Installing Parallels XP build on multiple machines

H

heimi

Bit poster
I have a number of MacBook Pro's to deploy, all with Parallels of course, and I don't want to have to build and configure XP on each of them one by one.

Is there a methodology that will enable me to take the winxp.hdd file from the master build machine and stick it on all the other machines? What needs to be done?

Thanks
 
Consult an msce, they are suppost to know this, but basicly you gen up XP in a special mode which allows to set-up and isntall things without enterning a CD-key. Then you can just copy the .hdd over to all the machines. On first boot they will activate.
 
do you have XP corporate or does your XP require activation when you install it ?

You should be able to copy the .pvs and .hdd file around machines and just use an XP product key changer (that can be found by a simple google search) to change the key on each install if necessary.
If you have XP Corporate, then just copying the files should be fine as the product shouldnt require activation and the same key should be valid for as many seats as your licence agreement covers you for.
 
We have proper corporate XP licences so activation is not an issue. the Bombich site looks to be a useful resource - I will go and have a read....
 
in which case, you can just copy the XP folder from /Users/home/<username>/Library/Parallels around all the machines you want it on. Install parallels on them and then boot the vm image. Remember to change the computer name on the different machiens and youre all set to go. Ive been doing it at my office for a while now.
(oh.. footnote: make sure you set the permissions correctly on each machine you copy the image to.. If you dont give the user write permissions, lotsof nasty things happen ;) )
 
Darkone, do you have a PC domain in operation at your place? Do you bind the Parallels PC's to the active directory?

I am wondering if Windows stores unique info behind the scenes which will confuse the AD if I deploy multiple instances of the same image?
 
I've tried that: you can take an image, move it to another machine, authenticate to AD, and use the image on another intel mac. It just works.
 
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