Hi, I recently migrated from using Boot Camp to using Parallels desktop for convenience - and I don't regret the move. However, when playing games and other very processor intensive tasks, I would prefer to boot straight into Windows without having OSX running in the background (basically doing what Boot Camp does). Does Parallels desktop support this and what is the best way to achieve this? Regards
See "Using Boot Camp Partition in Virtual Machine" in Parallels help. You can run your Boot Camp installation normally or inside Parallels.
Hi yusufs, If you have Boot Camp partition, you may boot it natively: Log on to your Mac with an account that has administrative privileges. Open "System Preferences" by clicking on the dock icon. Go to the "Startup Disk" control panel under the "System" category. Select your Windows partition from the control panel window. Click the "Restart" button, then confirm your decision by clicking "Restart" again. Your computer will restart and will automatically boot into your Windows partition.
It seems to me that this answer missed the point. The individual seems to want to boot his computer directly to a specific Parallels VM file... not maintain a separate Boot Camp partition/installation. I agree that this would be a useful function to have.
I have similar but different problem to the TC. I've installed Parallels last night and while it works, it doesn't work as well as running a game natively on the Windows 7 side while using boot camp. There appear to be some conflicts with the windows drivers and parallels that I don't run into when using boot camp. However, when I logged off and quit out of Parallels desktop, and tried to re-boot my mac into the Windows 7 partition (by holding down the option key), the computer just hangs there until I let go of the option button. So I am no longer offered the option of choosing a mac or windows 7 startup after the parallels installation. I figured I could just set my startup disk to the windows 7 half, but when I'm ready to go back to the Mac side, how do I change it in windows 7, given that the option button thing doesn't seem to be working anymore?
I know it is now 5 years after this last post, but is this a possibility? I would like to boot directly into the windows virtual machine on my mbp. There is a windows game on steam that runs like garbage virtually but if it could use the entire machine's hardware it would be fine.
That is what bootcamp is for/does. The thread is 'odd'. Parallels is a system to allow you to run a virtual machine inside an OS. In this case, Windows inside Mac OSX. To boot Windows directly, it needs to be booted directly, which is what Bootcamp allows you to so. You can't run Parallels without an OS, but you can run Windows without Parallels. Use the tools that the system offers....
