Parallels Desktop for Mac – Installation and Setup. This tutorial explains how to install Parallels Desktop for Mac and setup of a Windows XP virtual machine. This process will work for Windows XP and Windows Vista, as well as any other OS that Parallels support. We won't actually install a Windows OS – I'll cover that in a separate step-by-step guide – but for practical purposes, we'll assume that we're installing Windows XP or Vista. I am running Parallels 4.0 build 3848 on a mac 10.5.8. All the windows application for the last 2 months have been running excessively slow to the point of being useless.
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For many Mac users, running Windows applications is a necessity. Perhaps your employer uses software that’s available only for Windows, or requires use of a Web site that relies on some Windows-only technology. For years, these users haven’t had many options. Microsoft’s Virtual PC was the best choice, but even on the fastest Macs, it provided a less-than-speedy Windows experience.
Apple’s switch to Intel CPUs, however, means that running Windows on a Mac is suddenly much easier—there is no longer a need to emulate an entire CPU, as new Macs now use the same CPU as their Windows counterparts. This means that, in theory, running Windows on OS X should be both simpler and much faster than it was with Virtual PC.
Apple’s Boot Camp program allows new Intel Macs to boot directly into Windows XP (Pro or Home versions) and run it natively, with full support for accelerated graphics and hardware devices (other than the built-in iSight camera, that is). But rebooting is time consuming, and Mac users would much rather stay in OS X and just run Windows when needed. Plus, Boot Camp only supports Windows XP.
Enter Parallels Desktop for Mac, an OS X solution for running “guest” operating systems within OS X. Parallels utilizes the Intel chip’s hardware virtualization technology (VT). Although that’s a mouthful of buzzwords, what it means is simple: VT lets an Intel CPU act as if it were several distinct CPUs, which in turn enables guest operating systems to run much faster.
What it really means to you, the user, is that you can run a wide variety of operating systems, including multiple versions of Windows—from 3.1 to 2000 to XP—as well as multiple versions of Linux, at very good speeds, and without ever rebooting your machine.
Installation
Installing Parallels is no different than installing any other OS X program that uses an installer. Double-click the installer, follow the prompts, and wait for it to finish. After installation, you’ll find the program in the Parallels folder in the Applications folder. Behind the scenes, Parallels has installed quite a few things on your machine, including a kernel extension (a low-level tool that modifies the core of OS X) to enable its magic. An included uninstaller worked well when I tested it, removing the program and its associated parts.
Setting up
As noted, Parallels can run many different operating systems. After launching the application, the first thing you must do is create a virtual machine (VM), specifying which OS you’re planning to install. You do this by answering a few questions in an easy-to-use setup wizard. Based on the OS you choose, Parallels appoints values for the hard drive size, CD-ROM, video, RAM, etc. (You can customize these settings, if you wish.)
Once everything’s set up, the next step is to install your chosen operating system. Parallels doesn’t include any operating systems, so it’s up to you to supply them. In the case of Windows, you’ll need the actual installation CDs. For Linux distributions, you may have image files (.iso) or burned CDs, depending on the source of the Linux distribution you’re using. (Parallels can handle both formats, though you’ll need to specify that you are using an image file during the setup process.) You simply insert your installation CD, press the Play button in the Parallels interface (see screen shot), and the virtual machine will “boot,” which begins the actual OS installation process.
At this point, the guest operating system really has no clue that it’s being installed on a machine running a virtual version of a computer under OS X. To the installer, the machine looks like a dedicated, Intel-based computer system, with all of the appropriate hardware and software support. Depending on which OS you’ve chosen to install, you’ll spend anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes completing the installation. Using Windows XP, for instance, I was able to install a fresh copy in about 30 minutes—basically the same amount of time it takes to install XP on a “real” computer.
After installing Windows, you should make sure you boot the new operating system and run through the Parallels Tools installation. This toolkit will make your mouse work seamlessly between OS X and your virtual Windows machines, and it will enable more graphics resolution choices, among other features. This tool is also available for a few of the other supported OSes, such as OS/2.
