VirtualBox (Recommended): 4Help's Get Connected program highly encourages the use of a VirtualBox image. To Configure and Use Parallels 15 ($50) Which Program: VirtualBox (Recommended), Boot Camp, or Parallels. Historically, VirtualBox’s “free” price tag has come with a significant performance hit compared to the commercial options. This year, we’re looking at the newly released Parallels Desktop 10and VMware Fusion 7, but we’ve also tested VirtualBox, free software from Oracle that provides a significant level of functionality. To get the disk file from Parallel Desktop, on Mac OS, they are usually under /Parallels/.pvm. STEP 2: This is the tricky part, you can use Virtual Box to convert a vdi to an iso, but you have to do it from the terminal.
The disk file is the only file that is needed for VirtualBox, as all the OS System and your own documents are already there, VirtualBox just needs to serve as a container to run it. Create a VM normally in VirtualBox (or use an existing one), install the operating system, and add any programs or files you want to have readily available on the bootable disk.In the Parallels main manager, select the VM you want to convert, right-click, and select ‘show in finder’ Step 2 – Uninstall Parallels tools In parallels, to be able to have better screen resolution, connect to the external host etc, you install ‘Parallels tools’ – this is your gateway if you like to the host. Get Windows from Microsoft or install freely available operating systems such as Ubuntu, Fedora. Now you can create a new virtual machine for Mac, including a Windows VM on Mac. Reinstall patches (Service packs) and updates. It will basically reinstall windows and configure it for your new hardware (virtual hardware). Go through until you get to the select a partition, select the existing partition, and choose repair. Open Parallels Desktop.app from the Applications folder and choose File » New. Shutdown the virtual machine and boot up from a windows CD.