Installing Parallels to Multiple Macs

Discussion in 'Installation and Configuration of Parallels Desktop' started by amiller, Nov 2, 2007.

  1. amiller

    amiller Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    My wife and I are new to Macs. We just bought a Mac desktop and Macbook Pro laptop, both with Leopard. We are going to network them with an Airport Extreme. I want to transfer my old PC (with Windows XP) to the Mac desktop, primarily so I can run Quicken and Microsoft Access. My question is whether my wife could run those programs through the network from her Macbook Pro laptop without having Parallels installed on that laptop? If not, how best could we transfer the old PC to both new Macs?
     
  2. John Howard

    John Howard Hunter

    Messages:
    126
    Swithing to macs is a very wise decision, for many reasons. I did it some eyars back and have never regretted it. But before you install Parallels (or any other VM application) in a Leopard environment, I strongly suggest you review some of the posts elsewhere in this form about issues people are having, before you take that plunge.

    I'm not saying it can't be done. But remember, Leopard is just released and what worked well in the previous Mac OS (Tiger) may not in Leopard. This is not an uncommon situation with significant new OSes or updates. So you should be prepared for some considerable post-install tweaking.

    This is one reason I don't plan on updating to Leopard for another few months, at least. In that amount of time, I expect that all kinds of patches to reconcile these incompatibilities will have been released - by Apple as well as the VM people.

    In the meantime, although I vastly prefer VM to bootcamp, you may want to run your Windows apps in a bootcamped partition. Then network your macs that way. (There is much written about how bootcamp works.)
     
  3. Lenny Wolf

    Lenny Wolf Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    One Paralleles liscence on two macs ok ??

    Worked with Parellels on my MacbookPro. Just fine. Now I bought a Mac Mini (Intel) as well. Can I use Paralleles with the same liscence on "both" mac's ???

    Thanks much
     
  4. MarkHolbrook

    MarkHolbrook Pro

    Messages:
    350
    The short answer is no. Each mac technically needs a new license of parallels to work.

    Now you can put the VM on a network drive and as long as only one of you opens it at a time you could "share" it that way. IE each instance of parallels on your two computers would be trying to look at the VMs stored in the network share.

    There is NO protection other than a .lock file that will tell you if the other computer is using the VM. It will have to be communication. IE tell your wife, "I'm using the Windows environment!". Then make sure you shut it down before you tell her she can have it.

    I second the fact that switching to Mac is a good idea. Unfortunately in my household I have a son that needs Windows because of school and my wife is on Windows and will probably need to be for work. So I must use both here. But myself I have moved to almost all Mac.

    Parallels + Leopard seems to work fine. There are a few glitches, F11 and F12 not working and a few others but none that would seem to be a show stopper to me.

    Before you invest in two copies of Parallels you might take a look at what windows applications you need use. The CrossOver project supports many applications without any need to install Parallels, Windows or even have a VM.

    For example if your wife simply wants to run Outlook, she can do so in the CrossOver project without having to have Parallels and WinXP. It's worth checking out.
     
  5. Alicia

    Alicia Parallels Team

    Messages:
    683
    Hello,

    it's possible to tranfer your old PC as many times as you need with Transporter. I mean it's technically possible but I suppose it can possibly violate MS EULA so consult with MS support before performing it.
    Then, you actually can store a VM on a shared drive but the synchronous usage won't be possible anyway - either one Mac or another.
    If you need to install PD on both Macs then you'll have to buy two, because according to the license agreement, you can have one licensed product copy installed on only one machine simultaneously. So, if you wish to use our software on two Mac computers, you should uninstall the software from one machine before installing it on another or buy two licenses for each of them as I mentioned.
    And as for Leopard, Parallels latest builds generally run well on it. But of course it's too fresh now so there can be some issues. But it's already a period of beta-testing so there will be an update for Parallels under Leopard really soon.

    Best regards,
    Alicia.
     

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