Set up Parallels Desktop from a Windows ISO Image

This chapter describes a special case of setting up Parallels Desktop on a Chrome device using a Windows ISO image instead of a prepared virtual machine. Using this approach, you need to upload a Windows ISO image to your corporate storage and specify a link to it in the Google Admin console. When the Parallels Desktop setup is initiated on a Chrome device, the ISO image is downloaded to it and the user installs and activates Windows as they normally would on a PC.

You can use this deployment scenario if you are a small company or a company that would like to enable Parallels Desktop for a limited group of users, such as system administrators or developers, who know how to install and activate Windows and who would like to customize the installation according to their needs.

The configuration consists of the following steps:

1. Upload a Windows 10 ISO image to your corporate storage.
2. In the Google Admin console, perform the steps described in Configure Parallels Desktop Settings. The only difference is you need to specify a link to the Windows 10 ISO image, not the Parallels Desktop virtual machine.
3. Enable the command line as described in Disable or enable command line for users.

The Parallels Desktop setup on a Chrome device is almost identical to the procedure described in Set up Parallels Desktop on a Chrome device. The difference is, when Windows starts in the virtual machine, you will see the standard Windows Setup screen from where you install and activate Windows as you normally would on a physical computer.