can I use parallel desktop in the new 24" iMac?

Windows 10, yes, but you'll be banging your head. Windows 11, no. Windows 11 needs a CPU with Trusted Platform Module (TPM), the ARM processors in the M Macs do not have this. If you have an older intel Mac running windows on it natively would outperform the M1 on Windows.

Parallels will run on an M1 Mac.

However... You can not run Intel based MS Windows under Parallels on an M1 Mac. Parallels claims you can run Windows, but they are referring to the ARM technology preview of Windows. The legality of doing this is questionable at best, and you won't be able to run any apps written for Intel processors under it.

This makes it essentially useless for 95% of Mac users.

Pitje1234 wrote:

Thanks for your reply.

But I don't want to use Windows at all, I want to use the parallel desktop for older Mac programs, like Adobe Photoshop and Excel

Why? The current versions will run on an M1 Mac without the need for such things.

Older (intel) Mac apps would use Rosetta 2 to run on that machine.

Depends. See this page: https://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/resources/#sysreq