YES YOU CAN run Windows on a Mac!

The Obama administration ran into a few problems last week as the new staff took their seats in the White House offices. The Obama staff are used to running Mac computers, and the White House is full of nothing but Windows machines; a problem which left some of the staff unable to check e-mail, use instant messaging or even properly route phone calls. Here's an excerpt from the Washington Post article:

One member of the White House new-media team came to work on Tuesday, right after the swearing-in ceremony, only to discover that it was impossible to know which programs could be updated, or even which computers could be used for which purposes. The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software. Laptops were scarce, assigned to only a few people in the West Wing. The team was left struggling to put closed captions on online videos. 

Sometimes even the most devoted of Mac users need access to Windows software, and Parallels has a way to pitch in. I'd like to point our good friends in the White House to the free trial of Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac - the perfect way to solve the crisis of OS depression. Contact us directly if we can help any further. We want to do our part. The new administration has enough to tackle right now, leave this one to us!

Comments

[Dave Hanley]

I recently tried to get a corporate image of XP for my Parallels and was rebuffed. The company is hyper careful about security (as most are), and their image is focused on the drab Dell laptops it was made for. So I just installed my own copy.

Does anything need to be done to be able to image Macs easily with 2 operating systems running parallels? How about remote management?

[Crazyblog]

In the moment i´m using vmware fusion 2.0 for xp on my mac powerbook pro, but i´m don´t know it´s would be faster, to using windows 7 with parallels. Can you help me? I´m writng currently on http://www.crazylifeblog.de a Test about Parallels.

[Sheila Runyon]

Installed Parallels on Mac Book, then registered with Vista which I never installed because friends said to use Windows XP, sp3.

Now have Windows disk in hand. Do I just go ahead and install? or do I need to remove Parallels with the Vista registration? then install Windows and re-register?

Thanks for your help!

[Sean Gibbons]

Hi Sheila,

You can install Windows XP in a new virtual machine. Once Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac is installed, you can create and delete as many virtual machines as you'd like, each with their own operating system (assuming you have enough hard drive space).

There's a list of current VMs set up by Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac under the Virtual Machine List, which you can see by alt-clicking (or right-clicking) the Parallels Desktop icon in your dock. There's also a little "+" sign in the corner of that list to set up a brand new VM.

I hope that answers your question!

[Adam]

I am attempting to install Windows XP from a copy an original install disk that is in a folder on my Mac Desktop. I have burned it to CD using Toast 8 and Parallels doesn't recognize it as OS disk. I also have converted it to a disk images using Disk Utility and it still doesn't recognize it to start the install on XP. The original disk is good since I just used it to reinstall XP Pro on another PC. So, Other than getting back the original install disk, which I don't have access to anymore, what could I look at doing to get this to work?

[Marilyn Taillon]

I have Microsoft Office for Mac. When I use Windows on Parallels, do I need to buy a second subscription of Office?

[Sean Gibbons]

Unfortunately yes, Marilyn, if you want to run Office on the Windows side you'll need to get the Windows version. They're different programs entirely.

[annettetaylor]

Really we can run Windows on a Mac. If it's the truth so that the good information.