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Booting via Parallels Virtual Machine

When you boot into the Boot Camp Windows partition for the first time, you may notice some problems with the mouse and keyboard. In this case, wait while Windows configures the driver settings to enable the devices. Follow the instructions on the first-time booting into Boot Camp partitions with Windows XP and Windows Vista.

To boot into Boot Camp partition with Windows XP:

  1. Start your Mac computer and boot into Mac OS X.

    Note: You may be prompted to authenticate using your Mac administrator account.

  2. Launch Parallels Desktop and start the virtual machine created for using the Boot Camp partition.
  3. You may notice some problems with the mouse and keyboard; do nothing, just wait until they become enabled.

    As soon as the mouse and keyboard are enabled, Parallels Desktop initiates the Parallels Tools installation.

  4. When the installation is complete, the guest OS restarts automatically.
  5. Upon booting, activate your Windows XP once again. You will have to reactivate it only once. Detailed information on how to activate Windows XP can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307890.

To boot into Boot Camp partition with Windows Vista:

  1. Start your Mac computer and boot into Mac OS X.

    Note: You may be prompted to authenticate using your Mac administrator account.

  2. Launch Parallels Desktop and start the virtual machine created for using the Boot Camp partition.
  3. You may notice some problems with the mouse and keyboard; do nothing, just wait until they become enabled.

    As soon as the mouse and keyboard are enabled, Windows Vista restarts automatically.

  4. Upon booting, Windows Vista may prompt you for your Windows user name and password. Log in as a user with the administrator's rights.
  5. The installation of Parallels Tools starts automatically.
  6. When the installation is complete, the guest OS will restart.
  7. Upon booting, activate your Windows Vista once again. You will have to reactivate it only once. Detailed information on how to activate Windows Vista can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940315.

Warning: In case you met an error not related to the guest OS while working with virtual machine using the Boot Camp Windows installation, restart this Parallels virtual machine before you try to boot via Boot Camp as usual.

Troubleshooting Windows XP That Misses Drivers

When booting into Boot Camp Windows XP via the virtual machine, you may get the message saying that Parallels Desktop cannot find necessary drivers. In this case, do the following:

  1. Boot into Windows XP via Boot Camp.
  2. Insert a Microsoft Windows installation disc that was used for this Windows installation.
  3. Locate the folder i368 on the disc and open it. Copy the following files: driver.cab and sp2.cab to C:\WIndows\Driver Cache\i386.

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