Having a Mac gives you the option of being able to enjoy OS X and Windows. The options offered by OS X to do so are:
- Bootcamp: included in the system, create a partition with Windows and when booting you choose what to use, Windows or Mac.
- Virtual machine: a program must be used. The best known are Parallels and VMWare. What they do is create a virtual machine so that being on Mac you can use Windows as if it were another application.
What we are going to discuss in this article is how to create a virtual machine using the Windows that we already have installed through Bootcamp, so that with a single installation of Windows we will have the advantages of a virtual machine and a dual boot. My preferred program is Parallels 8, based on performance and available options.
Create the Virtual Machine
It is a very simple procedure, you just have to install Parallels and run it. When executing it for the first time, it will ask us to indicate which virtual machine we want to create. Since we already have a partition with Bootcamp and Windows 8 on it, we are going to use it for our virtual machine. We select "Use Windows from bootcamp" and click on Next. The process is automatic and we don't have to do anything.
Configure the Virtual Machine
We already have our virtual machine created, and now what we are going to do is configure it for optimal operation.
In the Parallels window we press the sprocket on the lower rightThe configuration window will appear in which I will only talk about the options that I modify, the rest I leave as they come by default.
In the General tab we can change the name of the virtual machine, and we can indicate how much RAM we leave for our virtual machine, as well as the cores that we reserve for it. It is best to leave everything as is and give at least 2GB of RAM, but it depends on what you have.
We go to the options tab, and in "Start and shutdown" I recommend do not automatically start the virtual machine when launching Parallels, and the initial view in windowed mode. This way it will start only if you want it to.
In Applications I always mark the option "Show the Windows applications folder in the Dock" to be able to run applications as if they were Mac's own.
En Full screen I always use the top left active corner to exit full screen and use the full screen of Mac OS. This way it will behave like one more full screen application, occupying a desktop.
Finally, in the Hardware tab the video memory optionLike RAM, you can adjust it according to your needs.
These configuration options are only indicative, obviously each one has its own, but what I do recommend is that if you don't know exactly what you do, leave them as they come by default.
More information - Install Windows 8 with Bootcamp on your Mac (IV): Compatibility Software
If I create a virtual machine from the bootcamp that I had previously but later I delete the bootcamp partition, will the virtual machine created by parallels be deleted?