This post is brought to you by Paragon Software Group, maker of Paragon NTFS for Mac.

Mac and PC are like yin and yang, or oil and water — essentially similar yet significantly distinct. It’s not just a difference in personal computing preference: The two platforms are literally built not to communicate with one another.

Apple and Microsoft coded their operating systems using completely different languages for writing files to drives, HFS+ and NTFS respectively. OS X offers only limited support for files written to a Windows-formatted drive, whether an external hard drive, SSD or USB stick, which can mean major headaches if you’re living or working in a cross-platform world.

Parallels Desktop, a go-to program for anybody wanting to run Windows on a Mac, just got more powerful and convenient to use. The Parallels Desktop 12 update, brings increased speed as well as a suite of handy new tools that simplify everyday tasks.

“This is the best Windows-on-Mac performance in the history of Parallels,” said John Uppendahl, Parallels’ vice president of communications, during a briefing about the new software, which will be available Thursday for subscribers and upgraders. (New users must wait until Aug. 23.)