Parallels has been creating a lot of buzz with their Workstation software that allows Intel Mac users to run almost any version of Windows, Linux and many other O right i ide of Mac OS X, without the need for shutting down what you're doing in Mac OS X to reboot into the other OS. This 'virtualization' ability of the new Intel chi is a pretty big deal, and from my experience with ru ing Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux on my MacBook Pro, I can understand why.
However, all this stuff about 'virtual machines' and using Parallels Workstation to i tall another OS i ide Mac OS X can be a little daunting, so I thought I would put together a basic how-to for anyone interested in this software and what's po ible with it. I'll try to explain some terminology to help clear up any confusion, and I will cover using Parallels Workstation to i tall both Windows XP and Ubuntu, one of the more popular 'co umer friendly' versio of Linux, or so I'm told (disclaimer: I know a olutely nothing about Linux aside from the 'most of it's free' convention and the few headlines that come acro digg, so go easy on me if you have Ubuntu questio ).
Click ahead for my five ste to ru ing multiple O with Parallels Workstation in Mac OS X.
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Step 1: I talling Parallels Workstation
Let's begin our journey into virtualization goodne with getting Parallels Workstation i talled. This is the software that allows you to i tall and run other O i ide of Mac OS X. It is merely a tool and it is surprisingly small in size - it's only 8.6 MB. If you don't have your own copy and trial key yet, mosey on over to Parallels' site (yes, mosey), download a demo and sign up for a free trial key.
I talling the Workstation software itself is actually pretty simple; it's just like i talling any other Mac OS X software. Once you're done, start up the Parallels software from your A licatio folder, and you'll be greeted with a screen like this:
Now you're ready to use Parallels to i tall and configure an operating system.
Step 2: Creating a Virtual Machine
In order to run an OS i ide of another, we need to create what's called a 'virtual machine,' which is more or le a configuration file Parallels Workstation uses to allow any Guest O (such as Windows and Ubuntu) to run i ide the Host OS (in our case: Mac OS X) and use various system components like U ports and ethernet/Airport acce . If you decide to i tall more than one Guest OS, you will need to create a VM (virtual machine) for each one.
If Parallels Workstation is ru ing and you get to the Untitled Virtual Machine scree hot I pictured before, go ahead and click on the "New VM" button at the bottom to begin the proce of creating your virtual machine. As I understand it, the ste for setting up the VM and using it to i tall each OS are pretty similar, so I'm going to explain setting this all up with Windows and Ubuntu at the same time, but you should be able to play along using any su orted OS.
You will be greeted with a wizard that will walk you through the VM setup proce . Click next, and for our purposes and to help keep things simple, choose 'Create a typical VM (recommended)' at the next step. The following screen asks you which OS you plan on i talling in this particular VM. If you chose Windows for the Guest OS Type, make sure to ecify which version in the second 'Guest OS Version' pull-down menu. This a lies to any other type/version of OS you're using, but in the case of Ubuntu, you'll need to chose 'Linux' under the type menu, and Other Linux under the version menu.
The next step of the wizard will ask you to name this VM and ecify a directory to keep it in. You probably don't have to adjust any of these settings, but once you chose Finish, Parallels Workstation will ask if you want to automatically create the the directory to store these VM files - hint: chose 'yes.'
Step 3: Getting ready to i tall your OS
You should now see the scree hot above which allows you to configure how Parallels Workstation will treat your Guest OS (in my case: Windows XP) and which components of your Mac it has acce to. If you click on any of the linked optio , such as Memory or Network Adapter, a configuration editor will open that allows you to adjust all of these settings:
Some of these settings might be slightly different, depending on your machine's configuration, what your working environment is like and whether you'll be i talling your OS from an image file or a physical CD/DVD, so you might not even need to adjust any of these. With my MacBook Pro and wirele setup at home though, you can see in my scree hot that I had to change my Network Adapter to use my Airport co ection to make sure I can get online with XP. If you (hopefully) have 1 GB of RAM or more, and if you're using a more hefty OS like Windows, I recommend giving your VM at least 512 MB of memory to work with. However, I've heard many versio of Linux are much leaner than Mac OS X and Windows, so your mileage may vary.
Two crucial optio you'll probably need to configure in this editor to get your OS i talled and ru ing properly are CD/DVD-ROM and the Booting Optio tab under Optio at the very top. I'll give you two typical scenarios to help you wrap your head around how this works and how to configure these on your own if you have to. You might need to adjust these settings before you i tall your OS, and probably after you i tall it and run it for the first time too.
