Trying to create win 7 image

[jblake86]

I have a mac that I am trying to create an image for. A friend that moved away had created a win 7 that held a pvs file, but when I make the win 7 all i have is Windows 7.pvm. I have bought macs for my entire family and want to move that configured win 7 machine to all of them on the same network. Can I just copy the pvm file and open it on their machines? Also how do I configure the machine to have specific hd space and such? I was thinking that is what the config file was for? Any help is appreciated

 

[joevt]

The .pvm file is actually a bundle (or package). A bundle is a folder with a special flag set so you can't view the contents normally. Most Mac applications are bundles. To view the content, right click it, and select View Package Contents. Inside the bundle is the config.pvs file which has all the settings for the virtual machine. The config.pvs file points to the virtual hard disks (.hdd) which are usually also inside the .pvm but don't need to be. You can copy the .pvm to other machines.

Hard Disks are configured in Parallels Desktop. Go to Virtual Machine -> Configure -> Hardware -> Hard Disk. A virtual machine usually only has one Hard Disk called "Hard Disk 1" but you can add more. I don't think there's any reason to modify the config file manually.

When you run the .pvm on each Mac, it would be a good idea to change the Computer name. Also, if you're using Bridged Networking, make sure they all use different MAC addresses and IP addresses. Finally, each installation of Windows will need a different Windows 7 product key. You can change the product key by following the instructions on the Microsoft website.