Can I "suspend" or "pause" the VM and still log out of Mac OS?

S

snsokstan

Member
After using Parallels for years, I just discovered the Pause and Suspend functions, which are very handy.
I am using Win 10 in the VM and my Mac runs the latest update of Sierra MacOS. I use FileVault to encrypt my HD.

Question: Is it possible/safe to suspend or pause my Windows VM and then log out of MacOS without shutting down. I want to leave my drive encrypted when I am away. Will the suspended or paused VM survive a logout? Will it survive if I shut down? Not having to shut down Windows will save a LOT of time!
 
I am far from an "expert" in Parallels, but have been using it for a while. If you do searches here you will find several responses - usually from the "tech" people advising a complete shutdown of the VM, not using the Suspend mode - feel it is "safer" - but then again Windows users are also advised against it, but most - especially laptop users do it all the time. I have gone back to using it, though I will occasionally do a full shutdown and restart just to clean out any crap in the VM/Win10 memory (I read somewhere that was a good idea - don't have a clue if that is true). I have also done a complete shutdown and restart of my iMac after using the Suspend mode and never had an issue with the VM machine afterwards. However I do not just log out of my iMac as I am the only user - I shut it down if I will be away from the machine for more than a day or so.
As I said, I am far from an expert, so take this with whatever grain of salt you wish - or wait for someone else's opinion.
 
@SWANDY Thanks for the user experience. Since I posted the question, I've tried suspending and logging out with no apparent injury to the VM (taking the precaution to keep a fresh copy of the .PVM on an external drive.
I didn't see an earlier posting about this when I searched but I will look again.
 
snsokstan said:
After using Parallels for years, I just discovered the Pause and Suspend functions, which are very handy.
I am using Win 10 in the VM and my Mac runs the latest update of Sierra MacOS. I use FileVault to encrypt my HD.

Question: Is it possible/safe to suspend or pause my Windows VM and then log out of MacOS without shutting down. I want to leave my drive encrypted when I am away. Will the suspended or paused VM survive a logout? Will it survive if I shut down? Not having to shut down Windows will save a LOT of time!
Click to expand...
Yes, you will be able to suspend the VM and log out or shut down your Mac then resume it when the Mac is running again. But we suggest our users to restart Windows once in a week or bi-weekly or whenever you notice Windows got updates.
 
SWANDY said:
I am far from an "expert" in Parallels, but have been using it for a while. If you do searches here you will find several responses - usually from the "tech" people advising a complete shutdown of the VM, not using the Suspend mode - feel it is "safer" - but then again Windows users are also advised against it, but most - especially laptop users do it all the time. I have gone back to using it, though I will occasionally do a full shutdown and restart just to clean out any crap in the VM/Win10 memory (I read somewhere that was a good idea - don't have a clue if that is true). I have also done a complete shutdown and restart of my iMac after using the Suspend mode and never had an issue with the VM machine afterwards. However I do not just log out of my iMac as I am the only user - I shut it down if I will be away from the machine for more than a day or so.
As I said, I am far from an expert, so take this with whatever grain of salt you wish - or wait for someone else's opinion.
Click to expand...
We are happy to see your active participation here. Yes, shutting down the VM will release the RAM occupied by Windows and also if Windows got any updates restarting the VM will apply the updates and restart necessary services.
 
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