I’ve been running with Parallels for a while on my new Mac Intel system, and am really happy with it. But I really wish I could cut and paste between the Windows apps and the Mac apps, wish it would sync to the correct time, and so on. Is there some sort of Parallels equivalent to the old VMware “helper apps” that you’d install within the guest operating system? I’m running Windows XP.
There is indeed a helper application that you really do need to install if you’re running Parallels Desktop on your Intel Mac system, called, ingeniously enough, Parallels Tools.
To install it, start up Parallels Desktop on your Mac OS X system (if you don’t yet have this Intel Mac only tool, you can get a working demo copy of Parallels online: download the Parallels demo). You’ll need to have configured your virtual OS to include support for a CD/DVD drive, then log in to Windows XP as an administrator. If you don’t know what I mean, you probably are the admin for the WinXP system!
Now you’ll want to select “Install Parallels Tools…” from the VM toolbar that’s part of the Mac side of Parallels Desktop (that is, it’s not part of your guest OS):