I read through your splendid tutorial on installing Windows XP with Apple’s Boot Camp product (see boot camp help) but that’s not for me. I don’t want to have to reboot each time I want to try something out with a Windows app on my Mac. I’ve read about something called the Parallels Desktop and am hoping you can explain how to install it and how to use it so I can run Windows in parallel with Mac OS X? Thanks.
I have to admit, I’ve been using Macs since the digital stone age and still get frustrated that I have to buy PCs so I can run Windows with any decent results. I’ve run Microsoft’s Virtual PC, for example, but it’s a dog and even when you have lots of patience it’s pretty difficult to work within that environment even if you have the most powerful computer and least demanding application.
Further, I think that Apple’s Boot Camp program is incredibly smart and have been dual booting Macs for quite a while, though usually into different flavors of Linux or related. I even had my tri-booting Mac laptop make it to the cover of a Linux magazine!
Still, though, the idea of running Windows — or another OS — within Mac OS X through what’s called a “virtual machine” or “virtualization” solution, is too good to miss. That’s why I was thrilled when Parallels released its Parallels Desktop, a full Windows-capable virtualization package for less than $80. Nice!
Just like with Apple’s Boot Camp, there are some specific requirements that you need to meet before you can use Parallels Desktop, however, chief among them the requirement that you have an Intel-based Macintosh. You’ll also want at least a few gig of free disk space and at least 1GB of memory for performance reasons. They also recommend you have the very latest version of Mac OS X, which is easily done with the Software Update capability on the Macs.
Let’s Get Started!
Your first step isn’t to download the application, believe it or not, but rather to decide whether you want to get a free 15-day product key or go ahead and buy the program and get a full product key. I suggest the latter, honestly, because it’s very cool and well worth the money. Now, download Parallels Desktop.
Once you get the 23MB disk image, open it up and you’ll see a pretty typical set of icons:
Don’t just click on the installer, however. Spend a few minutes reading through the User Guide included to double-check that everything’s compatible with your configuration. Then you’ll find that the installer is quite typical of Mac installers, with a license to accept, a hard disk to select for the installation target, and a few buttons to click. It’s so typical I’m not going to even include a screenshot here!
Once the installation is finished, it’s time to start the application, which you’ll find in a folder called “Parallels” in your Application directory. Click on the program and you’ll see a rather intimidating first screen:
Don’t panic. Instead, click on the “New VM…” button on the bottom left to launch the New VM Wizard. (VM = virtual machine, remember).
This will help you through the steps necessary to create a new “virtual” computer that will let you install the operating system of your choice, Microsoft Windows XP.
Your first decision will be to determine if you want to create a typical VM, create a custom VM, or create a blank VM:
As the wizard recommends, I also encourage you to choose the default configuration. It’s easy to tweak things afterwards, after all.
Since we’re doing a default configuration, we need to specify the OS type and version:
Poke around here a bit, you’ll be astonished at the number of different operating systems the Parallels Desktop supports!! Oh, and not to state anything too obvious, but remember that these are just default preferences. You still need the OS itself for installation.
Almost done with the Wizard.
You need to specify the name of your virtual machine, and where it should be stored on your disk:
Since this is your first VM, Parallels will need to create some directories too, as you’ll quickly learn:
No worries. Click “OK” and the virtual machine for Windows XP will be created and ready to install.
Ready to Install
Ah, well, we’re almost ready to install, as you can now see when you quit the Wizard and get back to the main Parallels Desktop view:
What’s wrong? Too little memory (RAM) allocated for my tastes. Easily fixed, by clicking on the word “Memory”, which takes you to the darn useful Configuration Editor:
Slide the control along to the recommended amount (or more, your call), and we’re finally ready to roll!
Installing Windows XP, Really
The first step to actually installing an OS is to insert the Windows install CD (DVD, actually) into your computer, then push the “play” button (rightward-facing triangle) in Parallels to start up the program with the new VM system. The system will prompt for a Parallels Desktop license code (which you did remember to request, right?). Enter that, and after a minute or two, your screen will look like this as you’re welcomed to the Windows XP Setup program:
This should already seem pretty cool if you’re a Mac person, because this is running within Mac OS X, yeah!
