After weeks of struggling, thanks to Nikita at TechSupport, I managed to get Parallels to work. Technically, I would say it is a "workaround" as the software is "designed" for single user. Problem: When installing WindowsXP the first time under Parallels, the default behavior of Parallels is to install the Parallels folder in ~/Documents/ with permission only for the current user. You log in as another user and try to launch the Parallels application and Parallels goes to the new user's Documents folder and fails to find a VM so it automatically goes into the "Install new OS Assitant" without giving the user an option to "show" Parallels that there is a VM already on the Hard drive. At this point, the user cannot get to the Preferences of Parallels to show it the path to the VM. If you dismissed the Install new OS dialog box, Parallels quits. Even placing a Symbolic Link in ~/Documents/ to the Parallels folder does not work inspite of setting permissions to Read/Write for everybody. Somewhere deep in the code of Parallels is hard coded for Parallels to look for the VM in ~/Documents/. User manual appears to be half written. There is actually a page (150) with the heading of MultiUser. But it is like the writer wrote it half way and went off to the bathroom, came back and forgot to finish writing. Solution (workaround): 1. Do what the manual said to do. As the user who installed Parallels, move the Parallels folder in ~/Documents/ to /Users/Shared/ and change permissions to allow everyone Read/Write access. 2. Lauch Parallels by double-clicking the .pvs file in the VM folder. eg /Users/Shared/Parallels/Microsoft Windows XP/Microsoft Windows XP.pvs That is the only way to gain access to Parallels Preferences after you moved the folder. Otherwise, the only way is to create a Symbolic Link for the Parallels folder and drag it to the ~/Documents/ folder and rename it "Parallels". Once you get into Paralles Preferences, under General, you can change the path to /Users/Shared/Parallels 3. Do this for every user account that you wish to allow access to Windows. I found it essential to have the Symbolic Link contextual menu item installed on my Mac during this frustrating process. It is free and can be downloaded here for those of us allergic to the dreaded Terminal window: <http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17655> Hope this saves others the grief I went through. Hope Parallels developers finally realized that THE DEFAULT BEHAVIOR OF ALL MAC OS X SOFTWARE IS TO INSTALL IT FOR ALL USERS OR AT LEAST ASK IF THE USER WISHES TO HAVE IT BE INSTALLED FOR ONLY ONE USER. Charles Ying Stressed in Hawaii
