Restricting a Virtual Machine Configuration with a Custom Password

Parallels Desktop Business Edition provides you with the ability to protect the configuration of a virtual machine with a custom password. When a password is set, even a local Mac administrator will be required to enter it in order to modify virtual machine settings.

Using the Parallels Desktop graphical user interface to set the password

To set a password in the Parallels Desktop graphical user interface:

1. Open Parallels Desktop and select a virtual machine.
2. On the Parallels Desktop menu bar, select Actions > Configure to open the virtual machine configuration dialog.
3. Select Security .
4. Click the Custom password: Turn On... button.
5. Enter a password, then enter it again to verify and click OK .

To change or remove the password:

• To change the password, click the Change Password button and follow the instructions on the screen.
• To remove the password, click Custom password: Turn Off and follow the instructions on the screen.

If the password is set and the user tries to view or modify the virtual machine configuration, they will be required to enter this custom password.

Using the command line utility to set the password

In addition to the graphical user interface, you can use the prlctl command-line utility to set, reset, and view the password protection of a virtual machine.

To set the password, type the following command in Terminal:

prlctl set "vm_name" --password-to-edit

where vm_name is the virtual machine name in quotes.

You'll be asked to enter a password and then confirm it.

Please enter a new password:

Please confirm password:

To change or remove the password, type the following command:

prlctl set "vm_name" --password-to-edit

where vm_name is the virtual machine name in quotes.

You'll be asked to enter the current password.

lease enter current password:

You will then be asked to enter and confirm a new password. To remove the password, leave the line blank and press Enter twice (when asked to enter and confirm the password).

Please enter a new password:

Please confirm password:

To view the current protection status, type the following command:

prlctl list "vm_name" -i

The output will look similar to the following:

Encrypted: no

Edit restricted: yes

Using the mass deployment process to set the password

If you are mass deploying Parallels Desktop and one or more virtual machines, you can set the password in the deploy.cfg file. The password will be applied to all virtual machines included in the deployment package.

For more information, please see Mass Deployment of Parallels Desktop and Virtual Machines . Specifically, the password is set in the Virtual Machines section of the deploy.cfg file using the vm_password_to_edit parameter, as described in Configure Deployment Configuration Options .

Compatibility with Other Parallels Desktop Versions

The described functionality works only in Parallels Desktop 7 or later. If you set a password in a virtual machine and then open the virtual machine in an earlier version of Parallels Desktop, the protection will NOT work (i.e. the user will be able to view and modify the virtual machine configuration).

You can only set or remove the password in Parallels Desktop Business Edition. However, if the password is set and the virtual machine is opened in the Parallels Desktop Home Edition, the password will continue to work (i.e the virtual machine configuration will remain locked).