.VMCX Compatibility

I have an idea for a possible feature for Parallels. I don't know how applicable/possible it is, but I think it's worth at least brief thought.

So I installed Windows 7 Professional recently. I'm dual-booting it on a 2008 Unibody Macbook. I've also played around with using Parallels to virtualize that same Windows 7 install inside of OS X. Just now, I tried using Windows 7's "XP Mode" while booted into Windows.

XP Mode is basically a virtualization client, just like Parallels. It creates a virtual disk with user-specified parameters and then virtualizes the disk. So I thought, "wouldn't it be cool if I could run this XP virtual disk from Parallels while I'm in OS X?" It'd be great, because I would then have two different Windows VM's at my disposal for the price of one. I'm a student in web design, and it'd let me test browser compatibility in IE6 and IE7 without having to even restart my computer. I know there's other ways of doing it, but I always feel that it's a little more authentic if you actually boot up the OS and use the actual browser instead of something simulating the rendering engine.

The thing is, Windows's virtualization program saves the XP virtual disk as a .VMCX file. I've never heard of that extension in all the virtualization research I've done, and due to Microsoft's habit of creating proprietary filetypes and sofrtware (every OS does it, it's just how they work), I'm guessing this is a new kind of VM filetype. However, if Parallels was able to run that type of virtual disk, all it would take to run it from OS X is access to the directory where it's stored. This directory is, by default, in the Windows user's document's folder and is called "Virtual Machines".

I know that out of the box, a dual-booted NTFS partition is meant to be read-only from OS X's side. I guess that's the biggest reason why this probably wouldn't be applicable. In my setup, I'm using Macdrive and NTFS-3G as drivers to access Mac from Windows and Windows from Mac, respectively, so I don't have that problem. So in my situation, if Parallels for Mac could virtualize a .VMCX file, it would be completely possible for me to go into the NTFS partition and run the .VMCX virtual disk.

I guess I'm not using a typical setup, so I don't know how useful it would be to add this feature to Parallels. However, I would be thoroughly impressed if it was possible! When I got a Mac, one of my goals was to see how well you could integrate OS X with Windows and other operating systems, and Parallels has definitely added a whole other dimension to this project.

 

Migrating XP Mode under Mac

I am trying to do the same thing. Used Parallels Transporter to move XP mode to a hard drive, then installed it on Mac. All that went fine. When I start the new virtual machine though it prompts for a license. I enter a valid XP Pro license key and it rejects it.

Any ideas? Is it possible to migrate an XP Mode virtual machine (under Windows 7) to Mac using Parallels?