Select your vm and click the “start” button to give it the first run. Then the VM is created, it should show up the list vm list in the left side of the main VirtualBox screen. Confim you have it selected and click “Choose”, then click “create”. In the “Hard disk” step, we need to select “Use an existing viryual hard disk file”, and click the file icon on the right hand:Ĭlick the “Add” button and select the “.hdd” file we copied from Parallel Desktop.Īfter you select the file it will show up in the list. Input The new VM name and select the System info based on your situation, and “continue”: So open your VirtualBox and Select “New”: Next step is easy, in my case it’s Ubuntu. I usually just copy it to the VirtualBox folder: hdd file and select “Show Package Contents” again:Ĭopy it out and rename is with what you want to but with file extension of. pvm file and select “Show Package Contents”: pvm are the VM files for Parallel Desktop, to get the Diskfile for each vm, just right click each.

To get the disk file from Parallel Desktop, on Mac OS, they are usually under ~/Parallels/*.pvm. The disk file is the only file that is needed for VirtualBox, as all the OS System and your own documents are already there, VirtualBox just needs to serve as a container to run it. So this article is just a quick note about the process. Luckily I found VirtualBox, which is free and open source.Īs I already have things setup in my Parallel Desktop VMs, so it would make sense if I can reuse them instead of creating new machines. So I decided to find a cheaper or free alternative. A $99 renew for maybe another two times open of it just does not make senses to me. Over the last 12 months I had only been using vm for very limited reasons, and probably ended up only opened Parallel Desktop for twice.

The standard version of Parallels Desktop for home use is priced at $100, with upgrade pricing available as well.My Parallel Desktop subscription ended again when today I was trying to use my Windows VM to test out a page on IE. Parallels Desktop for Mac is optimized for Apple silicon Macs that include the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Studio. Apple used to have its own Boot Camp solution, but Boot Camp is not available on Apple silicon Macs, leaving virtualization software as the only option for Mac owners who need to access Windows content. Parallels is well-known virtualization software that allows Windows apps and desktops to be used on Mac machines.

Virtualization software Parallels for Mac now supports Windows 11 Pro on Apple silicon machines, as Microsoft is now officially allowing the app to use the Arm-based version of Windows 11 Pro and Windows 11 Enterprise.Īpple silicon Mac users can access the Windows 11 platform on their machines using Parallels, and as it is an authorized solution from Microsoft, IT administrators can install the Arm-based version of Windows 11 on employee Macs.

Running parallel on mac