Our first scenario is i talling Windows from a CD, since I figure this is probably the most popular OS and method people are going to use. You first will need to go to the Booting Optio tab under the Optio section. Make sure you chose the third and last option: "CD-ROM, Hard Disk, Flo y." This mea that the first time you run this VM, just like starting up a real PC, Parallels Workstation will look first to the CD-ROM to find something to boot from, since we have the equivalent of a blank PC; no OS has been i talled yet. Next, go to the CD/DVD-ROM 1 optio section and make sure the 'Enabled' and 'Co ect at startup' boxes are checked. Then be sure 'Use CD/DVD-ROM' is checked. Just in case you're using a second external drive with your Intel Mac, I'd recommend sticking with using its internal drive for all this stuff. I have no idea if external drives are su orted or what might be nece ary - if even po ible - to get them su orted. Choose OK on the config editor screen to save your changes. If you're i talling from a CD, you can skip ahead to Step 4 to begin i talling your OS once you have these two optio set. I'd recommend leaving the other optio alone for now unle you know what you're doing.
The second i tallation scenario is i talling from a disk image or .ISO file. This is e ecially handy if you've downloaded something like the Ubuntu Intel x86 image file - this way you don't have to burn a CD just to use it for this Parallels Workstation i tall. In this case, under the Booting Optio tab choose 'Hard Disk, Flo y, CD-ROM,' and then under the CD/DVD-ROM 1 section choose 'Use image file' and point it at the image file you have saved. You shouldn't have to tweak any other settings for now, so let's start i talling our OS. Choose OK on the config editor screen to save your changes.
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Step 4: I talling your OS
Now here's where things get a little creepy: once you've configured everything properly in Step 3, click on the green play button at the top of the Workstation window to turn on your VM. Workstation will now change to di lay a familiar and generic PC bootup sequence, which might feel pretty tri y if you've never done this before. Yes, you are more or le booting up a PC i ide of Mac OS X. If all goes well on this first boot, your VM will realize there is no Guest OS i talled and attempt to check the boot devices in the order you ecified at the end of Step 3. In my case, I had a Windows XP image file, so my VM began the i tall proce as if I were doing this on a real PC. The rest of this step should be pretty simple, e ecially if you're already familiar with the i tallation proce of the OS you're using. From what I've heard, and from my limited experience with i talling Ubuntu, it seems like most O these days do a fairly decent job at walking you through their i tallation proce . Windows XP i talled just fine for me, but Ubuntu had some i ues with my networking drivers, po ibly because I ecified using Airport i tead of an ethernet adapter. I need to play around with that a bit more.
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Step 5: Clean up, and some ti
Congratulatio . If you're seeing another OS's desktop i ide Parallels Workstation, like I have Windows XP pictured here, you've made it. And look in the bottom right there - Windows is almost immediately letting me know that my computer may be at risk because I don't have a virus sca er i talled! Thanks, Microsoft.
But seriously, there are a couple more ste I'd like to recommend before you take off ru ing into this bold new multi-OS world. First: after you're done poking around for the first time in whatever OS you decided to i tall, you can stop or su end it by using that big red stop button in the Workstation window. It will ask if you'd like to su end or simply shut it off, and su ending it works just like you might think: it puts your OS to sleep, preserving your open a and work. Nice. But the first time you stop your VM, I'd recommend shutting it down because you need to edit your config optio one more time to e ure smooth ru ing.
Once you get out of your VM, click on the CD/DVD-ROM option to open the Configuration Editor again. Now that your OS is i talled, make sure to chose 'Use CD/DVD-ROM,' and then go back up to the booting optio tab and chose 'Hard Disk, Flo y, CD-ROM.' This way, from now on, your OS will boot up properly from the virtual machine you've created on your hard drive i tead of looking for a CD/DVD to boot from.
Now for some ti . With the most recent beta 5 of Parallels Workstation, various resolutio are now su orted in both windowed and full screen view. Yep, you can run your VM full screen. < an style="font-weight: bold;"> See that icon in the VM window with four cardinal arrows i ide of it? While you're ru ing your VM, pre that to run your Guest OS in what I'd like to call the Tri y Full Scree trade; view. As far as changing resolutio , I don't know how it works in other O , but in Windows you can right click on the desktop and chose properties, just like you'd do it on a PC.
Which reminds me: right clicking. Parallels should su ort *most* of the features and functio of whatever OS you're using, including using control to right-click in Windows. U devices are now su orted, though they'll have to be a format your OS can read. My HFS external hard drives, for example, can't be used in Windows, though I would imagine something like MacDrive could solve that problem. As far as easily moving between O when booted into a VM, you can hit ctrl - opt (alt) to change your mouse's focus back to Mac OS X. To make things run even smoother, when booted into Windows (and I think other O ), go up to Parallels Workstation's VM menu and chose I tall Parallels Tools. This will i tall some really handy features like the ability to mouse between O without having to type or click anything, as well as a shared cli oard; you can copy text in Mac OS X and paste it into Windows, and vice-versa. As far as moving files back and forth, this latest beta 5 has also made setting up a shared folder to use between your O really easy, though I haven't personally played around with this yet.
That about wra it up for now; I think I've covered everything you should need to get started with Parallels Workstation and the OS(s) of your choice. Feel free to ask questio in the comments, and I will try to a wer as many as I can to the best of my abilities.
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