First up, my apologies if this has been addressed elsewhere - I hunted and hunted but couldn't find anything. I am brand new to both Parallels and the Mac. I bought a box version of Parallels after being told that the current release candidate would allow me to access Boot Camp through Parallels. Now I find that this seems to be for US owners only. [Not at all pleased with this - what are we, second-class virtual citizens? I can understand why they might not want to release multiple language versions of a beta, but at least give everyone the chance to mess up their systems for themselves if you're going to actively promote it!] Um. On to the problem in hand. Given that it seems I can't use the RC as I had intended to, I have been looking for a way to get Boot Camp running under the 1970 release. The RC page says it features "Better Boot Camp support - Using your Boot Camp partition in Parallels Desktop is now easier than ever." which would seem to indicate that it's possible with the commercial releases, if perhaps a little unwieldy. I installed Parallels this morning on my MacBook Pro and that all went fine. I escaped out of the VM setup wizard - and found that Parallels seemed to have detected the install of WinXP already on my machine (courtesy of Boot Camp) - but it couldn't recognise a hard drive, CD drive or floppy to boot it from. I did discover the screen to add these in, but of course it creates a separate hard drive file and I don't know how to associate this with my Boot Camp partition. So finally, my question - can anyone point me to directions on how to set up Boot Camp to run through Parallels release 1970? I've searched these forums and I've searched on Google and haven't been able to find anything at all. To say the least, it's been a REALLY frustrating morning! Any help anyone can provide (even if it's only "It can't be done") would be most appreciated. Thanks.
You can go to http://www.parallels.com/profile/ and register for 30 day trial key which could be used to participate in beta program. Once beta program is finished you will recieve your non-US GA version which will have Boot Camp support functionality. Build 1970 doesn't support Boot Camp. I apologize for inconvinience.
Thanks Andrew - and for the swift response. Unfortunately 30 days doesn't fix my problem (indeed would only increase the frustration) so I'll have to just keep using Boot Camp and await the official release of the beta functionality - any sort of vague ETA on when this might happen (I don't mind how vague)? And is there any sort of petition I can sign to get non-US registered folk included properly in beta programmes or at least being able to download repeat trial keys? To avoid future confusion, it might be wise to see if the description of the RC saying "Better Boot Camp support" can be changed to make it clear this is 100% a new feature, and that your press releases (e.g. at http://www.parallels.com/en/news/id,10614 which states "The Parallels Desktop for Mac Update, which is free for all registered customers") make it clear that some registered users will only be able to download time-limited copies - it may indeed be free, but for non-US users, it's not actually useful yet :-/ Grumbles aside, apology most gracefully accepted, hurrah for Parallels' free updates policy & I shall keep my eyes peeled like grapes for the official release of the Boot Camp upgrade.
minim, Which exactly local Parallels build your are using? I know that US GA is planned for mid February and UK will follow very soon. I don't have exact info about European builds, but they also will follow soon. BTW: We periodically clear history and allow to request more than one 30 day trial to allow you participate in beta without interruptions until GA.
Hi Andrew - UK (at least I'd assume so - I can't see any indication anywhere, but it was bought from amazon.co.uk). If it's going to be that soon, then that's fantastic. I might as well give it a go - I was thinking it would be further off. Thanks!
OK. I've downloaded the RC and got it working and yes, it's absolutely gorgeous - even running Photoshop CS! It hasn't asked me for an activation key at all yet, and seems to have retained the activation info I put in previously. Please excuse my ignorance (this is probably something really really basic which I just haven't dealt with as I hadn't tried setting up a separate VM before) - does this mean it will ask for an activation key at some point, or does this seem to indicate that amazon.co.uk is actually selling boxed US versions?!
I think you actually bought US version since you was not asked for activation key. So you can keep using RC with permanent key and then upgrade to GA which will work with the same key
Mysterious! I assumed as I'd bought it in the UK that it'd be a UK version. But absolutely fine by me
