This tutorial will guide you every step of the way through installing Windows 7 on your Mac using. Parallels Desktop for Mac allows you to run other Operating Systems (like Windows 7) in a virtual environment, while OS X is running at the same time. Though Windows 7 won’t run as fast in Parallels Desktop as it does, it is a very easy way to get Windows 7 running on your Mac. • If you’re using New Virtual Machine. Click Continue.
• On the Operating System Detection screen, select either the Real CD/DVD-ROM Drive option if you have Windows 7 burned to DVD (and make sure the disk is in your DVD drive). If you’re using an.iso image, select CD/DVD Image, click the Choose button, navigate to your Windows 7.iso file, select it and click OK. When you’re ready, click Continue.
Now Parallels has gone and released a much-improved Toolbox v3 for Mac and Windows and it’s become a fully-fledged standalone suite of useful tools. You still receive all the regular modules.
• The automatic detection will probably fail. From the Type: drop-down, select Windows. From the Version: drop-down, select Windows 7 (experimental). Click Continue. • From the Virtual Machine Type window, select Custom and then click Continue. • Choosing the Number of CPUs: will depend on your Mac. I opted for 1, which is always a safe bet.
You’ll want to allocate at least 1GB (1024MB) of RAM for your Virtual Machine, as Windows 7 will run quite slowly if you set it any lower. Click Continue. • Select New image file on the Hard Disk Options screen, and once again click Continue.
• Specify a size for your virtual hard drive, and select Expanding disk (recommended). This will allow you to create a file that grows in size as you add files and programs to Windows 7, rather than creating the full “size” of your virtual hard drive immediately. Yet again, click Continue. • Select Shared Networking (Recommended) as the Networking Type and click Continue. • On the Optimization Options screen, select Virutal Machine (Recommended) if you want Windows 7 to have more resources while it’s running, or Mac if you want OS X to have more resources while Windows 7 is running. Click Continue. • Finally, enter a name for your virtual machine (something ‘obvious’ like “Windows 7” would be ideal).
If you want to enable File Sharing and User Profile Sharing, leave those boxes checked. Click the small arrow next to More Options and decide if you want to have a launch icon on your Desktop for Windows 7, and if you want to share your virtual machine with other users on your Mac. When you’re ready, click Create. • Again, the same as in step #2, select Real CD/DVD-ROM Drive if you’ve burned Windows 7 to DVD (and make sure it’s in your DVD drive) or CD/DVD Image if you’re using an.iso or image file of Windows 7. Click Done to begin the installation. • Windows 7 will begin loading files and start the installation.
• Select the appropriate language, time and keyboard layout for you. Click Next to continue installing Windows 7. • Click the Install now button. • Setup will initiate and take a moment or two to do its thing. • When you’re presented with the Software License Terms, place a check in the I accept the license terms box, and click Next. • Click the Custom (advanced) ‘button’ when asked which type of installation you want.
• You should only have one option on the Where do you want to install Windows? If you have more than one, make sure to select the one that is the size you specified back in step #7 and has the idental number in the Free Space column. Again, click Next. • Go grab yourself a cup of coffee. It’ll take a while for Windows to install itself.
Windows 7 may reboot itself during this process. • After the actual installation, you’ll need to setup Windows 7 itself. Enter a username and computer name in the spaces provided. • Set a password and password hint, and click Next. • Enter the Product key that was provided with your copy of Windows 7, and unless you don’t want to activate Windows when you’re online, leave the box checked.
![Mac Mac](http://www.giga.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/parallels-desktop-12-windows-mac.jpg)
• For now, click Use recommended settings. They can always be changed later. • Make sure your time and date settings are correct, then click Next. • The final part of the setup will prepare and create your desktop. • And now, finally, Windows 7.