General Preferences

In the General pane of Parallels Desktop Preferences, you can:

• change the default location for storing the folders with the virtual machine files
• choose the appearance of the Parallels Desktop icon
• select whether you want to use animations for some actions in Parallels Desktop
• set preferences for the frequency of the update checks

Note: The settings available in this pane can be configured individually for each user of your Mac.

Changing the Default Folder for Virtual Machines

The Virtual Machines Folder field displays the default location where Parallels Desktop stores the files and folders of all virtual machines you create on your Mac. You can change the default location. To do this, click the Virtual Machines Folder field and either choose a new folder from the list of available folders or click Choose a folder and navigate to the necessary folder. After changing the default location, all newly created virtual machines will be saved in the folder specified in the Virtual Machines Folder field. However, this does not affect the files of virtual machines that already exist: their files will remain in the original default folder.

Dock Icon

This option defines what type of icon will appear in the Dock when Parallels Desktop is open. The following types of icons are available:

• Parallels Desktop. The standard Parallels Desktop icon appears in the Dock.
• Live Screenshot. If you choose this type, the Dock icon will appear as a live screenshot of the virtual machine window.

Note 1: No matter what type of the Dock icon you choose, if you click this icon when you virtual machine is working in the Coherence mode, the Windows Start menu will open.

Note 2: If the Do not show Parallels icon in Dock option is selected in the Coherence pane of the Virtual Machine Configuration dialog, the Parallels icon will not be shown in the Dock when the virtual machine is working in the Coherence view mode.

If you select the Use Start button icon in Coherence option, Parallels Desktop will display the Start button icon in the Dock when the virtual machine is working in the Coherence view mode. If you click this icon, the Windows Start menu will open.

Using Animations

If you select the Use animations option, the virtual machine window will become animated when the virtual machine is paused, suspended, or shut down.

Check for Updates

The Check for updates section defines the policy for updating the Parallels Desktop software. By default, Parallels Desktop is set to automatically check for available updates once a day, provided that Parallels Desktop is launched and your Mac is connected to the Internet. You can specify another interval for checking for updates by selecting the necessary value in the Check for updates list. The following options are available:

• Once a day. Select this option if you want Parallels Desktop to perform the update check every day.
• Once a week. Select this option if you want Parallels Desktop to perform the update check every week.
• Once a month. Select this option if you want Parallels Desktop to perform the update check every month.

Select the Download updates automatically option if you want all new available updates to be downloaded at once without showing you the Download dialog.

You can also check for available updates manually at any time you want by clicking the Check Now button:

• If any updates are available for you version of Parallels Desktop, you will see them in the Download dialog. Choose the updates you want to install and click the Download button.
• If your version of Parallels Desktop is up to date, you will see the corresponding message.

Locking Parallels Desktop Preferences

If you want to prevent Parallels Desktop Preferences from further unauthorized changes, click the Lock icon at the bottom of the window. The next time anybody wants to change the settings in any pane of Parallels Desktop Preferences, an administrator's password will be required.