One Virtual Windows File, Multiple Mac Users

Discussion in 'Parallels Desktop for Mac' started by TheDood, Nov 8, 2006.

  1. TheDood

    TheDood Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    Hi,

    I have installed parallals on my mac account, and have windows xp working fine. I would like other users on the same computer to have access to the same windows xp virtual drive.

    I tried moving things to the shared drive, but that did not seem to work.

    And advice?
     
  2. rjbailey

    rjbailey Member

    Messages:
    22
    What error messages did you get?

    It works for me if I put the image file (*.hdd) and the config file (*.pvs) into /Users/Shared. I may have had to change permissions to give write privileges to other users, but I don't remember. I got a warning that the file might have been modified by the other user, but the VM booted and ran normally otherwise.
     
  3. timon

    timon Member

    Messages:
    39
    By far the best way I've found to do this may sound strange but it work great.

    1) Create a new users just for Parallels.

    2) Load parallels on that user. Later if you want you can have that user autostart parallels.

    3) Load windows and set a fix IP for it's network address.

    4) Install the latest version of Microsoft RDC.

    5) With your VM running any user can start an RDC session, using the fixed IP address, to the VM. You never have to worr about rights or more than one user trying to start the same VM. You don't have to shutdown other users. You just use widows switcher once you connect using RDC.

    This works very well.

    If you want you can add the IP address along with a host name to OS X's host file so you can reference the VM by name. But that's another subject.




     
  4. rjbailey

    rjbailey Member

    Messages:
    22
    Damn, this is a great idea. If you post this on MacOSXHints you'll be sure to win an iPod!
     
  5. deejohn

    deejohn Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    Thank you! I came here looking for exactly this. I installed the VM and Win98SE from my admin account, then couldn't access it from user accounts.

    I copied those two files to /Users/Shared, then logged into a user account and copied them to username/Library/Parallels/win98. It worked first time, no problems, no privilege hassles.
     
  6. timon

    timon Member

    Messages:
    39
    Thanks for the idea, I've posted it over there. I would not mind wining an ipod but I'm sure there are much better ideas than this over there.

     
  7. don montalvo

    don montalvo Hunter

    Messages:
    111
    http://forums.parallels.com/post29359-8.html

    don
     
  8. craiggangi

    craiggangi Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    putting those two files in the shared folder didn't work
     
  9. joem

    joem Forum Maven

    Messages:
    1,247
    After you move your VM files to a shared folder, you must set the permissions on each file and the folder if you created one to be read write for everyone you want to access the VM. World read write is the simplest but not very secure. The details of changing permissions would be a Mac problem you can solve on your own.

    Then you need to launch Parallels and open the VM but not start it, and change the location of the virtual hard disk to point to the new shared location you have chosen.

    Then you can start the VM and it should work.
     

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