Though the name for the feature is different, for Parallels, it is Coherence, for VMware, it is Unity and in VirtualBox, it is called Seamless Mode. When you open an app in this mode, it allows you to basic edit functions, like copy and paste between Mac and Windows app. Also, you can change the size and move apps. Windows Apps On Dock.
Guest blog by Sylvester Sebastian Nino, Parallels Support Team
While working with Parallels Desktop and helping our customers, I often go through our knowledgebase as the best source of product-related information. For instance, recently, I helped a customer over the phone convert his virtual machine from VirtualBox to Parallels Desktop by simply going through the steps listed in the related KB article. Everything worked as expected.
It was then, while helping the customer, that I finally noticed the views count–wow, that’s a darn popular article! I hadn’t known how interesting this question is to our customers. Now that I know, I decided to write a blog about it to make all the steps even clearer. So let’s do it! Read on for the instructions on how to convert your existing VirtualBox VM to Parallels Desktop.
- Parallels Desktop comes with 24/7 phone, chat and email support. Subscription licenses come with phone, chat and email support available for the lifetime of the subscription. Perpetual licenses come with 30 days phone and chat support, email support is valid for 2 years since the product release date. Parallels Desktop for Mac.
- The Official Cyber Monday Mac Bundle featuring Parallels Pro & Luminar 4 is valued at $1266 but is available for just three weeks at the sale price of $69.99. For an even more limited time, you.
- Whether you need to run Windows programs that don’t have Mac versions, or you are making the switch from PC to Mac and need to transfer your data, Parallels Desktop has you covered. Seamless Use Windows side-by-side with macOS (no restarting required).
I’m not going to take a lot of time to tell you why you should switch. Simply put, it’s everything. Functionality, stability and, of course, the variety of the features and cross-platform interaction. Instead, let me jump straight to the point.
Step 1
Before converting your VirtualBox to Parallels Desktop, delete the snapshots (if any) in your VirtualBox VM. Snapshots could interfere with the process of conversion. Then shut down your VM.
Step 2
Install Parallels Desktop. You will see the New Virtual Machine Wizard once it’s set up:
Step 3
Click on the Parallels Desktop icon at the top of the navigation pane and select Open from the dropdown menu. Select your VirtualBox VM—you can simply type in “.vbox” in search box.
The Parallels Wizard will now show you the expected VM name and location (which you can change) and will prompt you to click Continue.
Step 4
Now Parallels Desktop will convert your VirtualBox VM to its format.
Believe me or not, but…that’s it! Parallels Desktop will now start your VM and automatically install Parallels Tools—please don‘t interrupt this process. It has to complete on the first VM start.
As you can see, converting VirtualBox to Parallels Desktop couldn‘t be easier! I hope this post was useful, and don’t forget to follow Parallels Support on Twitter.
Last updated April 3, 2018
The Apple Device Enrollment Program (DEP) is a crucial building block for the modern macOS deployment workflow. When configured correctly, Apple DEP enables a business to purchase new Apple computers that automatically configure themselves, install necessary software, and enroll in an MDM upon unboxing and first boot- without hands-on intervention by DevOps or IT.
Before a business goes live with Apple DEP, a validation phase typically takes place. This allows a business to become comfortable with the DEP process as well as confirm that their DEP account and MDM configurations are working as expected.
Testing a DEP workflow can be time consuming. The workflow can only be tested when a device starts up and is initialized for the first time. As a result, using virtualization software such as VMware Fusion, Parallels Desktop, or VirtualBox is often much more practical than reinstalling the OS on a Mac computer after each test. Most, if not all virtualization software supports snapshotting, allowing a user to “roll back” their device state to a designated point in time. This makes it easy to revert a macOS image to a point just before the initial DEP process begins.
Through working with our customers and our own internal development efforts, we’ve put together a guide that we’d like to share with you.
First: Your Mileage May Vary
It is worth stating that using DEP and MDM with virtual machine technology can be rather finicky and exhibit odd behaviors not seen when testing with physical devices. For this reason, we do not recommend using DEP or MDM with virtual machines in any capacity beyond workflow testing. As examples, if a FileVault configuration isn’t working or a device is not enrolling over the MDM user-channel, it may be due to using virtual machine technology.
Additionally, we cannot recommend using VirtualBox at this time. We’ve provided more information on this below.
