Help · Mac apps
How to uninstall Parallels Desktop on a Mac.
Parallels Desktop doesn't need a special uninstaller, but the app is the small part. Each virtual machine is a full disk for another operating system, often tens of gigabytes, and uninstalling the app leaves them all in place.
Just want space back?
Parallels can shrink a virtual machine without deleting it: choose File › Free Up Disk Space…, delete snapshots you don't need, and click Reclaim (the virtual machine shuts down first). Don't stop it while it reclaims. To do this automatically, turn on Reclaim disk space on shutdown in the virtual machine's configuration, under General.
Delete a virtual machine
- Open Parallels Desktop without starting the virtual machine.
- Open Control Center from the Parallels menu-bar icon, right-click the virtual machine and choose Remove.
- Choose Move to Trash to delete it, or Keep Files to only remove it from the list. Parallels warns that deleting can't be undone once the Trash is emptied, so copy out any files you need from inside it first.
Uninstall Parallels Desktop
- Shut down all virtual machines and quit Parallels Desktop.
- Drag Parallels Desktop from Applications to the Trash, and empty the Trash.
Virtual machines (.pvm files) are not deleted by this, so remove the ones you don't need as above, first. By default they're in your home folder.
Based on the developers' own instructions, checked October 2026. Menu names can change between versions.
See which virtual machines are using your disk.
Pangalin Space Manager finds Parallels, VMware, UTM and OrbStack virtual machines and Docker's disk image, marks them Caution, and gives each tool's own way to reclaim space, such as Parallels' Free Up Disk Space. Deleting a virtual machine by hand destroys it and its snapshots, so Pangalin Space Manager points you to the app that owns it.
Free to scan · first 5 GB freed free, then $25 a year · 14-day full refund · Notarised by Apple