How do make my xp vm available to all users

I am a long time windows user that switched to a 2.4 macbook a few weeks ago. My wife is a student so she needed microsoft word. I purchased parallels 3.0 and installed windows xp and word. How do I make my virtual machine available to all users on the macbook. Please remember I am a mac novice and also new to parallels. I have researched this site and the internet but still don't get it. TIA Mike

 

I'll give you a quick overview of the way I set it up for this purpose - hopefully others can chime in to give you all the help you'll need to get it setup properly. There's a lot more to read in-between the lines below, but this should get you started down the right path...

1. setup a new Mac OS user (I named this user 'XP'), and enable 'fast user switching'.
2. move your VM hdd to somewhere within this new user's home directory.
3. setup a new VM for this hdd while logged into the new Mac OS user.
4. create separate Windows accounts within your VM for you and your wife.

Then you can both just 'fast-switch' to the MacOS user, and use the same VM. You can also setup Windows networking, and use TweakUI to remap your Windows 'home' directories to be directed to your (respective) Mac OS user's home folders, etc.

 

Please also check Parallels Desktop for Mac user guide on page 235

 

I just moved the folder with the virtual machine to the root level of the HD and adjusted the permissions so all of the authorized users have R/W access to the folder and it's contents and it works just fine.

In my case I have multiple user ID's I often use simultaneously (one for work and one personal) and I can launch the VM in either environment without problem.

 

Still not getting this. I am not completely computer illiterate but I am new to mac and not getting this parallels at all. I have xp installed and office installed all work great under my log in but not other accounts. I need step by step instructions please, starting to wonder how I got this far. Thanks, my only other option is to beg them at the genius bar.

 

Did you read this
Parallels Desktop for Mac user guide on page 235
http://www.parallels.com/en/download/file/doc/Parallels_Desktop_for_Mac_User_Guide.pdf

 

This page deals with increasing the size of the vm, I think I have a problem with sharing.

 

if you browse the file system

Macintosh HD >> Users >> Shared
is where it could be placed
( a guess - so try and clone a copy of the VM to there and see if it works)

Hugh W

 

Please download guide following link provided, I refer to that guide
Check section
Multi-User Access to a Virtual Machine

 

Detail Needed in User Manual

I found yesterday that following User Guide instructions to the letter were not sufficient. A person must also right click (or control right click) on the .hdd file and select "show package contents". The permissions on all folders and files within the .hdd file must also be reset to Read/Write. Clicking the "Apply to enclosed items..." button in the Ownership & Permissions portion of the Parallels folder Info window did not change the permissions on the items within the .hdd file.

 

On bundle in Leopard there is no such point Apply to enclosed items on bundle permissions, only on folders

 

I'm suggesting that the instructions in the User Manual be revised to be more specific. In the manual for Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac on page 195 paragraphs 2-7 state that the read/write permissions for each folder and file must be changed by choosing <Get Info> or by pressing <CMD+I>. This process is not sufficient, at least in Tiger. One must also show the .hdd file's contents and change the permissions on the two files there, or Parallels will not run.

 

Finally, success

Thank you to all contributors on this topic, especially curiouscodger. I'd been happily using Parallels for years, but for the first time wanted to use Parallels from different user accounts within Mac OS X. I did a search on this problem and found a dozen threads and tried all of the suggestions regarding moving VMs to Shared folder and changing permissions, etc.

None of it worked until I followed the above instructions. From my (administrator's) account in Mac OSX, I control clicked on the pvm disk in the User>Shared Folder and selected "show package contents." Then I changed permissions on every one of those files and folders to read/write for the new Mac OS X user account I was trying to enable. Then I logged out of my administrator account and into my new OS X user account and directed Parallels to open that file and this time it works perfectly. Success!