At a glanceExpert’s Score
Execs
Greater than 50 instruments and utilities
Out there for Mac and Home windows
Slick, easy-to-use interface
Cons
Requires annual subscription
Few customers will want all instruments
Want to see a backup utility included
Our Verdict
Among the many assortment of fifty+ instruments there are some actual gems, just like the Clipboard Historical past and video obtain instruments. There’s additionally a number of instruments you in all probability don’t want, however somebody someplace does. It’s a disgrace {that a} Toolbox now requires an annual subscription (until you get it as a part of Parallels Desktop) however you’ll be able to reap the benefits of the 7-day trial to see how helpful Toolbox will likely be for you.
Value When Reviewed
This worth will present the geolocated pricing textual content for product undefined
Finest Pricing Right now
Parallels Toolbox Free 14-day Trial
Free
Parallels (1 12 months, 1 Mac)
$24.99
Value When Reviewed
$24.99 per 12 months
Finest Costs Right now:
Parallels Toolbox Free 14-day Trial
Free
Parallels (1 12 months, 1 Mac)
$24.99
For a number of years all through the Nineties and early 2000s, there was the sheer pleasure of shopping for a brand new pc journal from the rack or getting the brand new subject within the mail and seeing {that a} free CD-ROM had include it. The CD-ROM usually contained varied demos, updates, and free utilities to check out, and as you loaded it onto your Mac and copied all the things over to check out later, your geeky coronary heart thrilled to the thought of having the ability to play with some cool new purposes and utilities you in any other case won’t have come throughout.
Parallels, makers of the Parallels desktop virtualization software program, has stored this alive with Parallels Toolbox, which stands at model 7.0.0 as of this writing (model 7 launched in September 2024). What’s current in Parallels Toolbox is a huge seize bag of small, cool apps that operate considerably as system widgets, however are nonetheless distinctive in their very own proper.
Parallels Toolbox is included in our assessment of the very best cleaner apps for Macs, and for good motive, because it consists of plenty of instruments and options that may aid you to totally uninstall apps, and filter previous or duplicate recordsdata which are taking on pointless disk area. Nonetheless, there’s much more to Toolbox than that straightforward handful of options.
Parallels Toolbox purposes quantity greater than 50 instruments accessible within the Information, Audio, Photos, Images, Web, Display Seize, System, Time, Utilities, and Video classes. The purposes arrive as small downloads and are simple to dive into, with pre-loaded utilities like Uninstall, Obtain Video, Free Reminiscence, and Clear Drive clamoring on your consideration whereas the Library hints at different nifty apps that may be downloaded and explored. Every device works like a sort of mini-app that performs one particular job – such because the Free Reminiscence device, which reveals how a lot reminiscence your Mac presently has free, and which apps that you just’re operating are utilizing essentially the most reminiscence.
Because it first launched as a small assortment of utilities that had been–and nonetheless are–included freed from cost together with Parallels Desktop. The app has continued to develop and is now accessible as a standalone product for each Mac and Home windows, with an annual subscription payment of $24.99/£20.99 a 12 months. There’s additionally a 7-day free trial accessible so that you could strive it out earlier than deciding if you wish to purchase the total model.
You may set Parallels Toolbox to run robotically once you begin your Mac, and the Toolbox icon will then be displayed on the Mac’s foremost Menu bar–alongside Time, Quantity and different commonplace Mac controls. This lets you open a pull-down menu that has two tabs for displaying instruments. The Dashboard tab reveals a few of the hottest instruments that will help you get began, in addition to the instruments that you just’ve used most not too long ago.
There’s additionally a Library tab that shows the whole listing of instruments which are accessible, with extra sub-tabs that kind instruments into associated teams, akin to Video Instruments or System Instruments. You may tag your favorite instruments in order that they’re added to the Dashboard view for fast entry, however many instruments will also be positioned with their very own icons within the Menu bar as nicely, and there’s additionally an choice to create your individual keyboard shortcuts to launch particular person instruments as nicely.
Discover the device you want for the job in Parallels Toolbox.
Foundry
A set of greater than 50 instruments signifies that there’s rather a lot to absorb when first getting began however, as talked about, Toolbox can type instruments into teams that will help you discover the instruments you want. In the event you’re searching for cleaner instruments that may aid you to reclaim disk area or fine-tune your Mac’s efficiency then the Clear Drive device can find pointless recordsdata which are taking on area in your Mac, and in addition discover duplicate recordsdata that you could be not want. One other device can totally uninstall Mac apps, together with any associated recordsdata that could be scattered round your Mac’s drive. It will probably additionally spotlight massive recordsdata which are taking on a number of area, akin to video games that you could be not want anymore.
Different teams of instruments embrace Video Instruments, with choices akin to Obtain Video, which might help you to obtain movies from YouTube and different web sites, whereas Convert Video can convert your video recordsdata into completely different codecs to be used on an iPhone or iPad, and even into the AVI or WMV codecs for Home windows units. The video instruments additionally embrace choices for creating display recordings and animated GIFs, and there’s a helpful Obtain Audio device, which helps you to simply seize the audio observe from video recordsdata that you just discover on-line.
Right here’s an summary of a few of the most helpful instruments we discovered:
The Uninstall app works in addition to could be anticipated, and whereas this undoubtedly isn’t fully authentic on the Mac nowadays, it lets you undergo a listing of put in purposes in your Mac, decide and select what to take away, and reliably strip out each the app and its assist recordsdata, which is useful.
