Upgrading from Parallels Deskop 4?

Yes...one of my clients is running Parallels Desktop 4 on his OS 10.6 systems. Time for some upgrades! I am concerned about Parallels 10 and what will happen with his existing Windows 7 VM. What will happen if we upgrade to the latest version of Parallels? Obviously they will need some OS upgrades first but again my main concern is their existing VM's.

I was joking with the client that there probably isn't even anyone working at Parallels that knows anything about v4!



Thanks...

 

Hi Eric,
If your client install Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac, you do not need to reinstall Windows or create a new virtual machine. You can use your existing virtual machine.
However, before installing Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac we need to check the below details:
1. Mac OS (Host) compatibility : http://kb.parallels.com/114381
2. Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac system requirements http://kb.parallels.com/122662
If your client going to install latest version of Mac OS X and then install Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac, it is recommended to take a complete back up of the Virtual Machine.
1. How to do a Manual backup? You may simply back up entire Virtual Machine by copying its .pvm file to another place on your Mac HD or to external hard drive. By default the Virtual Machine .pvm file is located in: Mac HD/Users/Username/Documents/Parallels or Mac HD/Users/Shared/Parallels
Note: make sure you shutdown Windows VM before you take a back up.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.

 

So Parallels 10 will be able to read/upgrade the .pvm files from v4? That was my primary concern, when the existing configuration was so old. I will certainly capture a backup of the existing VM. But once I upgrade to Parallels 10 I'll be in deep doo doo if that VM won't launch. Its not like I can go BACK to Parallels 4.

 

Yes, As I mentioned earlier, you do not need to reinstall Windows or create a new virtual machine. You can use your existing virtual machine and it is recommended to take a complete back up of the Virtual Machine.