Boot Camp Win7 VM: Constant hardware changes

T

Tim Wilson

Bit poster
Hello,

I'm interested in installing a Boot Camp Windows 7 partition and also running it as a VM in Parallels Desktop 10, but I have a question.

When in boot camp, Windows has access to the machine's full memory, and (I assume) a different set of hardware drivers than when being run in Parallels. Does this result in Windows recognizing the hardware change each time you switch from boot camp to Parallels or from Parallels to boot camp? If so, does this come with undesired behavior, such as Windows wanting to reactivate itself, or Windows reconfiguring itself (requiring a restart or other annoyances)?

Otherwise, I absolutely love the idea of being able to run Windows with the convenience of Parallels, but also having the easy option of booting into Windows so that it can have the machine's full resources.

Thanks,

Tim
 
Also, I have software licenses that are the network card's MAC address. Will the MAC change when switching between boot camp and parallels?
 
I am trying to use a trial version of Parallels for Mac with my dual-boot (BOOTCAMP) Windows 8.1. That should (and to some extent does) let me run Windows in one of two ways: either natively (via dual-boot) or through Parallels access to BOOTCAMP. Every time I switch between the two modes (by rebooting in the Windows-BOOTCAMP or ordinary Macintosh partition), I have to re-authorize Windows 8.1. So far Microsoft support has been no help -- they just try to walk me through the authorization process again. I have tried re-setting the MAC address used by Parallels for its "virtual" Ethernet to the actual physical MAC address of the machine (as seen by either Yosemite or when running Windows natively). I thought that might fix the problem, but it did not. I can't get Parallels phone support because I am trying to decide whether to buy the product. Has anyone actually made Parallels work with a BOOTCAMP partion Windows dual-boot system? (I will repost this in a different thread because Windows 8.1. users might not find it with its current title.)
 
Changing the Mac address alone wouldn't do it, except maybe for some software licenses like I have that are based on the physical Mac address. Windows 7 (and 8 also, I imagine) look for many different types of hardware changes, including processor speed, available ram, and hard disk size. Since the amount of available ram will undoubtedly change each time you switch from Boot Camp to running in parallels, I don't see a way around this.

unfortunately, for me this is a dealbreaker (not for using parallels, since I already own it and use it every day) for using a Boot Camp installation of windows with parallels. It's a shame too, because I would love having the extra speed afforded by booting natively into windows.

Thanks for clarifying my concerns that windows would freak out each time you switched between Boot Camp and parallels.

Please let me know if you find a solution.
 
Tim: Thanks for the follow-up. I don't know if there is a way around the licence problem with Windows. The Parallels info at http://kb.parallels.com/en/9703 says that Microsoft "should not" require two licenses. When I called Microsoft Tech support, they said that I shouldn't need two licenses, but they couldn't find away around the fact that Windows 8.1 kept demanding re-activation. They said there must have been a problem with my Windows installation, but in the process of trying to re-install Windows for me, they managed to corrupt my Bootcamp partition. The folks at Apple helped me safely remove the corrupted partition,so I'm back to square zero. (This was a new computer that did not yet contain important files, but reinstalling my Windows applications will be a pain!) I'm trying to decide what to do next. If anyone out there reading this has solved this problem or submitted a problem report to Parallels regarding this issue, please weigh in. I thought the BOOTCAMP+VM solution would be the best of worlds, and I will soon free up another Windows 8.1 license when I trash my ancient tower computer, so I could still try it. However, I'm not sure there wouldn't be other software license issues. Also, I'd like to put a good automatic backup system in place (something I should have done a long time ago!) and a dual boot system would pose some problems since only one system would be online at a time. There a few programs I need that can only run in Windows, but they are office-style or software-development style applications that do not need super performance. I am leaning toward a purely VM solution right now, and keeping only programs (no data files) in the Windows Virtual Machine file system. That way Time Machine (and possibly Time Capsule, if I correctly understand - I'm new to Mac) could go a long way toward a backup strategy. I would augment by periodically storing really important files somewhere in a cloud (in case of house-on-fire type problems), soething I already do. I gather from your response, Tim, that you have had some success using Parallels with Windows in a purely VM mode. I would be glad to have your comments. If you don't think they belong in this thread, you could start a new one on the subject of Windows on Parallels Virtual Machines. Thanks again, Ray.
 
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