Windows 8 Update - Critical and Urgent Windows 8 Service Advisory

Update: 10-31-12

Important Service Advisory
Upgrading to Windows 8

Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac Customers:

We have completed our testing of the upgrade to Windows 8 process. Be sure that you are using the very latest build of Parallels Desktop 8 before upgrading your virtual machine. To be sure you are on the latest build, go to the Parallels Desktop menu and click Check for Updates.

There are some changes to the Windows upgrade process depending on whether you are upgrading from Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7. We have created a guide that will help you understand what to do and what to expect. We strongly recommend reading this before you upgrade.
http://kb.parallels.com/en/114985

As always, we recommend creating a backup of your virtual machine before you do the upgrade. That way if anything goes wrong or if you want to go back to your older version of Windows, you can delete the new virtual machine and go back to using your original virtual machine.
http://kb.parallels.com/en/8829

Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac Customers:

We are continuing our testing of Windows 8 in Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac and are hoping to have this completed shortly. We suggest that you subscribe to this thread so that you will be notified of any updates we have regarding Windows 8 upgrades.

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Below is critically important information to help you successfully enjoy Windows 8 on your Mac. Please read this entire notice, as it may affect your computer’s performance.

If you are planning on upgrading from an existing Windows OS to Windows 8, we strongly suggest waiting until Parallels has finalized testing the upgrade process. Upgrading now may damage your virtual machine, causing you to lose all your data, files and Windows applications. We’re working hard on completing our testing of the Windows 8 upgrade, and will inform you via in-product notification when you can successfully upgrade to Windows 8. In the meantime, please subscribe to this KB below to be notified of status updates.

If you are planning on performing a full install of any of the Windows 8 versions into a new virtual machine, this should work just fine. KB114973 has the steps to smoothly and effectively add Windows 8 to your Mac. Be sure that you are using the very latest build of Parallels Desktop 8 to create this new virtual machine. To be sure you are on the latest build, go to the Parallels Desktop menu and click Check for Updates.


Update: 10-25-12

Parallels has released an update for Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac. Please make sure you are running the most updated version, 18305.811918. To ensure you have the latest update, click the Parallels Desktop Menu and select "Check for Updates..."

 

I am currently running Windows 7 and Windows 8 Release Preview on my iMac (Mtn. Lion 10.8.2) using Parallels 8 VM. I intend to migrate Windows 8 Release Preview to Windows 8 RTM at the earliest opportunity. I will not be upgrading Windows 7 as I with to keep that OS. Is it safe to upgrade/migrate Windows 8 Release Preview or do I need to wait for Parallels 8 updates for that too?

 

Hi rxcasts -

Parallels will also be looking at this path in our testing.

Chris

 

Update: 10-25-12

Parallels has released an update for Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac. Please make sure you are running the most updated version, 18305.811918. To ensure you have the latest update, click the Parallels Desktop Menu and select "Check for Updates..."

Chris

 

Is the upgrade bug of Windows 8 fixed in build 18305?

 

Chris - can you confirm whatever update bug to windows 8 has now been fixed in the latest update?

 

toshi3, AndresC,
which bug exactly do you mean?

 

This one:

 

The "Critical and Urgent Windows 8 Service Advisory" indicates that users should not update to Windows 8. Chris subsquently indicated an update to Parallels was released, but gives no mention as to whether it is now safe to go ahead with an upgrade to Win 8.

 

It's safe now on build 18305, and we even have an instruction how to do it in a safe way: http://kb.parallels.com/en/114985

 

You should probably update the original KB to indicate that it is now safe to go ahead with latest update:

http://kb.parallels.com/en/114973

 

We're doing it right now, thank you

 

I updated Parallels 8 then ran the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant on Windows 8 Release Preview to see if everything was a go. Everything is compatible except for the following:

Secure Boot isn't compatible with your PC; Your PC's firmware doesn't support Secure Boot so you won't be able to use it in Windows 8.

Anyone else getting this? I have an Intel iMac (early 2009) and am running OSX 10.8.2. I have the most current update on Parallels 8. I have been running Windows 7, Windows 8 Preview Release and Ubuntu 12.04 without a problem.

 

Guess I got Lucky. I performed the upgrade back in early October using Version 7 of Parallels and my Win8 environment seems to be working just fine for the most part. I have since upgraded my Parallels Version is now current with lastest patch applied. The only issue i've run into is how to shut down the machine from within Windows.

Cheers

 

So I'm apparently unlucky. I went ahead and did the update and my Win8 VM is now simply black after the login screen.

In full-screen mode, Ctrl+Alt+Del pops an error that "the sign in process couldn't display security and sign in options [...] press escape or reboot". Pressing escape seems to create a CMD.EXE prompt that I can't interact with.

Anyone got *any* ideas? I've tried warm and cold restarts of the VM, warm and cold restarts of my Mac.

No Windows for You!

 

Entiat,
thank you for feedback, we do appreciate it!
To investigate the issue we need some technical information, so could you please reproduce it, send us Problem Report as described in http://kb.parallels.com/en/9058 and give me an ID?

Thanks in advance,
Hanna

 

Renaming virtual machine after upgrading to Windows 8?

Since it was only $39.99 to do so, I successfully updated (upgraded) yesterday from Windows 7 to Windows 8. (Thanks Parallels for making this so easy.)

While it's not that big a deal, I was wondering if it is easy to rename my virtual machine from "Windows 7" to "Windows 8"?

It's not that big of a deal (since I'm the only one that uses this computer and I know it's Windows 8 now) but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Apologies if this is discussed elsewhere - I did do some searching and didn't find anything.

 

You can rename a VM when it's stopped, Virtual Machine menu > Configure > General.

 

shared folders missing?

I created a VM with the Win 8 preview and then upgraded to the full version on Win 8. Everything works great in Win 8, but I can't find any shared folders. In my Win 7 VM, there's the /psf that is perfect for sharing files between the VM and OS X, but that folder is no where to be found in the Win 8 VM.

I've got all the sharing boxes checked and have rebooted the VM. Any ideas?

 

I suggest you reinstall Parallels Tools from Virtual Machine menu --> Reinstall Parallels Tools