- Start the virtual machine.
- Choose Run Parallels Compressor from the Virtual Machine menu. This will launch Parallels Compressor in the virtual machine.
- In the virtual machine, you will see the Parallels Compressor window that displays a time indicator. Click the Manual mode button to open the Parallels Compressor wizard.
Note: If you do not click the Manual mode button, when the time is out, the compression will be performed in the Express mode.
- In the Welcome window, click Next.
Note: If you do not want this window to appear next time you start Parallels Compressor, select Skip introduction next time.
- In the next window, select Advanced compression and click Next.
Note: If you choose Express compression, the compression will be performed in the Express mode after you click Compress.

- In the Select logical disk(s) window, select the disk volumes you want to compress and click Next.
Note: If you are not sure if the types of disks you selected can be processed with Parallels Compressor, see Preparing for Compression.

- In the Choose compression level window, specify the level for compressing the disk. Three compression levels are available: Low, Medium, and High. Each level suggests the execution of certain tasks. The tasks on these levels are indicated by different colors: red
is used for high-level tasks, yellow
for medium-level tasks, and green for low-level
tasks. For more information about the levels, refer to Parallels Compressor Basics.Drag the slider in the left part of the window to choose the appropriate compression level. Each level of compression has a fixed number of tasks.
You can also select or deselect certain tasks in the tasks list.
- To select all tasks, click Select all.
- To deselect all tasks, click Clear all.
- Click Set as default to restore the default selection of tasks for the chosen level.
When finished, click the Compress button.

- You can view the progress in executing the tasks in the Execution in progress window.
- In the Preparing to restart window, click Restart to restart your virtual machine.
- After the restart, the wizard is ready to resume the execution of the tasks. Click Next.
- In the next window, you can view the progress in performing the tasks.
- The wizard prompts you to start the disks compacting process, which is the final step of compression. Click Yes to perform the operation.
Note: If you want to skip this step of compressing the disk, click No.

- When the compressing is complete, click Finish to exit Parallels Compressor.