You can create as many VMs as you wish, assuming you have the drive space available to hold the image files.
Usage
After you have your guest OSes installed, using them in Parallels is essentially the same as using them on a standalone machine—with a couple of key exceptions.
The first, and the biggest letdown for diehard gamers, is that Parallels can’t presently handle accelerated 3-D graphics. So, while you can play Windows Solitaire just fine, you’ll have to use Boot Camp if you want to try out Half Life 2.
The second limitation is that not every hardware device in your collection will work perfectly, if at all. For instance, if you have a Windows Mobile 5 smartphone, you’ll need to install a free, third-party tool to successfully sync the device. Parallels for mac remove virtual machine. You also might have trouble with some phones, media card readers, Webcams, scanners, and so forth. Some devices work perfectly, while others don’t work at all. While this situation will probably improve with future releases, if you need 100-percent hardware compatibility, then a reboot via Boot Camp is your best bet. But, if you don’t require 3-D accelerated graphics or full hardware support, then Parallels delivers solid results.
To test Parallels’ performance, we ran WorldBench 5, the official PC World testing tool, on both a 20-inch 2.0GHz Intel iMac and a 15-inch 2.16GHz MacBook Pro, and we compared those results with the same machines running Windows XP Pro natively via Boot Camp, and with a few actual PCs.
Parallels Desktop Benchmark Results
Test System | Processor | WorldBench 5 Score | Mulititasking Test | Windows Media Encoder 9 | Roxio VideoWave | Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 | Microsoft Office 2002 SP-2 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
20-inch Apple iMac Core Duo (Boot Camp) | 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo | 96 | 423 | 294 | 267 | 320 | 541 |
20-inch Apple iMac Core Duo (Parallels) | 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo | 67 | 1142 | 517 | 396 | 415 | 577 |
15-inch Apple MacBook Pro (Boot Camp ) | 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo | 98 | 419 | 280 | 259 | 305 | 535 |
15-inch Apple MacBook Pro (Parallels) | 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo | 67 | 915 | 369 | 392 | 382 | 588 |
HP Compaq nx9420 (laptop) | 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo | 101 | 444 | 279 | 259 | 311 | 575 |
Ajump NBP1105 (desktop) | 2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ | 97 | 518 | 307 | 286 | 359 | 542 |
Dell Dimension E510 (desktop) | 2.8GHz Intel Pentium D 820 | 88 | 656 | 353 | 290 | 404 | 560 |
HP Pavilion a1250n Media Center Desktop PC | 2.0GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ | 94 | 521 | 321 | 290 | 367 | 563 |
>Better | <Better | <Better | <Better | <Better | <Better |
Best results in bold. Reference systems in italics . All individual test results in seconds. Install igo 8 windows mobile.
All systems had 1GB RAM. Macs used Apple’s Boot Camp beta to install Windows XP. All were tested with Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2 except the HP Pavilion and Dell Dimension, which had Windows Media Center Edition installed. For more information on WorldBench 5, visit PCWorld.com .—MACWORLD LAB TESTING BY JAMES GALBRAITH AND JERRY JUNG
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Using Parallels on the Macs, the overall WorldBench test score is about two-thirds of what it is for the same machine booted natively into Windows via Boot Camp. Some portions of our testing, such as multitasking, show a big divide in performance. Other portions show only slight differences. In our Office 2002 test, for example, Parallels was only about 10 percent slower than in native mode. Overall, our results indicate that, using Parallels, you’ll get about two-thirds of the speed you’ll get using Boot Camp.
How do these benchmarks translate to real life? I performed a few additional tests to simulate some common tasks. Running Microsoft Office on a 1.66GHz Core Duo mini with 2GB of RAM, the speed was impressive. I was hard pressed to tell any difference between scrolling through a long Word document in Parallels and scrolling through that same document when booted into Windows via Boot Camp.