Creating a Virtual Machine
To get started, you will need to create a virtual machine. Various methods exist for creating an initial macOS virtual machine, some specific to a particular VM technology. Here are a few useful resources that walk through the process:
- Parallels Desktop:Creating a DEP VM using Parallels Desktop (jerbecause.wordpress.com)
- VMware Fusion: How to create a VM that’ll work with DEP on VMware Fusion (rderewianko.com)
- VirtualBox: How to create a macOS High Sierra VM to run on a Mac host system (tobiwashere.de)
A Common Gotcha: Invalid Auto-Generated Serial Numbers
MacOS expects the serial number of the device it is installed on to be alphanumeric. If you plan to link your VM to Apple DEP, you will be setting the serial number of the VM to be equal to the serial number of a real Apple device, so this will not be a problem.
If you are not specifying the serial number of the VM yourself, note that some VM technologies generate a serial number with special characters. For instance, a serial number similar to “fZjdIehS/ds+” can be generated by VMware. If the VM has a serial number that is not alphanumeric, macOS will appear to enroll with an MDM, but will ultimately not complete the process or be able to communicate with the MDM to receive configuration or further commands.
Linking to Apple DEP
Upon first boot, macOS presents the user with the Setup Assistant. Once an internet connection has been established, macOS contacts Apple to determine if the device is configured for DEP. When the device contacts Apple, it provides its device serial number as a form of identification. Apple, in turn, provides the device with a DEP configuration if available. This DEP configuration is fairly minimal; it specifies basic configurations like whether the device is to be placed in supervised mode and if it should enroll in an MDM.
Since the serial number acts as the device identifier for DEP, the virtual machine you create will need to be configured to use a serial number that exists in your DEP account. We suggest using a serial number for a computer that is no longer in use, or at the very least, has a low likelihood of being wiped at any point, since using the serial number in a test DEP workflow would invariably cause the device to also enter the workflow.
Below are configurations for each virtual machine technology. Replace [SERIAL] with the serial number of the device. “mac_hw_model”, at this time, does not need to be accurate for the provided serial number.
Be sure to use straight double quotes and not curly quotes.
Parallels Desktop
Shut down the VM. Within Parallels Desktop, visit the configuration screen for the VM image, select the “Hardware” tab, and navigate to the “Boot Order” option. Expand the “Advanced Settings” disclosure and enter the following in the text box:
VMware Fusion
Shut down the VM. Locate the VM file on your computer. These, by default, appear in “~/Documents/Virtual Machines/”. Right click the file and select “Show Package Contents”. Within the resulting window, locate a file with a “vmx” extension and open it with a text editor. Add the following lines:
VirtualBox
Note: VirtualBox’s network virtualization appears to work quite differently than Parallels and VMware and causes macOS to have issues contacting DEP during the Setup Assistant. As a result, we have found VirtualBox to be quite troublesome to work with when testing DEP and advise against it.
If you wish to try anyway, the following VBoxManage command line interface command can be used to set the serial number of the VM. Note that “[VM NAME]” must match the name of the virtual machine that you are modifying:
Snapshotting Before Setup Assistant
Parallels For Mac Activation Key
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126273373/487249818.jpg)
A DEP configuration effectively acts as a bootstrap. It provides a device with enough configuration to complete the Setup Assistant and enroll it with an MDM. That is the extent of its responsibility. As a result, Setup Assistant contacts Apple DEP exactly once during the initialization process. If you change your DEP configuration at any latter, the device will not receive the updated configuration.
It’s important to snapshot the virtual machine image before Setup Assistant has a chance to contact DEP. Because most VMs have access to internet at boot and do not have to wait for WiFi credentials, the outreach to DEP can occur very early on in the Setup Assistant process, before progressing past the first screen.
Parallels For The Mac
We recommend taking a VM snapshot before the Setup Assistant becomes visible. This can take a bit of practice; it is easiest to take a few snapshots while the VM is still installing macOS so that you can revert to a previous point and have a second chance to take a “closer” snapshot if needed. Additionally, we have found that reverting to this snapshot is sometimes not enough. With Parallels in particular, we revert the snapshot and then immediately “reset” the VM. Without a reset, we sometimes see old cached DEP data or a company name of “(null)” during the Setup Assistant screens.
Parallels For Mac Activation Key 15 46967
Wrapping It Up
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