’m not interested in the Windows operating system, I tried to find a better solution.
Luckily, I remembered that there is another option. A piece of virtualization software that will allow me to install Windows 11 on my Mac, play around with Narrator, or even learn NVDA and also try out Hearthstone which some of my blind friends were enjoying thanks to the Hearthstone Access mod.
The initial idea was that if I find Windows to my taste I will get a powerful gaming laptop so that I can enjoy the experience in a natural way.
I downloaded Parallels Desktop 18 for Mac and in less than 10 minutes I was running Windows 11 on my MacBook Air with M1.
Parallels Desktop 18 is very easy to install and use. It allows the user to run a virtual machine with Window 11 or other operating system on a Mac with an M1 or newer processor.
The installation wizard is not fully compatible with VoiceOver on MacOS but if we use an extension such vOCR or we have someone around and willing to help, the setup process will take just a few minutes.
Alina took care of the installation for me. She was very pleasantly surprised when she realized that it is much faster and easier than on an actual PC to set up and run Windows on Mac.
After updating Windows 11 to the latest version I remembered that I had a few legacy keys for Windows somewhere in my notes and in just a few more seconds my newly installed version of Windows 11 Home was also activated with Microsoft.
Since I’m not at all familiar with screen reader technology on Windows, I asked Alina again to please install Hearthstone and the mod for me so that I could join my friend, Brandon, on Battlenet.
Everything mentioned above happened in January and since then three months have passed in which I played a lot of Hearthstone, made my first steps in learning Narrator and NVDA on Windows as a blind user and at them same time I can do all of this on the device I know and love.
Booting up Windows 11 on Mac via Parallels Desktop takes up less than 5 seconds and everything runs smoothly. It is really nice to be able to switch between two operating systems with just one gesture on my trackpad or a keyboard shortcut. The fact that Parallels also allows me to copy and paste or move files freely from one OS to the other has made my life easier and increased my overall productivity while at the same time it had reduced to a minimum lost time due to reboots and unwanted frustrations.
Thanks to Parallels Desktop 18, both operating systems have a friendly relationship on my gorgeous Rose Gold MacBook Air and as we intend to get an iMac when the next generation arrives later this year, Parallels will be the first piece of software that we’ll install to that one as well.
In just three months Parallels Desktop has become a companion and trusted tool for me as a blind journalist and gamer, so I will always be sure to tell everyone around me about what a good experience I have everyday with it.
If you will find yourself in the position that I was, looking for an alternative to purchasing a Windows PC or Laptop just to try out the OS or some games, I highly recommend that you give a chance to Parallels Desktop because you won’t be disappointed.
After all this time with Parallels, I realized that I actually don’t need another laptop for Windows, because my MacBook can handle everything just fine with Parralells Desktop 18.
Check out Parallels Desktop 18 Free Trial
Victor Dima