Now you can step through the standard steps of a Windows XP install in fairly short order:
You can work with the one unpartitioned space as-is, and when you get to the next screen I recommend you choose NTFS rather than FAT so that you have a higher performance Windows virtual machine. Note, however, that FAT is the file system that Mac OS X can more easily navigate if you want to actually access files within the Parallels virtual partition.
Continuing along…
Somehow, “exciting new look” probably isn’t intended to refer to the fact that we’re installing Windows XP within the Mac OS X environment, but it’s amusing nonetheless, isn’t it?
At this point you’ll go through some rudimentary Windows XP configuration questions, about language, region, and related. Finally, you’ll hit the second of the legal interludes in this process:
If you don’t have a valid product key for Windows XP (or whatever OS you’re installing) you’ll be stuck here, though you can try running for the 30 days allowed before you have to register your OS product.
A few more simple configuration options about timezone, current date and time, and you’re finally into the installation phase of Windows XP, which can take anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours. I don’t have the patience to time it, so I’m not sure. Instead, it’s a great time for a chai break at Starbucks 🙂
When I come back, Windows is mostly installed and it’s just a matter of specifying a few more configuration changes. One thing that happens is that the virtual machine reboots itself and then automatically adjusts the screen resolution to escape the 640×480 hell that we were confined to for the initial installation process. Now we get a glorious Windows logo and boot screen within Parallels Desktop itself:
Now you need to do just a wee bit more Windows configuration, including what I consider a critical step:
You always want to select “automatic update” unless you’re a complete Windows guru and know exactly what you’re doing.
Next you’ll need to indicate if you want to register your version of Windows XP with Microsoft. If you’re going to use this for a long period of time, you might as well do that. Otherwise, select “no” and you’ll be reminded later when you’re perhaps ready to do so.
That’s basically all there is to it. We’re done. In just a few seconds Windows XP reboots and you end up with the familiar background screen, task bar, START button, and much more. All within the world of Mac OS X. Sweet indeed:
It’s not quite as snappy as Apple’s Boot Camp, as I’d expect, but it’s certainly a big improvement over the old sluggish world of Virtual PC.
That should get you going with Parallels Desktop. Questions? You might want to check out the Parallels Blog or pop into the Parallels Forum where users and developers compare notes.
Hope you’re up and running. I know that I’m delighted to have Parallels Desktop on my computer, finally.
Oh, and once you do have it running, don’t forget to also install Parallels Tools, a must-include package of utilities. Learn how here: Install Parallels Tools on Intel Mac.
what i meant was when you use parallels and and you are in windows using it and lets say u download all this stuff onto the windows and than u shutdown windows and close parallels and shut down the computer, when you turn the computer back on and u open parallels back and start up windows again, all the previous stuff that you downloaded before on windows, will that still be there on windows?
also will u be able to use a usb device plugged into the mac on the parallel windows or even a disc in the mac disc drive??
and when downloading windows through parallels do you at any point have to download windows through bootcamp?
Hey
okay now i have a couple of questions hopefully u can answer these for me.
what if i installed windows from bootcamp, can i run parallels off of the windows i installed from bootcamp??? or do you have to install windows off of parallels?? and does this parallels include Windows 7??????
AND how do you save all of you windows information??? how do you shut windows down and start it back up with all of your saved information from the previous times u’ve used parallels???? are u able to do this??
AND are u able to run cd’s and usb’s off of this parallel? like can u insert a cd into the mac and run it on the parallel or a usb device and run it on the parellel???
it would be greatly appreciated if you answered all of these questions for me thanks.
Installing Parallels 4.0 after SL upgrade:
Your blog is helpful but I think my problem may be Snowleopard related.
First of all, it is not clear to me whether my Parallels 4.0 is a 15 day or a full version though I do appear to be six-digit registered on the // web site.
All previous Bootcamp information, programs and data files remain on a HD partition named “untitled” that used to be recognized as “C:” I believe.
