How to Run Parallels Compressor

Before Starting Parallels Compressor

Before starting the utility, back up your virtual machine by cloning it or by copying its hard disk files to a safe location. This will allow you to restore your virtual machine in case you do not like the results of the compression.

Warning: The result of virtual machine compression is irreversible.

To start Parallels Compressor:

1. Start the virtual machine you want to compress.
2. Log in to the guest operating system as a user with administrator rights.

   Note: To run Parallels Compressor in a virtual machine you must have administrator rights in the guest operating system.

3. Choose Run Parallels Compressor from the Virtual Machine menu.

Running Parallels Compressor

Parallels Compressor has the following running modes:

• automatic , the default mode. In this mode Compressor uses the default compression options.
• manual , Parallels Compressor runs as a wizard which helps you select the options of virtual machine compression.

When you start Parallels Compressor, you will see the dialog box with a time indicator. The time indicator shows the time remaining until Parallels Compressor will run in automatic mode (timeout is about 10 seconds).

To run Parallels Compressor:

• in automatic mode, do not do anything, just wait until the timeout expires.
• in manual mode, press the ESC key or click the Manual Mode button on the dialog box before the timeout expires.
• Detailed information about running Compressor in these modes is given in Parallels Compressor Help .

After Compressing Is Finished

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