Even using applications that perform very complex computations, like Photoshop CS2, you’ll see good results. I applied a complex mesh image filter to the same image on the Core Duo mini in three different environments: in OS X (running CS2 via Rosetta, since Photoshop is not yet a Universal Binary application ), in Windows XP under Parallels, and in Windows XP running natively via Boot Camp. As you might guess, the Boot Camp XP machine was the fastest, taking 36 seconds to apply the filter. Close behind it, though, was the Parallels XP machine, at 44 seconds—only eight seconds slower. Trailing badly, at 77 seconds, was Photoshop in Rosetta on OS X. So for now, if you are a Photoshop power user with an Intel Mac, you may be better off running it in Windows on your Mac, either via Parallels or Boot Camp. Parallels for mac trial version of windows. Of course, you’ll need to own a second copy of Photoshop to take advantage of the additional speed.
You can also set up shared folders between OS X and your Windows XP/2003/2000 virtual machine, making it easy to move data back and forth. (Other operating systems don’t support shared folders, but you can still use those systems’ networking capabilities to connect to your Mac via file sharing, for instance.) Outside of shared folders, though, your Mac’s hard drive will be invisible to Windows. This is generally a good thing, for it means that any malware or viruses that may infect your Windows virtual machine won’t be able to damage anything on your Mac’s hard drive.
Since virtual machines are stored on your computer as single files (think of them like a standard OS X disk image), it’s very easy to move them from one Intel Mac to another—just copy the folder to the other machine, and you’re done (keeping in mind licensing restrictions, of course). It’s also easy to back your virtual machine up, to any Mac or to an external hard drive. Just drag and drop, and you’ve backed up your entire Windows system, applications and all.
More than Windows
As noted, you can run more than just Windows using Parallels. There are at least 20 supported operating systems, many of which are free to download and use, such as Fedora Core Linux or BSD Unix. If you’ve ever wondered what Linux is all about, installing and using a version via Parallels is a relatively painless way to try it out. Download a version of Linux, set up a virtual machine, install the OS, and test it out. If you like it, keep it around. If you don’t like it, just throw away that virtual machine’s file from your hard drive, and it’s gone for good.
Since Parallels uses VT to increase performance, you can run more than one guest OS at a time. I’ve run as many as four at once without having the Core Duo grind to a halt in protest. For those who need to test a Web site in many browsers on many platforms, this can be a huge time saver.
Duplicity
If you use Boot Camp, you’re probably wondering if you can use your existing Windows partition for Parallels. Unfortunately, you can’t, due to the way Parallels works. You’ll have to install Windows again (you can install and activate Windows XP on the same machine more than once, though you’ll need to call Microsoft to complete the second activation).
With two Windows installations sitting on your drive, it might get a bit confusing trying to find your Windows data files—you can’t see the Parallels disk image when in Boot Camp, and vice versa. Hard drive space might also become a bit of an issue, since you’ll also wind up installing two copies of all your applications.
Must have RAM!
To get the most out of Parallels, you’ll want to give your Mac as much RAM as you can afford—1GB is a good starting point, as you’ll then have enough RAM to run Parallels alongside a few other applications. However, 2GB is much better, particularly if you’re going to run multiple OSes at the same time or run a lot of large applications within your virtual machines.
Parallels For Mac Support
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Parallels’ ability to run nearly every version of Windows, along with many versions of Unix and Linux, makes it a valuable tool for anyone using an Intel-based Mac who has a need or desire to work with other operating systems. If your job requires Windows, but you love your Mac and OS X, Parallels will truly give you the best of both worlds. If you put your Parallels session in full screen mode, anyone walking by won’t even be able to tell that under the Windows façade, you’re actually running the world’s greatest operating system.
[ Senior Editor Rob Griffiths is the author of Mac OS X Power Hound, Panther Edition (O’Reilly, 2004), and runs Mac OS X Hints. ]
With Parallels Desktop for Mac, you can run many different operating systems at near-native speeds, all without leaving the friendly confines of OS X. Here, two different versions of both Linux and Windows run at the same time.A FreeBSD (a version of Unix) virtual machine is set up and ready for launch. The buttons along the side let you stop, start, and pause the virtual machine, as well as choose between full screen or window-based operation.Today's Best Tech Deals
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It was just about a year ago that I first reviewed Parallels Desktop. I found it to be a fast and versatile way to run Windows, Linux, and many other systems within OS X. But things are moving quickly in the virtualization arena, and much has changed in the last year. The recent release of Parallels Desktop 3.0 is evidence of that: this first-ever paid upgrade has over 50 new or improved features.