There appear to be three virtual machine left-over files named “My Boot Camp.pvs”, “My Boot Camp.pvm” and”My Boot Camp (backup).pvm”, and a “config.pvs” and it’s backup. A bit of a mess – I agree.
My problem is that I have no strict procedure to follow and am reduced to prodding around in the dark.
Several error messages have included “Continue in manual mode” and a black boot-up screen that hangs up with a “cannot find a bootable disk” message – in my case the HD partition “untitled” visible on the desktop.
Not being computer-literate anymore when it comes to Windows (or even Mac’s – that is the point isn’t it?) I have no idea what to do next – other than to avoid the 3-4 hours I’ve already spent trying to imagine what the machine wants next?
If you could point me in the right direction, link, whatever… I’ll burn some new-wave incense in your honor.
Thanks
I’ve purchased the downloadable version of Windows Vista but my VM doesnt read the downloadable version of Vista when I’m given the ooption to either enter the CD or find the CD image. I was doing other research and found that I may have to change the file into a iso file. Is this true? Please help me. I’m a college student with desperate of Windows OS on my Mac.
I am trying to convert from Parallels 3.0 to 4.0. I am running into several issues.
1. I am getting a “Device installer error” – Windows could not load the installer for hdc. Contact your hardware vendor for assistance.
2. I am unable to run Parallels Tools Installer.
3. The hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot find the necessary software.
4. I am unable to use the mouse in Windows.
Has anyone else experienced any of these issues?
Thank you for your help.
John
I recently upgraded to 10.6 Snow Leopard. My Parallels 3.0 refused to launch do to incompatibility with 10.6. After some research it seemed that Parallels would not provide a patch for 3.0 to enable it to run in 10.6.
I bit the bullet and bought Parallels 4.0.
After about 5 tries, using different CDs winXP finally installed, though there were reported errors during the install process (worked like a charm in Parallels 3.0)
At this point, I started applying service packs / security patches and the wheels came off. Now my XP install blue-screens in startup.
I’ve had such good luck with Parallels and OS X, I’m pretty surprised and disappointed that this was caused by an OS upgrade. I’m hoping I don’t have to resort to restoring my MacBook Pro 10.5.x.
Has else anyone experienced this with the latest version of Parallels 4? I’d greatly appreciate any advice or guidance as to how I should proceed.
Cheers,
David
Hey, i installed XP with Parallels on my macbook, but when i try to start it in the virtual machine it alwys stucks there, where it shows me the windows logo and telling me that it’s loading… i tried it abou ten times with restarting Parallels and restarting my mac….
any idea what i did wrong??? any idea how i can fix this???
thanks
Yes. The “reinstall” version of Windows XP isn’t the same as the SP2 or later version of the OS you would get if you bought it at the store, as far as I understand. The frustrating thing about installing Windows *is* that it’s so picky within the virtualization environment.
Hi
I’m very glad to have found this site and all the comments. I’ve read through most – so sorry if I missed the answer to this.
I’ve read the manuals that come with Parallels Desktop and tried the Parallels knowledgebase. But am still stuck.
I have downloaded the latest version of Parallels (3844). I have a brand new Macbook Pro. I have an authentic copy of Windows XP (reinstallation disk) which came with my DELL PC which I am trying to get away from.
The install of XP works part way through but then seems to get stuck. Eventually the installation hangs and I have to stop the virtual machine. Each time I do it seems to get a bit further. Last time I gave up at 13 minutes left.
My question: is this because I have a DELL OEM version of Windows XP?
Having paid for this when I bought the PC do I now need to buy another copy of XP?
Many thanks
Pete
We need help…
We’ve installed parallels and gotten through all of that – now we are trying to install XP Pro. It keeps getting stuck on service pack 2 and won’t load – and then it just gets stuck in a never-ending “re-start” loop. Can’t find any contact info for Microsoft to get support – any ideas?
Thanks!
Well I read the funny joke about the Mac user seeing the blue screen of death and have one comment to make:
Folks, no self respecting mac user would be caught dead running an MS app on his box. I can see the need for Linux, but Windows… on a Mac… brrr
Cheers, Kris
Hi,
I’ll like to know if it is possible to use XP that comes with my Dell PC or do I need to buy a stand along version? If it’s possible, how do I do it?
