02-05-2021



VirtualBox is a free alternative to Parallels or VMWare that seems to have most of the same functionality, but takes a little more user intervention to get set up and make run properly. It runs on MacOS, Windows, and Linux, and in principle, most of what’s below is independent of the host OS, but these specific notes were used to install it. Parallels and Virtualbox are virtualization solutions from parallels inc and Oracle, formally Sun Microsystems. While most Virtualization systems are based on similar principals, they use incompatible file format and tools. Virtualization tools are used to allow advanced functions such as copy and paste between the host and the virtual machine. Dead rising 2 pc product key generator. Unlike VirtualBox, Parallels Desktop is easy to use and seamlessly lets you run Windows and Linux. There’s no experience required. It's much easier to install and configure Windows—plus, Parallels Desktop supports Retina displays. You don’t need to know what settings are required. You can even examine their overall score (9.0 for Oracle VM VirtualBox vs. 8.7 for Parallels RAS) and overall customer satisfaction level (N/A% for Oracle VM VirtualBox vs. 100% for Parallels RAS). Take your time and review your best options and see which one is best for your company.

I saw the Mac / Linux users wanted thread by Erel and wondered what Parallels was. A slight bit of research later and it seems to be fairly close to VirtualBox. (At least if we ignore enterprisey features, which I suspect aren't overly interesting to the majority of the users of this forum.)
I'm just curious, why would you want to use the commercial Parallels instead of free and open source VirtualBox?
For what it's worth, I've obviously never used Parallels but I have used VirtualBox several times over the years. Windows has always installed and run without any issues.

My Parallel Desktop subscription ended again when today I was trying to use my Windows VM to test out a page on IE.

Over the last 12 months I had only been using vm for very limited reasons, and probably ended up only opened Parallel Desktop for twice. A $99 renew for maybe another two times open of it just does not make senses to me. So I decided to find a cheaper or free alternative. Luckily I found VirtualBox, which is free and open source.

As I already have things setup in my Parallel Desktop VMs, so it would make sense if I can reuse them instead of creating new machines. So this article is just a quick note about the process.

Get Disk File

The disk file is the only file that is needed for VirtualBox, as all the OS System and your own documents are already there, VirtualBox just needs to serve as a container to run it.

Parallels To Virtualbox

To get the disk file from Parallel Desktop, on Mac OS, they are usually under ~/Parallels/*.pvm. The .pvm are the VM files for Parallel Desktop, to get the Diskfile for each vm, just right click each .pvm file and select “Show Package Contents”:

Import parallels to virtualbox

Inside the package, you will find a .hdd file:

Right click the .hdd file and select “Show Package Contents” again:

the .hds is the file that we need.

Copy it out and rename is with what you want to but with file extension of .hdd;

I usually just copy it to the VirtualBox folder:

Create New VM in VirtualBox

Slack mac os x download. Next step is easy, in my case it’s Ubuntu. So open your VirtualBox and Select “New”:

Input The new VM name and select the System info based on your situation, and “continue”:

Select RAM size:

In the “Hard disk” step, we need to select “Use an existing viryual hard disk file”, and click the file icon on the right hand:

Click the “Add” button and select the “.hdd” file we copied from Parallel Desktop. Adobe after effects mega.

After you select the file it will show up in the list. Confim you have it selected and click “Choose”, then click “create”.

Virtualbox Disk Image Download

Parallels export to virtualbox

Then the VM is created, it should show up the list vm list in the left side of the main VirtualBox screen.

Select your vm and click the “start” button to give it the first run. It works for me right away for both Windows and Ubuntu.

Install Guest Addition

By default your vm will just run in a little window and will not adjust its resolution with the window size. To solve this problem, we just need to click “Device > Install Guest Additions” on VirtualBox menu when a VM is running. It performs as an extra disk was insert to the VM so that the vm can run the program.

Export Parallels To Virtualbox

Base on your system, it should usually just pop up installation prompt after you click that button. After installation you will be ask to restart, that will usually solve the resolation right away.

Parallels Export To Virtualbox

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