Accelerated graphics
Parallels 3 now offers support for accelerated graphics (both OpenGL and DirectX), allowing some 3-D games to run within Parallels. This feature is disabled by default, as it’s still somewhat experimental, but it can be easily enabled in the virtual machine’s preferences. The company provides a list of games known to be compatible, though others may work as well. For instance, I installed and tested Infogrames’ BoarderZone, an older PC snowboarding game. I also installed and played a demo of the Live for Speed driving game. Neither is on Parallels’ list of tested games, but both worked quite well. https://renewpower653.weebly.com/parallels-11-desktop-for-mac.html. However, other games I tested, such as Microsoft’s Flight Simulator and Motocross Madness 2, didn’t run after installation. But for those games that do work, the results can be good—especially for older games with less stringent graphics requirements. (For more on gaming with Parallels, see Peter Cohen’s Game Room blog.)
To test Parallels’ gaming abilities, I installed the Prey demo on Mac OS X, Windows XP via Boot Camp, and Windows XP via Parallels on both my 2.66GHz Mac Pro and 2.33GHz MacBook Pro. I then copied a recorded demo file to all of these setups, and I ran a benchmark test using that demo file on each machine.
The Macworld Lab performed a separate test. They tested Doom 3 on a 2.16GHz iMac Core 2 Duo to see how well this graphically intensive game held up when run in Parallels.
As you can see from the chart below, there’s a substantial performance hit for running either game under Parallels. The results could be improved, of course, by using a smaller window or lower quality graphics settings. When I was testing Prey’s actual gameplay, I found that frames per second (FPS) varied between about 20 and 60 (the latter is where Prey caps it during game play) on the Mac Pro in Parallels. At no time, though, did it feel unplayable. But Prey on the MacBook Pro is another story. To play Prey via Parallels on that machine, both resolution and image quality would have to be reduced to get a usable frame rate.
Doom 3 results on the iMac were similar to Prey on the MacBook Pro—you’d need to reduce the window size and graphic quality settings to get decent gameplay.
Epson 3880 driver for mac mojave. If you want the best Windows gaming experience, use Boot Camp to turn your Mac into a real Windows PC. But if your gaming needs are mainly limited to older titles, or if you’re willing to play in a somewhat smaller window, Parallels 3 provides a usable solution, at least for some games, without rebooting.
Gaming tests were not the only tests we performed. We attempted some tests with WorldBench 6, but despite numerous attempts, we were unable to come up with conclusive results. Some tests would not completely run; other tests intermittently corrupted our versions of Windows. We are working with our colleagues at PC World to sort out the problems we’ve encountered with World Bench tests and hope to post results soon.
It should be noted that we didn’t run into any issues running applications on their own—Microsoft Office, the Prey demo, and various other Windows applications ran as expected.
Parallels Desktop 3.0 Game Tests
Prey Time Demo | Native OS X | Windows XP via Boot Camp | Windows XP via Parallels |
---|---|---|---|
MacBook Pro 2.33GHz | 32.6 | 37.5 | 17.4 |
Mac Pro 2.66GHz | 89.1 | 106.9 | 43.2 |
Doom 3 Time Demo | Native OS X | Windows XP via Boot Camp | Windows XP via Parallels |
iMac 20-inch 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo. | 48.1 | 57.8 | 19.5 |
Higher numbers are better. Best result for each system in red. Scores are in frames per second.
