Installing Office, or any program in Parallels

I purchased Parallels, 2.5, then shortly after upgraded to 3.0. I have only used it for seeing websites in Windows Explorer up until now. Tomorrow I have a job starting where I have to work in Powerpoint and would like to do it in Parallels on my Mac, rather than on my crappy Windows machine.

For the life of me I can't figure out how to install programs. Normally in Windows the programs start automatically, or you find the EXE file and play that. I have a disc of Microsoft Office 2000 Professional, the upgrade, in the drive of my Mac and cannot seem to get to the EXE files within inside of Parallels. How do I install Windows software inside of Parallels? I am running Windows Vista.

Thank you for any help in this matter.

 

Do you have the latest tools installed?

 

With your Parallels VM running, click Devices/CD/DVD-ROM 1/Connect to CD/DVD-ROM 1. When you have done this correctly, you will see a check mark by Default CD DVD Rom 1. After about 10 seconds you should see the cd drive in My Computer and you can use it just like you would on a stand-alone windows machine.

This will connect your CD drive to your VM (and disconnect it from OSX). You will not be able to use your CD Drive in OSX until you either reverse this procedure (un-check it), or shut down your VM.