Can I launch OSX app from inside Parallels?

Discussion in 'Parallels Desktop for Mac' started by DrewD, Dec 15, 2006.

  1. DrewD

    DrewD Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    Setup (still planning; haven't bought anything yet to I can't test this directly):
    OS X 10.4.8 with Parallels VM running Windows XP

    What I want to do:
    Call an OS X appliation to open from inside an XP application running in the VM. Of course, I'd want the OS X application to open natively on the Mac, not inside the VM.

    Example:
    Inside the VM, use a Windows XP image management program to send a JPG file to Photoshop running in OS X.

    Can this be done? Would sharing the OS X Applications folder do the trick? Is there any way to invoke OS X apps from inside the Parallels VM?

    Thanks!
    Drew
     
  2. pwith

    pwith Member

    Messages:
    52
    Why would you want to do this? Do you have OSX applications that open other OSX applications?

    Peter
     
  3. DrewD

    DrewD Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    My current image management program (IMatch 3.5) is Windows only. If I select an image I can use the program's "Open with" command to send the image Photoshop (or another program) and begin editing the selected file. I can edit the IMatch "Open with" list programs and point it to just about any program (maybe even a batch file) if that would help any.

    I'd like to run IMatch 3.5 in Parallels on a Mac, but have it call Photoshop on my Mac when I use the "Open with" command.

    Thanks,
    Drew
     
  4. rjbailey

    rjbailey Member

    Messages:
    22
    I don't know exactly how you'd do this in Windows, but I've done a similar thing on Linux; see if you follow this.

    I'm logged into a Linux machine from my Mac in Terminal.app, and I want to open up a text file on the Linux box with TextWrangler on the Mac. If I have the Linux directories mounted on my Mac via SMB sharing (mounted at /Volumes), at a Linux terminal prompt I execute the command
    "ssh myname@mymacs.ip.address open -a /Applications/TextWrangler.app /Volumes/Whatever/The/File/Path/On/The/Mac/Is"
    thereby opening up the file in the shared directory from a remote Linux machine.

    You'll have to find out how to do ssh from Windows command lines, and make sure you've mounted the data file in a shared directory, but this should work.
     
  5. rjbailey

    rjbailey Member

    Messages:
    22
    To further clarify, you'd put the "ssh myname@mymacs.ip.address open -a ..." command in a batch file with the file name as an argument to be passed to the batch file (maybe tricky?), and execute the batch file from iMatch. This would pass the file name to the batch file, ssh to your Mac, and open the image file with the editor of your choice.
     
  6. rjbailey

    rjbailey Member

    Messages:
    22
  7. DrewD

    DrewD Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    Thanks for the detailed replies! I'll give that a shot when my equipment arrives. I figured out I can pass the filename through the batchfile by using the %1 variable. So the "launching" part of the batch file will read:

    photoshop.exe %1

    I'll add the Plink part later.

    Thanks again,
    Drew

    EDIT: guess I should add this batch file works under WIndows... I don't know if the "open" command for Mac will support the %1 variable. I'll have to do some more searching.
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2006

Share This Page