All tests were run at 1,024 by 768 resolution. Prey tests ran in a window, with medium texture quality, highest shader detail, no anti-aliasing or vertical sync, and image anisotropy at 8x. All other settings in the Advanced 1 and Advanced 2 video configuration tabs were set to Yes. Figures are frames per second as reported by Prey. Doom 3 was set to use high video setting, 1,024 by 768 resolution, V-sync No, Antialiasing Off, and all other settings set to Yes. All systems were running Mac OS X 10.4.9. The MacBook Pro had 2GB RAM and an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card, and the Mac Pro had 4GB RAM and an ATI Radeon X1900 XT graphics card. The iMac had 2GB RAM and an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card.—Macworld Lab testing by Rob Griffiths and James Galbraith.
Snapshots and Undo Disks
Also new in this version is the ability to create Snapshots of your virtual machine. A Snapshot is just what you think it might be—a picture of your virtual machine’s setup at a point in time. Microsoft office for mac parallels. Create a Snapshot before installing a new program; if you want to revert your system at some point, you can do so using the Snapshot Manager. Creating a Snapshot is more space-efficient than simply duplicating your virtual machine’s disk image in the Finder: I created two Snapshots of my 10GB Windows XP Pro virtual disk, and the total space required was just over 1GB. You can create Snapshots for the other Parallels-supported OSes as well.
The Undo Disks feature is like an always-active Snapshot. Although turned off by default, this feature lets you undo all changes made to your virtual machine during a session: when you shut down the virtual machine, it will revert to its previous state. In a lab setup, a feature like this can ensure that any changes made by students won’t survive beyond the next launch of Parallels. Note that you cannot use both Undo Disks and Snapshots on the same virtual machine.
Boot Camp partition support
Parallels 2.5 added the ability to use your Boot Camp Windows XP partition as a Parallels virtual machine, eliminating the need for two separate Windows installations. In Parallels 3, you can now also use a Vista Boot Camp partition, and the speed of mounting Boot Camp partitions is faster. The first time you run Parallels, it will search for any Boot Camp partitions and offer to create virtual machines from those Windows installations (you can also do this manually if you wish). The main limitation of this setup is that you won’t be able to create Snapshots or use Undo Disks on Boot Camp partitions. When this feature was first introduced in Parallels 2.5, users had some trouble with it, but it worked well for me in Parallels 3.
Coherence mode
Introduced with Parallels 2.5, Coherence mode interleaves windows from both Windows and OS X. Instead of having one window to represent your Windows machine—complete with background image and desktop icons—Coherence mode creates a separate OS X-like window for each Windows window, and hides the Windows desktop and desktop icons. Switching between OS X and Windows applications is as simple as switching between OS X applications—just click the window you wish to use. The Windows taskbar will also be visible, so if you intend to use this mode, it’s best to move either the Dock or the Windows taskbar to the side of the screen, to avoid confusion.
I ran a number of Windows and OS X applications side-by-side in Coherence mode, and everything worked as expected—except when I used Apple’s Exposé features. Exposé treats all open Windows windows as one window, and shows them grouped together when you press F9. As a result, you can’t choose a specific target application by using F9 and then clicking on the target program’s window. Instead, you click on the group of Windows windows in Exposé, and whatever application is frontmost becomes the frontmost open application after switching. You can, however, use Command-Tab or the Dock to switch to a specific Windows application, as each gets its own icon in the switcher and the Dock.
Smart Select
Smart Select is a promising feature, at least in theory: when Parallels is running, files on either the Windows virtual machine or your Mac can be opened with either Windows or Mac applications. When you control-click a file in either OS, the Open With menu option will list both Mac and Windows programs that can open that file. In practice, however, I found this feature confusing and not all that helpful. For many common file formats, such as JPEG and TIFF, the list of entries on the Open With menu is already sizable with only OS X apps included; adding more choices doesn’t do anything to help my productivity. https://conscabiju.tistory.com/3.
Smart Select also features a special Shared Applications folder in the Windows Start menu. This folder is populated with a list of every program on your Mac, so you can open a Mac application directly from Windows. I have hundreds of Mac apps, however, and seeing them all in one gargantuan menu really isn’t a benefit of any sort. According to the manual, this feature can be disabled in the new Security Manager. In my testing, however, that was not the case—the huge list was still present regardless of my Security Manager settings. After sending an e-mail to Parallels’ tech support, I was told that a soon-to-be-released free update would take care of the problem.
