#LIGHTWEIGHT WINDOWS VM ON MAC HOW TO#
#LIGHTWEIGHT WINDOWS VM ON MAC FULL#
#LIGHTWEIGHT WINDOWS VM ON MAC WINDOWS 10#

The next screen asks for the name of the virtual machine and where it will be located. All of this changeable later on, of course, but the whole idea with Parallels is ease of getting up and running, and so, these auto-configurations will hold true most of the time if you select the appropriate use case. Since every virtual machine has its own set of configurations in terms of allocated RAM, video memory, CPU and storage, Parallels will auto-suggest a VM configuration based on the usage pattern that you identify during this part. The next screen will ask you for your primary usage of this Windows installation, where you have options to pick from Software Development, Software Testing, Designing, Productivity and Gaming. If you have an existing virtual machine file available, you may add that to set it up with Parallels, too. You can either set up a new Windows installation or migrate Windows from an existing PC, along side a number of free resources including automatic downloads for Chrome OS, Linux, Android or even OS X installation from a recovery partition, to name a few. Here, you actually get a bunch of options. Launch Parallels Desktop and since you donвЂ™t already have an existing virtual machine, the software will automatically go to the new VM setup screen. To set up Parallels Desktop, you need to first download the software and obtain an ISO of the Windows version that you want to run (along with product key, of course, just like youвЂ™d do with a normal Windows installation). At the core of it, Parallels creates a virtual machine that can either run as a separate interface carrying your Windows installation, or can even seamlessly integrate with Mac courtesy of its вЂњCoherenceвЂќ mode, which is a great solution if you just need a few specific Windows apps running as part of your regular OS. Parallels has made a name for itself for being (arguably) the best way for running Windows on a Mac.

#LIGHTWEIGHT WINDOWS VM ON MAC HOW TO#

HereвЂ™s How to run Windows on Mac Parallels Desktop

#LIGHTWEIGHT WINDOWS VM ON MAC WINDOWS 10#

For the purpose of this article, weвЂ™ll be talking about 64-bit Windows 10 Professional running on a Macbook Pro 13вЂі with Retina display, having a Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. Note: The requirements for running Windows on a Mac varies with different systems and the versions of Windows OS that youвЂ™re attempting to employ.

#LIGHTWEIGHT WINDOWS VM ON MAC FULL#

I fully acknowledge that I am not the only one facing this dilemma either, and so this article here outlines the best ways to either run a full blown version of Windows on your Mac, or run Windows programs whilst staying inside OS X. When I migrated to Mac a couple of years ago, I never really looked back, but despite my bias toward OS X as a superior operating system, the need to run Windows applications was inevitable.

Lightweight windows vm on mac