Thanks.
I have tried several times to load windows xp home version. I keep getting a message that says windows encountered an error and shut down to avoid damaging my computer.
It says to check with the manufacturer of the software for updates. Also to be sure any recently installed software is installed correctly.
I have re installed Parallels but still get the same error msg.
Any ideas?
i just successfully installed a parallel desktop and windows xp3 in my vm. the only problem i have is that i cannot use the movie maker, it is telling, “audio hardware cannot be found in your computer”.
In the “configure” of vm the sound is connected, and the enabled is checked but not highlighted
In the control panel, the sound and audio properties, the volume tabs says no audio device
please help. . thanks
I had Parallels installed onto my MACbook. Whenever installing Adobe CS3 I received an error saying that I don’t have enough RAM. How can I reallocate up to 1GB of RAM (from the current 512K RAM)?
I had this happen while using 5620, in a multiple user environment. Looking at the permissions of the Parallels files, in this case “winxp.mem” was set to read only. The problem happened right after a permissions change to a home directory. Changing this to “read/write” solved the issue.
Can you help? I have a macBook have installed parallels on my mac. I have also installed windows xp. I also have Quicken2003 installed on my virtual machine. everything works fine, except I cannot print. I have a lexmark6200 and have used the disk to install in the windows mode, but still it can’t see the printer. Can you help?
Thanks
Carol
I had trouble sending the F8 key to install Windows XP as well. But rather than disable the F8 features of my Mac, I just used “Send Keys” from the “Virtual Machine” menu in Parallels. Worked like a champ.
If you’re running leopard, you have to go to system preferences and Expose & Spaces and temporarily change the shortcut key from f8 to something else in order to get past the “press f8” part of the XP install.
Hello, I am trying to install Windows XP using Parallel’s and right before installation is complete I get an error message saying failure with I/O Device. Has anyone had this problem and can anyone offer a solution? I was initially having trouble in the beginning of the install, but after trying 3 times got it. I thought just repeating would help with the I/O device error too, but so far nothing. This is stressing me out!
i have 4 GB of RAM on my macbook pro, I`m running windows XP on it through parallel support, All I want to know is does the RAM Splits into 2 equal halfs to support XP and Leapord (2GB goes to XP and 2GB to Lepord) or how does the RAM support both operating systems on the same time.
thanx
Hi,
I tried to install windows on my mac using parallels.. The installation was all complete but somehow it could not detect my network card and I had trouble connecting to the wireless through windows though it works on the mac browser …Does anyone have any idea how to fix it ?
Great walkthrough, couldnt have been simpler! Ive just completed the process on my brand new macbook…im really chuffed 🙂
Dave, thank you for this site:
I have Windows 2000 Professional with a file system of NTFS. In same computer I have a removeable HD with 76GB with Fat32 file system. My problem: I bought a HP printer C5280 that is suppose to be compatable with Win 2k. The software is only installing the printer portion and not the scanning part. No communication from scanner to computer. I’ve work hours with HP techs but no help. My friend has Win.XP Home Edition and when I installed my all in one software to hers, it worked perfectly. I would like to keep the printer if there is a solution.
Can I install an XP Upgrade to the Fat32 HD (D: drive), or along with my Windows NTFS on C: drive. And if I can, would it have to be XP Professional Edition? I’m not overly knowledgable on computers, but can follow directions pretty well.
I would like to keep Win 2K, but would also like the versitility of have XP so that I can use more up to date peripherals. My main concern is to get my All in One to work. The printer portion works fine, by the way.
Thank you very much,
Rick
First I want to say that your site is great and filled with easy to understand computer ‘lingo’. Not being a computer whiz but knowledgeable enough to navigate my way around, I am now wanting to install Windows on my Mac. I have OS X 10.4.11 Tiger and have deleted some stuff to free up space like Chess, Garage Band and a few other applications I will never ever use. Ever.
