Encrypting the Virtual Machine

Parallels Desktop allows you to protect your virtual machines from unauthorized use. If you store any important data in a virtual machine, you are highly recommended to encrypt the virtual machine and unauthorized users will have access neither to the virtual machine nor to its data.

Encrypting a Virtual Machine

To encrypt a virtual machine, follow these steps:

Make sure the virtual machine is shut down.
Choose Configure from the Virtual Machine menu to open the Virtual Machine Configuration dialog.
Go to the Options tab and click Security .
In the Security pane , click Turn On , specify a password, and click OK .

Warning! The specified password is very important. You must record it. Without this password, you will not be able to launch the virtual machine.

After that, the virtual machine will be encrypted. To start the encrypted virtual machine, you will always have to enter the specified password.

Changing Password for an Encrypted Virtual Machine

To change password for an encrypted virtual machine, follow these steps:

Select the virtual machine (but do not start it!) and choose Configure from the Virtual Machine menu to open the Virtual Machine Configuration dialog.
Go to the Options tab and click Security .
In the Security pane , click Change Password , specify a new password, and click OK .

Removing Encryption from a Virtual Machine

To remove encryption from a virtual machine, follow these steps:

Select the virtual machine (but do not start it!) and choose Configure from the Virtual Machine menu to open the Virtual Machine Configuration dialog.
Go to the Options tab and click Security .
In the Security pane , click Turn Off .

Important Information

If you clone an encrypted virtual machine, the virtual machine clone will be also encrypted.

If you convert an encrypted virtual machine to a template and then deploy it to multiple virtual machines, the resulting virtual machines will be also encrypted.

If you have two virtual machines using the same virtual hard disk (.hdd file) and then you encrypt one of them, the other virtual machine will have no access to this hard disk.

If you encrypt a virtual machine with snapshots and then revert to any of its snapshots, the virtual machine will remain encrypted. To start this virtual machine, you will have to enter the password that you specified during the encryption procedure.