running Virtual PC in Parallels

Microsoft just released a free IE6 Virtual PC disk image that allows XP users to test Web sites in IE6 without any sort of multi-IE hack. Virtual PC itself also seems to be a free download.

It seems as though running this IE6-specific VM within a Parallels VM would be a little easier on my Mac than running two full instances of Windows. It also would be easier to maintain, and with only one Windows install I could set up a Boot Camp partition, allowing easy backup of both machines without either a reboot or a full disk image copy.

However, when I start up Virtual PC within Parallels I get a message saying I need at least a Pentium II processor - which presumably means the Parallels VM is reporting itself as something less than what Virtual PC needs. Is there a way around this? Thanks.

 

I'm also having the same problem and would love to know if this is possible.

Thanks!

 

No you can't run VPC or VMware on Parallels. Nor indeed the other way round. However, you could use Parallels Transporter to convert the VPC IE6 image to Parallels.

Dave

 

I tried this with no success. Have you gotten this to work, or was that an assumption that it should work?

 

I can't figure out how to run Parallels Transporter. The docs say something about downloading and installing it on Windows (though it's not clear if that can be a virtual machine), but I don't know where to download from, or indeed why there's the Mac version if everything has to happen in Windows.

 

Maybe this will work for You ...

It should be possible to open the PC disk image from VPC under Mac OS and copy the content to a shared folder or select the opened disk image as shared folder. Then You can copy the whole content.

http://www.uhlhorn-agentur.de

 

That sounds doable but difficult. More importantly, it's a task that Parallels Transporter is supposedly designed to automate...only I can't see how...

 

OK, I was able to download the Windows version of Parallels Transporter and convert the Microsoft VPC image into a Parallels one. Problem is, the converted image is recognized by Windows as a hardware change, prompting Windows reactivation. And since there is no product key for this test image that's a problem.

Or not. I entered my regular XP Pro product key and it activated. That may come back to get me, but for now it works.

And, when you boot it up there's a EULA that says you can't convert it from the VHD format. So perhaps I'll just stick with my regular Parallels images.