I went to Best Buy yesterday to discuss an issue I am having with my new JVC Everio HD camcorder not falling in love with my iMac and although the guy helping me was very nice and knew a great deal about Macs and JVC cameras, I walked away feeling like a moron for buying the HD camcorder in the first place.
However, I am so financially invested in this camcorder that I must move forward and do whatever it takes to get my video downloaded to my Mac. One option I was told is to put Windows on my iMac and this will enable me to download videos from my HD camcorder. I walked over to the software aisle and encountered a nice employee who began talking to me in geek (not Greek) and I had no idea what she was saying. I did however understand the part where she said, “You can buy Windows Parallel but you need to buy Windows XP too”.
Like I said, I am no computer whiz but my brain started doing the math and my $500.00 JVC HD camcorder just turned into a whopping $770.00 tax not included.
I didn’t purchase Windows instead, I came home and scoured the Internet looking for answers to help me solve my video issues.
Everyone has advise and are more than happy to share it for free. I read about changing the movie file extensions from MOD and MOI to MPG then opening the files in iMovie. Badda Boom Badda Bing. No. Nadda. Every attempt to get these files to open gave me the error message: “this is not a movie file”.
Not being a very patient person but determined to keep this very nice and easy to use camcorder, I finally decided that maybe putting Windows on my iMac IS a good idea after all even if I only use it to download videos from my camcorder.
My iMac does not have Boot Camp and I have iMovie 7. Note: A support tech at JVC told me if I bought iMovie 8 that it would open up the video from my camcorder. Wrong. Fire that guy.
Of course I was advised by several nice people on the Mac World forums to upgrade to Leopard, to buy Boot Camp, to go to websites and download video converters and so on. I looked at this stuff but I might as well have been reading Chinese. No offense to the Chinese but I can’t read it nor speak it.
So, with all that said, I appeal to you to help me.
Do I purchase Windows Parallel AND Windows XP? Windows XP at Best Buy is $200.00 and Windows Parallel is $69.99.
All this just so I can download and edit videos. Please help me kick myself in the arse for buying this HD camcorder in the first place!!
i wanted to know if i could instal windows xp on a mac without the windows xp instalation cd
when i start up my computer, i would like it to automatically go into mac mode instead of windows mode without holding down the option button….currently, it goes into windows….how can i fix this (i just use mac more often then windows and often forget to hold down the option button)
hey a question, can i install boot camp after i already installed parallel desktops first?
Hello,
I have a serious problem. I installed Windows XP on my macbook pro but i think i formatted or deleted the wrong partition. Boot Camp isn’t showing up in Windows. I also cannot restart the computer in Mac OS. I do have my Mac OS recovery cds. Do i just put them in and the run from the windows partition?
Hi, Dave.
I installed parallels on my 20” intel mac. Evertything was fine until the blue screen. At this time, light in my house went out. Started the mac again and tried to open parallels to continue with the installation of windows xp. I receive an error message, asking me to restart the program. I restart parallels but the error message pops again. What should I do to install parallels again without this arror? Do I have to install Mac OS again?
Sorry for the bad english.
Hi Dave,
Do I need a special copy of XP Pro to install on my Mac or any copy of XP Pro will do? I will be using Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac for the installation.
Thanks for the help
Dave, when I click on windows xp the error message in the virtual machine screen is non system disc error message File/Users/tanyamorris/Documents/Parallels/Windows/winxp.hdd seems to be not a valid Parallels virtual machine configuration file.
Then when I click play it says boot from hard drive failed
boot from CD Rom failed
non-system disc error. I’ve tried to reinstall but the disc won’t stay mounted. Help.
Hi,
I have installed XP using Boot Camp. Do I still need to install XP again within Parallels if I want seamless integration?
