Although Parallels Workstation lets your guest OS access your computer's video card, network cards, and other hardware, it also simulates its own set of PC hardware (Key Terms and Technologies topic).
If you've installed Windows (except 3.1), Solaris, OS/2, or eComStation, Parallels provides special add-ons called Parallels Tools that improve some hardware components and add helpful extra features. For example, they let you:
Note: In a Solaris guest OS, a network driver is required to support networking in a virtual machine.
Parallels Tools can be easily installed manually after completing the guest OS installation.
Installing Parallels Tools in a Windows guest OS is described below. For other guest OSes, please refer to the Creating Virtual Machine->Installing Parallels Tools section of the Parallels Workstation 2.2 User Guide, which is available through the Help->Contents menu in the menu bar.
Installing Parallels Tools in Windows
To install Parallels Tools in a Windows guest OS, do the following:
You can install the Parallels Tools only if the guest operating system is running and you are logged in. If you are not logged in now, select Cancel and run Parallels Tools installation later.
" If you are logged in, click OK to start installing. complete
setup and a custom
one. The complete setup installs all of the tools available for your guest OS. If you select custom setup, the Select Components screen asks you to select the desired tools from the tools available for your guest OS.When you receive the following message: "Parallels Tools installation contains a number of unsigned drivers. These drivers are required for proper functioning of Parallels Tools. Currently your system is configured to warn you every time an unsigned driver is installed. Do you want to receive these warnings during Parallels Tools installation?
" click OK to disable the unsigned driver warnings during Parallels Tools installation. They will re-enabled later when the installation will be complete.
Note: In Windows 98 and Windows NT some drivers require additional steps to perform after this setup. Please refer to the Creating Virtual Machine->Installing Parallels Tools section of the Parallels Workstation 2.2 User Guide, which is available through Help->Contents in the menu bar.
Troubleshooting When Installing Tools
Parallels Tools installation is invoked by the Windows AUTORUN feature for the CD/DVD-ROM drive. It is enabled by default, however if you have disabled it manually, nothing happens after you select the Install Parallels Tools command. (In either case, the vmtools.iso
CD image will be connected to the virtual machine CD-ROM drive, however it is not visible to the user.) To solve this problem do one of the following:
Open the contents of the vmtools.iso
in Windows Explorer, find PrlTools.exe
file, and start it.