How to make VM for Windows 11 smaller than 256 GB?

Discussion in 'Installation and Configuration of Parallels Desktop' started by BillS19, Oct 23, 2025.

  1. BillS19

    BillS19 Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    I have a new MacBook Air with a 512 GB disk. I installed Parallels Desktop 26 with Windows 11 and it defaulted to 256 GB, half my hard drive space. I would like to reduce it to 64 GB, but the slider bar only goes down to 256, and I cannot enter a number smaller than 256.
    I saw another post where there was a recommendation to downgrade to Parallels 20, resize the hard drive, then go back to Parallels 26. When I downloaded from the link provided, and did the install, it automatically took me to the Windows 11 installation.
    Help?
     
    BillS19, Oct 23, 2025
    #1
  2. Keshav Dosieah

    Keshav Dosieah Staff Member

    Messages:
    27
    Hello,
    Thank you for your post.
    Please note that the Windows 11 virtual machine will not actually use up 256GB of your hard drive after you create it. The size of the virtual will be much lower when the virtual machine is created.
    The Windows 11 virtual machine has a dynamic/expanding hard drive, this means that the virtual machine's hard drive size will keep increasing as you add applications and files inside the Windows 11 virtual machine.
    Since the default value is 256GB, this means that the size of the virtual machine can grow till that amount, but just after the creation of a new Windows 11 virtual machine, it should only take about 20GB on your Mac's hard drive.
    If you have already created a new Windows 11 machine, you can check how much space it is actually taking, to do that:

    1. Right-click on the Parallels Desktop icon in the dock > Control Center.
    2. Find the Windows 11 machine > Click the Settings icon.
    3. Go to the General Tab and on the bottom left, you will see the real size the virtual machine is taking on your Mac's hard drive.

    If you would specifically like the hard drive to be defined at a lower amount, we recommend that you create a support ticket via the Get Support Section of your Parallels Account and our colleagues will assist you further to manually create a Windows 11 machine with a smaller hard drive.

    Regards,
    Parallels Team
     
    Keshav Dosieah, Oct 29, 2025 at 2:00 AM
    #2

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