Parallels Explorer
Parallels Explorer is a newly bundled application that lets you view and modify your Windows virtual machines without actually launching Parallels Desktop. It’s a great tool for moving files to and from a virtual machine, especially when you need to get a file or folder in a hurry and don’t need the full Windows OS up and running.
Other improvements
Parallels 3 features improved USB and USB 2.0 support. The newest BlackBerries and smart phones—no, not the iPhone as of yet—are also supported, and USB transfer speeds have been improved. When Parallels is running and you connect a USB device, a dialog box asks you to choose the OS that should control the device. I had no trouble getting Parallels to recognize and use a USB game controller during my game testing.
Parallels Transporter is a tool introduced in version 2.5 to migrate everything on a physical PC into a Parallels virtual machine, including the OS itself, applications, files, folders, and settings. Top mac apps for college students 2015. Transporter was new in Parallels 2.5, and in Parallels 3 you can use Transporter on Linux and Vista, in addition to various other Windows OSes.
The Security Manager provides control over the degree to which information is shared between Mac OS X and Windows virtual machines. With the security level set to high, for example, Parallels will disable shared folders and Smart Select, and will not mount the Windows drive on the OS X desktop. At its lowest setting (medium), the Security Manager allows full sharing of folders, mounts the Windows volume on the OS X desktop, and enables Smart Select. In my testing, however, I had problems making this feature work as described. Regardless of the selected level, for instance, the Open With menus showed both Mac and Windows applications.
Like its competition, VMware Fusion (currently in public beta), Parallels 3 offers a selection of downloadable virtual appliances , which are pre-configured systems ready to be used with only a few mouse clicks. For example, I downloaded and installed a JumpBox virtual appliance set up with the Drupal content management system. Parallels recognized the virtual machine. All I had to do was answer a few Drupal configuration questions, and the system was up and running. I could then load the Drupal system from any browser on any machine in my home—in OS X or Windows. Using virtual appliances is an easy way to install and test complex software: there’s no configuration required, and if you don’t like what you’re testing, you can just throw it away when you’re done.
Finally, Parallels Tools, which helps integrate the guest OS into the Mac OS by allowing on-the-fly screen resizing and seamless control over the mouse, has been updated to work with all Linux virtual machines, in addition to its existing support for various versions of Windows, Solaris, and OS/2. I tested Parallel Tools with Fedora Core Linux, and the features worked quite well. For example, with Parallels Tools installed, you don’t have to capture the mouse by clicking inside a virtual machine window; the mouse simply knows when it’s within the virtual machine’s window area.
Tech support
One frequently heard complaint about previous versions of Parallels relates to technical support: for many, it’s been difficult to get. The Parallels Web site offers a few choices, including a $30-per-incident phone support option, as well as a knowledge base and an FAQ. The company also offers free e-mail support, with a promised turnaround of three business days. I received a response to my inquiry in less than 24 hours (and I sent my request from a personal e-mail account, not one with a Macworld address).
One of the best resources for help isn’t documented anywhere on Parallels’ Web site: the Parallels Support Forum. Here, you can post questions and read answers from other Parallels users, and often find answers more quickly than you’ll get via e-mail. It’s unfortunate that Parallels chooses not to publicize this useful resource on its own site.
Macworld’s buying advice
Parallels Desktop 3.0 is currently the best solution for running Windows, Linux, or any of many other operating systems alongside OS X. With the inclusion of (still limited) 3-D graphics support, Snapshots and Undo Disks, virtual appliances, and many other features, it’s a compelling alternative to rebooting via Boot Camp. Tech support has improved, although you will pay somewhat dearly if you need an answer via phone. Unless you need full 3-D graphics support, or support for some esoteric hardware, Parallels will probably get the job done for you.
[Macworld Senior Editor Rob Griffiths runs the Mac OS X Hints Web site. ]
BoarderZone, an older Windows game, played quite well with Parallels’ new support for 3-D accelerated graphics. Results with other games were mixed: some worked while others didn’t.