Upgraded to El Capitan before upgrading Parallels

I updated MacOS from Snow Leopard (10.6) to El Capitan (10.11). After the MacOS update and reboot, I received a message that my version of Parallels is not compatible with El Capitan so it has been moved to the "Incompatible Software" folder. So after a little Googling, it seems that I should have upgraded to Parallels 11 before I upgraded to El Capitan.

I have two virtual machines, one Win7 installation and one WinXP installation that I cannot afford to lose. The question is, what is the easiest way to move forward so that I have Parallels and El Capitan without losing my existing virtual machines? Can I upgrade Parallels directly from within El Capitan without wiping out the existing machines? If not, is there a way to downgrade El Capitan back to Snow Leopard and then upgrade Parallels?

 

Hi Paul, thank you for your response. A couple quick follow on questions ... most importantly, if I purchase and install a newer version of Parallels, will my existing virtual machine installations be preserved / re-used during the installation process or will that require me to re-create new virtual machines? Also, the marketing blurbs make it sound like Parallels 11 is "optimized" for El Capitan and Parallels 12 is optimized for Sierra. If I am going to be on El Capitan for a while, should I get Parallels 11 or 12.

Thanks,
Tim

 

Yes, you can use your existing virtual machine even after upgrading your Parallels Desktop. If you wish, you can backup your virtual machine before the upgrade. Parallels Desktop 12 is the only version available on the official website. Parallels Desktop 12 is optimized for Sierra that means it is compatible with El Capitan also.

 

Thanks Ajith ... was able to upgrade to Parallels 12 and access get access to my VMs again. Parallels upgrade went much smoother than MacOS update. Thanks again.