How I Run Power BI Desktop on Mac with Parallels

I’ve been using Macs for around 10 years.

At the same time, Power BI Desktop has been part of my day-to-day work for most of that period - along with other Windows-only tools such as Tabular Editor, DAX Studio and SQL Server Management Studio.

Microsoft still doesn’t offer a native macOS version of Power BI Desktop, but I also don’t want to keep a separate Windows PC just for a handful of applications.

My solution is Parallels Desktop.

It lets me run Windows alongside macOS, so Power BI Desktop and the rest of my Windows tooling are available on the same machine as VS Code, Safari and everything else I normally use.

In practice, the setup feels much less like working with two computers and more like having two environments available at the same time.

Running Power BI Desktop through Parallels

Parallels creates a Windows virtual machine that runs directly alongside macOS.

Once Windows is installed, Power BI Desktop can be installed from the Microsoft Store just as it would be on a regular Windows machine.

The same applies to most of the tools I use around Power BI.

I’ve been able to use applications including:

• Power BI Desktop
• Tabular Editor
• DAX Studio
• SQL Server Management Studio

without needing a separate Windows computer.

There are, however, a few settings that make the experience noticeably better.

1. Give Windows enough memory

The first thing I recommend checking is how much memory is allocated to the Windows virtual machine.

My Mac has 64 GB of RAM. For my workflow, I generally allocate around 20 GB to Windows.

There isn’t one correct value for everyone. It depends on how much memory your machine has and what you plan to run inside Windows.

As a starting point, allocating roughly one quarter to one third of your available RAM is reasonable.

Power BI Desktop can consume a meaningful amount of memory, particularly with larger semantic models, so this is one setting worth paying attention to.

2. Share your files instead of duplicating them

One of the useful Parallels features is the ability to share folders between Windows and macOS.

I enable folder mirroring so the same files are accessible from both environments.

That means I don’t need a separate Windows copy of my Power BI files, datasets or project folders.

I can work with the same files regardless of which operating system I’m currently using.

3. Open PBIX files directly from Finder

Parallels can also expose Windows applications to macOS.

With this enabled, I can locate a .pbix file in Finder and open it directly with Power BI Desktop.

Parallels starts Windows and Power BI Desktop in the background automatically.

It removes quite a bit of friction because I don’t need to manually start the virtual machine, switch to Windows, navigate to the file and then open it.

From the macOS side, it starts to behave much more like any other application.

4. Use Coherence Mode

This is probably one of my favourite Parallels features.

Normally, a virtual machine gives you an entire Windows desktop inside a window.

With Coherence Mode, that Windows desktop disappears.

Individual Windows applications instead appear directly alongside your macOS applications.

So I can have Power BI Desktop open next to Safari, VS Code or another native application without constantly switching between two desktops.

After a while, you almost stop thinking about Windows as a separate environment.

For me, that is important because I don’t want to change my entire workflow just because one application only runs on Windows.

Power BI and macOS can coexist surprisingly well

This setup isn’t the same thing as having a native version of Power BI Desktop for macOS.

Windows is still running underneath through a virtual machine.

But from a workflow perspective, the distinction becomes much less noticeable.

I can use Power BI Desktop, external tools and SQL Server Management Studio while keeping the rest of my normal Mac workflow intact.

Everything is available from one machine, files can be shared between both environments, and Windows applications can sit directly alongside native macOS applications.

For someone who prefers macOS but regularly needs Power BI Desktop, this has worked very well for me.