Starting, Stopping, and Resetting a Virtual Machine

Starting a Virtual Machine

To start a virtual machine, do one of the following:

• Click the Start button near the virtual machine name in the Parallels Virtual Machines dialog. For detailed information on this dialog, see Parallels Virtual Machines Dialog .
• Right-click the virtual machine name in the Parallels Virtual Machines dialog, and choose the Start option.
• Double-click the virtual machine name in the Parallels Virtual Machines dialog, and click the Start button in the Parallels Desktop toolbar.
• Click the virtual machine in the Parallels Virtual Machines dialog, and choose Start from the Virtual Machine menu.

After starting the virtual machine, it will boot into the guest operating system installed in this virtual machine. If no guest operating system is installed in the virtual machine, Operating System Installation Assistant will start.

Note: 1. You can start virtual machines only if your copy of Parallels Desktop is activated. See the Activating Parallels Desktop section for details.

2. You can manage the virtual machine content without starting the virtual machine with the help of Parallels Mounter .

Stopping a Virtual Machine

To turn off the virtual machine, use the standard shutdown procedure of the guest operating system installed in it, or click the Shut Down button in the Parallels Desktop toolbar. If the guest operating system cannot be shut down for some reason or other, you can forcibly stop the virtual machine by doing one of the following:

• clicking the Stop button in the Parallels Desktop toolbar or
• choosing Stop from the Virtual Machine menu.

Warning: If you forcibly stop the virtual machine, you may lose all unsaved data.

Resetting a Virtual Machine

If some program error has caused your virtual machine to hang, you may wish to reset the virtual machine.

To reset the virtual machine, do one of the following:

• Choose Reset from the Virtual Machine menu.
• Click the Reset button in the Parallels Desktop toolbar. If this button is absent from the toolbar, refer to the Customizing Toolbar subsection .

Warning: If you reset the virtual machine, you may lose all unsaved data.

Setting a Restriction on Changing the Virtual Machine State

If you select the Change virtual machine state option in the Security pane of Virtual Machine Configuration, you will have to provide your administrator password each time you want to start, stop, suspend, or otherwise change the virtual machine state.

To edit the security settings of your virtual machine:

1. Select Configure from the Virtual Machine menu to open Virtual Machine Configuration.
2. Click Options at the top of the Virtual Machine Configuration window and select Security in the list of options.