The place Obtain Video is worried, this truly features extra as an internet browser extension than a standalone app, nevertheless it’s easy, to the purpose, and lets you simply save Web-based video in addition to gives an possibility for whether or not or to not save a video’s subtitles. Sure, 4K Video Obtain gives extra choices, akin to isolating audio and video for obtain, however this gives one thing easy and useful and price attempting out.
Foundry
Clear Drive: As soon as once more, this feels a bit typical/in step with comparable utilities being developed by different firms nowadays, nevertheless it gives simple notifications and entry as to what’s consuming drive area (i.e., log recordsdata, cache recordsdata, trash, browser information, mail cache, cellular apps, iTunes temp recordsdata, iOS machine backups, and previous updates) and gives a pleasant degree of management as to clearing them out. Clear Drive additionally gives fast entry to the macOS Storage pane, which tends to be missed, and lets you regulate your storage preferences on the fly.
Free Reminiscence: Much like different reminiscence cleaners available on the market, this notifies you as to the place your Mac’s RAM/Unified Reminiscence goes, which purposes are munching up nearly all of it, and lets you mark the quantity of free reminiscence in macOS’ Menu Bar, which could be helpful.
Parallels Toolbox will release reminiscence in your Mac.
Foundry
Report Display: This turned out to be each cool and useful, and after assigning it permission within the Display & System Audio pane, it lets you report what’s on display as a QuickTime film file and reserve it to the desktop. You’ll must tinker with its choices to get it precisely the way you need it, nevertheless it’s spectacular nonetheless.
Break Time: The Break Time device tracks time reminds you to get away out of your pc now and again. It’s pretty customizable besides. It’s simple so as to add your work calendar, customise notification sounds, and inform it to dam your display throughout breaks, thereby forcing you to truly loosen up and yank your self away from a tool for as soon as in your life, and that’s appreciated. Sure, it could possibly be a bit extra customizable and provide an choice to enter extra particular numerical occasions for work and break cycles, however that is off to a very good begin and succeeds in reminding you to tug your self away out of your Mac all through the day.
Unit Converter: Only a nifty widget that may take nearly any numerical unit and convert it into distances, financial items, or about something you’ll be able to think about on the fly. Sure, different widgets do that as nicely, however that is simple to tug up and work with and enjoyable besides.
Rework Textual content: This received me really into Parallels Toolbox and made me a fan, providing a fast and straightforward set of textual content settings that may be readily copied over to different apps and pasted in as desired. Sure, having the ability to create backwards and upside-down textual content to ship alongside to associates could appear a bit foolish, however this can be a enjoyable device that makes you need to see what else you’ll be able to give you.
Screenshot
Foundry
Encrypt: The cool on-the-fly encryption utility Hollywood promised however nobody ever truly delivered. This lets you drag and drop recordsdata and folders in, and rapidly encrypts all the things to the .pboxz format, which could be locked to the password of your selection. It’s fast, it’s speedy in each its encryption and decryption features, and you may designate the place the file is saved to in addition to save your passwords to the macOS keychain for simple retrieval.
Eject Volumes: This ejects all of the exterior volumes mounted in your Mac without delay, which could be extremely handy, or at the very least simpler than telling a good friend or member of the family to recollect to pull a quantity to the trash or inform them to click on an icon and use Command-E to eject it, which is a dialog I’ve had dozens of occasions over time that by no means received much less irritating.
Clipboard Historical past: One of many greatest teams of instruments is time-saving Productiveness Instruments. My private favorite–which has earned its personal spot on my iMac’s Menu bar–is Clipboard Historical past, which may retailer a number of textual content and graphics gadgets that you’ve got copied into the clipboard, going again so far as the final 30 days. That is actually helpful for me when writing and enhancing articles because it permits me to rapidly look again and retrieve textual content or graphics that I might have to make use of once more.
Foundry
Focus On: I additionally like the power to rapidly launch a whole group of apps or recordsdata with one click on–akin to Pages and Photoshop Parts once I’m engaged on screenshots for evaluations–and the Focus On Window device that reduces distractions by dimming the whole display aside from the window or app that I’m presently utilizing.
Foundry
There’s additionally a helpful set of time-management instruments, together with a countdown timer, and a calendar countdown that counts the times till a particular date. A stop-watch, and the power to create a number of alarms (which I discover a lot easier than Apple’s personal Reminders app).
Not all of those instruments will appear important. The instruments for studying and creating barcodes will in all probability solely attraction to a relatively area of interest viewers, whereas the instruments for creating screenshots and display recordings largely appear to breed the options which are already constructed into the macOS itself.
In spite of some issues that could possibly be added to the apps to be able to enhance them, I see this as a playground of fascinating utilities that’s simple to play with, take pleasure in, and dive into. Sure, you could find Apple widgets inside macOS and Net-based purposes throughout the Web that carry out comparable features, however this can be a well-consolidated library, and it’s enjoyable to look at this develop and evolve over time.
Verdict
It’s a disgrace {that a} comparatively modest piece of software program akin to Toolbox now requires an annual subscription, as that may in all probability deter fairly a number of potential customers. I do discover Toolbox helpful–however I get it included with my copy of Parallels Desktop, so I don’t must pay an extra subscription payment for it. And, by the way, Parallels Desktop nonetheless offers an possibility to purchase that as a one-time buy with out an annual subscription, so it’s disappointing that Toolbox itself is now subscription-only. And, after all, there are lots of utilities accessible from different builders that present comparable options. However at the very least you’ll be able to obtain the free trial and see how helpful Toolbox is on your personal private work set-up earlier than shopping for.
