New User/License, unable to create first Windows 11 VM.

I am a new user. I have a MacBook Pro running "Monterey" (12.6.5) with an Apple M1 Pro chip installed and 32 GB of RAM. I am using the latest version of Parallels (Version 19.1.0 (54729)) and I am trying to create my first Windows 11 VM... The first time, I created the VM by letting Parallels download the Windows 11 image for me. After 5 hours, the image was downloaded 100%, a new window came up, then it just disappeared, along with the Image. I tried it again, same result.... Just now, I finished downloading the Windows 11 "ARM64" image (I had to join the Microsoft Insider program). After 9 hours of waiting, whenever I try to use this image to install, I get all the way to where it gives me the choice to install or "customize" first (I have tried both options), the following Window appears for an instant then it disappears and just goes back to the previous window....

Please help.

 

hi @ShayneJ ,
Since the image has been downloaded, you can simply create a VM by following the steps below:
1. Click Parallels Desktop icon in Dock.
2. In Mac menubar click File > New. As a result, Installation wizard will open up.

3. Select 'Install Windows, Linux, or macOS from an image file' and click Continue > select the downloaded image and follow the on-screen instructions.
If the installation fails, you can open a support ticket at https://parallels.com/support and our engineers will be happy to assist you with that.

 

It fails... as I mentioned, it goes to the window that tries to install Windows 11 and then immediately comes back to the previous window.

I'm not certain I have time to pursue it anymore at this point, I was doing a "Spike" in our previous sprint to see if it was a viable alternative for all of our Mac Developers to use for "Power BI Desktop"..... We started a new Sprint today, so I'm not certain when I will have time allocated to investigate....

 

Here is what happens:













Then, it immediately goes back to the previous window. (I have tried different "Names", out the image in different paths, changed the "Save to:" to different paths, tried the "Customize settings before installation" checkbox, etc... It behaves the same way, no matter what.)

 

Adding my $0.02 and cross-posting from another sub forum:

I have been a long time user of Parallels. Tried to launch today, and the app hung at the resume suspended Window session. Lots of forced quits.
Finally uninstalled parallels and went hunting for all of the hidden files as well and then installed a fresh copy. After starting up and activating using an existing key, I was asked to download Windows 11, which makes sense since I trashed my VM image. Except the spinning beach ball appears and the app freezes again making me do a force quit.

I am on a MacBook Pro with a M1 max processor and running Sonoma 14.0. Since Upgrading to this Mac, while parallels would work, I would have VB applications launched from Excel freeze. Never got that sorted and was hoping a clean install would help. Now I am stuck. Since it seems that Parallels has shut down any support, are there third parties who are certified or knowledgeable that one can hire?

 

Hey @ShayneJ, I am very sorry to hear that you have this experience with our product. I have downloaded the same VHDX image Windows11_InsiderPreview_Client_ARM64_en-us_25977.VHDX and it is 10,33GB in size, automatically detected by Parallels Desktop as a Windows image:


I suspect that the image hasn't been fully downloaded on your machine, given that the size of the file is only 5,34GB on your screenshot. In your first post you also say "After 5 hours, the image was downloaded 100%" - this is way too much time to download a Windows image, usually it takes 10-15 minutes to download. Is it possible for you to try another network connection? I bet that the culprit of the issues you are experiencing is the network connection quality.

 

Hi @ShayneJ , if the issue happens again, a technical report generated at the moment of reproduction or right after it would be of much help to us to investigate how we can improve experience for the cases like this one going forward.
Instructions to collect a report are available at https://kb.parallels.com/9058. Once done, kindly share the report ID with us.