Variable

Description

license_key

Specifies the Parallels Desktop license key. See Supplying Parallels Desktop License Key for more info.

Variable

Description

vm_register_mode

Specifies the registration mode for the deployed virtual machines.

Possible values:

"Private" — The virtual machines will be registered for the active user only. The virtual machines will be placed into the /Users/<user>/Documents/Parallels folder.

"Shared" — The virtual machines will be registered for all users of a Mac. The virtual machines will be placed into the /Users/Shared/Parallels folder.

The default destination folder for virtual machines can be modified using the vm_destination_folder variable (see below).

vm_reset_hwid

Specifies whether the virtual machine SMBOIS ID (hardware ID) will be regenerated. Each Parallels virtual machine is assigned a universally unique SMBIOS ID when it is created. When you deploy a virtual machine to many Macs, each resulting copy of the machine will have the same SMBIOS ID. This is the default behavior and should not be normally changed. If your enterprise management system relies on unique SMBOIS IDs, you can change the value of the vm_reset_hwid variable as follows:

"no" — Keep the original SMBIOS ID.

"yes" — Regenerate the ID.

vm_deploy_mode

Specifies whether the virtual machines will be copied or moved from the deployment package to their target folders on a Mac.

Possible values:

"Copy" — Copy the virtual machine from the package to the destination folder.

"Move" — Move the virtual machine from the package to the destination folder.

Before a virtual machine can be registered in Parallels Desktop, it needs to be copied (or moved) from the deployment package to a folder on the Mac. You can specify whether to use a Copy or a Move operation.

Copying is slower but must be used if the deployment package is read-only or is placed on a network share. The virtual machine file will not be removed from the package after it's been copied to a Mac.

Moving is fast and can be used when the deployment package is copied directly to a Mac. If the virtual machine destination folder and the deployment package are placed on the same mount point, the move operation completes almost instantly. The virtual machine is removed from the package as a result. Note that moving will be as slow as copying if the virtual machine destination folder and the deployment package are placed on different mount points.

vm_destination_folder

Allows to change the default destination folder for virtual machines. The default folder is determined by the value of the vm_register_mode variable (see above). The vm_destination_folder variable allows to change the default folder while keeping the selected virtual machine registration mode.

<VM_file_name>

This variable takes a name of a virtual machine file and allows you to change the destination location and/or name of the target virtual machine.

The virtual machines contained in the Parallels folder of the deployment package will be copied to a default location on a Mac, which is determined by the vm_register_mode variable (or the vm_destination_folder variable if is present). If you have more than one virtual machine in this folder, you can specify a different destination location and/or name for a specific virtual machine if needed.

To specify a different location, you need to define a variable/value pair as shown in the examples below. The variable name should be the same as the virtual machine file name (including the ".pvm" extension). The variable value should contain an absolute path where you want the virtual machine to be copied on a Mac. You can specify a different destination location, a different virtual machine name, or both. Note that only the specified virtual machine will be copied to the specified location. All other virtual machines will be copied to the default location.

Examples:

"Shared_VM.pvm"="/Users/Shared/Shared VM.pvm"

"Private_VM.pvm"="~/Documents/Parallels/Private VM.pvm"

The following three variables belong to the same sub-section which allows to customize the Parallels Desktop Control Center by displaying a custom HTML banner at the top of its window. For additional information, see Customizing Parallels Desktop Control Center .

control_center_banner_url

The URL of a custom HTML page to be displayed as a banner in the Parallels Desktop Control Center window.

To disable the banner, comment out the variable or specify an empty string as a value.

control_center_banner_height

The banner height, in pixels. The recommended value is 350.

To use the current value (if you are updating Parallels Desktop on a Mac), comment out the variable.

control_center_banner_min_width

The banner minimum width, in pixels. When resizing the Control Center window, its minimum width will be limited accordingly. The recommended value is 350.

To use the current value (if you are updating Parallels Desktop on a Mac), comment out the variable. To disable the minimum width limitation, comment out the variable or specify 0 (zero) as a value.

Variable

Description

start_pd_as_service

Specifies whether Parallels Desktop should run as an application or as a service.

The value of "yes" specifies that Parallels Desktop will run as a service. The service will start automatically on host startup and will stop on host shutdown. The service can be managed by launchctl (the standard OS X command line utility that allows to manage daemons, applications, processes, etc.).

The value of "no" specifies that Parallels Desktop will run as an OS X application. The user will have to start and exit Parallels Desktop manually.

Depending on whether Parallels Desktop is already installed on a target Mac or not, the following will happen:

- If Parallels Desktop is already installed on a Mac as a service and the value of "no" is specified, the new installation will set up Parallels Desktop to run as an application.

- If this option is commented out and Parallels Desktop is already installed on a Mac, no changes will be made to the way Parallels Desktop runs.

- If this option is commented out and Parallels Desktop is not installed on a Mac, it will run as an application.

Variable

Description

updates_url

Specifies where the updates will be downloaded from.

Possible values:

"Parallels" — Download the updates from the Parallels website over the Internet.

"None" — Turn off automatic updates.

<URL> — Download the updates from a local update server. The variable should contain a complete URL (in quotes) of the parallels_updates.xml file on your local Web server. For more information, please see Setting Up Local Update Server .

updates_auto_check

Specifies how often Parallels Desktop should check for updates.

Possible values:

"0" — never

"1" — once a day

"2" — once a week

"3" — once a month

updates_auto_download

Specifies the automatic update download options:

"on" — Download the updates automatically. This value should be specified when using a local update server.

"off" — Notify the user about the updates but don't download them automatically. This option is useful only when updates are downloaded from the Parallels website and the user has full control over the update functionality.

Variable

Description

support_url

Specifies a URL of a page that will be displayed when user selects the Help > Request Support menu option in the Parallels Desktop graphical user interface. To display the default message, specify an empty string (this is the default behavior). To display your own Web page (help desk, wiki, etc.), specify its URL. See also Customizing Request Support Option .

lic_admin_url

Specifies a URL that will be included in error message dialogs related to licensing operations. The URL should point to a web page or a resource that the user can visit to get help with the problem.

The error message appears when there's a problem with activating, renewing, or deactivating a Parallels Desktop license. If you specify a URL using this variable, it will be included in the message dialog in the form "For details click <URL>". If you don't specify a URL (comment out the variable or specify an empty string), the default "Contact your system administrator" message will be displayed.

Variable

Description

report_allow_screenshots

Possible values:

"yes" — Include screenshots of the OS X and the virtual machine desktops in Parallels Desktop problem reports.

"no" — Do not include the screenshots.

Variable

Description

cep_participation

Possible values:

"off" — participation in the program is turned off.

"on" — participation in the program is turned on.

See also Participating in Customer Experience Program .