Microsoft offers some downloads for web developers to test their sites with various versions of IE. There's even an XP image with IE6 installed, for the criminally insane. Sadly these .vhds are for Virtual PC, not Parallels. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11575 There are some other instructions here, but they seem to be for pre-SP3 XP: http://joemaller.com/2896/ie6-ie7-and-ie8-compatibility-testing-with-microsoft-virtual-pcs/ I'm able to do the command-line conversion of the VHD file, but having no luck with the import beyond that. I think having the VPC tools already in the image screws things up. By the time Parallels has done its thing with the import, I am left with sporadic keyboard access and a reboot loop.
Please try to boot these images in Virtual PC, uninstall the tools, install Parallels Desktop and see if it converts it fine this time.
Hmmm... I don't actually have a physical machine with Windows installed. My understanding is that Virtual PC will not run under Windows running under Parallels, correct?
What I mean is that Parallels Desktop can convert Virtual PC virtual machines to our own format. The solution I posted above will help you use Virtual PC images in Parallels Desktop for Mac VMs. And yes, Virtual PC will not run inside Parallels Desktop VM - we do not support "double" virtualization.
I guess I'm not following... Lacking a physical PC running windows, how do I "boot the images in Virtual PC" as you suggested above?