I have the same problem as described by more than a few people. So I just pasted the best explaination:
Now when I try to get into the windows installation, I get the windows XP parrallels desktop. It says windows XP and below it says stopped. Then if I hit the play button on the cd the screen flips over (which is pretty cool) but I get a black DOS screen…
640 KB Base Memory
524288 KB Extended Memory
Boot from hard drive…
then nothing happens… I think it wants a boot disk, but being new to MAC i have no Idea how to do this…
Please Help…
-Paul
I have Parallels installed on my 24″ iMac & recently IE 7 (Internet Explorer) has been crashing as soon as I open the application…IE will open the search engine (Google) but as soon as I go to a website it crashes & disappears bringing me back to my desktop screen…I have tried to upgrade to IE 8 & re-download IE 7 again in windows as well as remove the program & reinstalled it but no luck it still crashes…can you proide me with any help?…Thanks
I have Paralells installed on my Mac and would like to uninstall it. I have lost the disk. is there a possiblityyou can help me.
Much appreciated
Helga Bayley
I installed parallels and got stuck mid-installation of Windows XP – wrong disk/product code combination. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling parallels to start over, but it now goes straight to asking for the product code again, and I can’t start over with a new windows disk/product code. Any suggestions on how to clean the partially installed windows software so I can start over?
Thanks,
Patrick
I get the following msg when i try to open parallels desktop : The hard disk 1 is set to use the Boot Camp while Boot Camp is not installed on this computer. Please help to proceed.
Alright. so I’ve gotten a few errors so far that have been stated here, so I’m thinking that I just need to update this version as I have version 1848. How exactly do I go about updating? I tried clicking the update button in “help” inside parallels but nothing ever gets updated. Is there a website to download the most recent version?
Alex, sorry, you’re right. If you buy the software, you’ll have the license code you need in the box. I was working with a downloadable demo version.
Luigi and others, I bought Windows XP to install within Parallels.
Finally, a note to everyone: if you’re having problems getting WinXP to install in Parallels, make sure you have the latest version of everything, including the latest version of XP. For sure “SP1” and the original old XP versions will not work within Parallels.
This is probably a stupid question but when you say, “The system will prompt for a Parallels Desktop license code (which you did remember to request, right?).” what do you mean? will the license code automatically come with parallels when i buy it?
Thanks
I still have the F8 issue. Am trying to use it with iMac keyboard, and there is no “fn” key! I have tried pressing F8 with command key, with alt key, with shift key, and with the ‘control’ key, yet nothing works. Any idea? Please email me at phoenix.kiula [*at] gmail [*dot] com. Thanks!
Dave,
where did you get the windows startup disk?
Great site for help Dave. I recently sold my PBG4 and acquired MacBook Pro with 2GB so that I could run XP and OS. I have parallels and I tried to install XP. Halfway through but at one point XP says it needs to restart. And when it restarts it goes back to the black screen with boot configuration and restarts again. Can you please help? Thanks in advance! Sherap, Kathmandu
I have recently upgraded my windows XP by using genuine windowz xp SP2. No problems were encountered whilst upgrading/installation but after that I simply can’t go to my desk top. Once I log in the computer shows the background of my desk top and within seconds it says “logging off” saving your settings. I have upgraded the SD ram from 128 to 256 MB assuming that may be the reason but in futile. Will u please help me and tell how to get access to my desk top or how to get the upgraded version un-installed so that I can use the earlier one which worked properly.
Unfortunately I did not make any back up copies of my files. I am also using windows 98 in the same pc which works alright.
i installed windowsxp in my macbook2.0 every thing was fine but wgen i tried using windows track pad doesnt work properly as well as my web cam an wifi in windows …can anyone give me solution for this????????
Question … I have a copy of Parallels 3.0, an old install copy of Windows 98, and an upgrade Version of Windows XP Home Edition. Can install the XP upgrade version successfully, without having to buy the full version?
Can I run dual monitors and have with mac and one running xp
This is it I have a MAC mini and I’m trying to load Windows XP Pro SP2 on it with Parallel Desktop. When I have went thru all the steps from placing the cd in the mac to clicking the final step to start the final process and error in a black box white writing wants me to reboot the machine. WHY IN THE HECK DOES IT DO THIS> Please HELP ME. I do not know what else to do. and yes this is my email address. THANk YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP IN ADVANCE.
Thank you very much for the info about the F8 key. You saved my day!!