For now, the best option to use Windows OS on Apple Silicon Mac is to use Parallels Desktop. I’ve tried the other alternatives and honestly this is hands down the best app to virtualize Windows on Mac.
One thing I dislike with this app is that it keeps showing me update / promo / advertisement pop-up of new version or discount regularly whenever I open it.
It is distracting and annoying.
What I want is to use Parallels Desktop peacefully without this annoying pop-up. In this post, I’ll show you some steps you can do to disable this pop-up.
Disabling Parallels Desktop Update / Advertising Pop-up
First thing first, open Parallels Desktop’s preferences window by clicking Parallels Desktop > Preferences ... from the left-top menu bar.
You can also press the ⌘ Command + , keyboard shortcut.
Uncheck the Check for updates automatically.
If the pop-up window keeps showing up whenever you open Parallels Desktop app (maybe after you click “Check for Updates…” button manually), then you need to click the Close button, not “Remind me Later” because it’ll display the same pop-up window again.
Finally, to prevent this from happening again, open Terminal and enter this command:
defaults write "com.parallels.Parallels Desktop" "ProductPromo.ForcePromoOff" 1What this command does is to force Parallels Desktop not to show you any promotion pop-up window.
By default, the value is 0, which means the promo is enabled.
It is a hidden configuration that can only be toggled using Terminal because they don’t provide this option in their UI.
Verify this configuration by entering the following command. Make sure it shows 1.
defaults read "com.parallels.Parallels Desktop" "ProductPromo.ForcePromoOff"
# Expected value: 1
That’s it. Now hopefully you can use Parallels Desktop peacefully without any annoying pop-up window ever again.
Final Thoughts
That’s it for today’s post. Hopefully it’s helpful for you.
As usual, if you have any questions or a better method, leave a comment below. Thanks for reading, and see you next time!