The Parallels Workstation window displays an opened virtual machine and a set of visual tools for managing its behavior. If a virtual machine is not started, only its configuration and resources, i.e. connected devices, are seen. This is called property page view
. See Property Page to learn more about this. When you start the virtual machine, its console is opened and acts as the display of a real computer.
Controls available in both property page and console view are the following:
The status bar is described in a separate topic; see Status Bar.
Toolbar
Toolbar buttons are used to:
Most of the toolbar buttons become active when you start the virtual machine. When the virtual machine is stopped, only the Power On button is active letting you start the machine.
If you click a toolbar button it becomes visibly pressed reflecting the current virtual machine state. On the picture above, the Power On and the Property Page View
buttons are pressed, that means firstly, the guest OS is running and, secondly, you are looking at the virtual machine's property page.
By default the toolbar is located to the right of the Parallels Workstation window. You may place it at the top, at the bottom, or to the left of the window if you'd like. Parallels Workstation will keep this toolbar position next time you launch the system.
To change a toolbar position:
Simplifying Parallels Workstation Window
You can simplify the Parallels Workstation window by hiding some of its components such as the toolbar and status bar.
To hide the toolbar/status bar:
You can make them visible at any time with the same action. Visible window elements are marked with check marks.