LABS GALLERY: Parallels Eases PC-to-Mac Transition with Parallels 4.0 Switch to Mac

Installing the Parallels agent on the Windows PC (in my tests, a ThinkPad x40 running Windows XP) is the first step in the migration process.

During collection, applications and data files are enumerated and prepared for migration from the PC to the Mac.

Here you see the process from the PC side.

On the PC side, I got a message at the end of the migration process indicating a successful move.

On the Mac side, a confirmation message indicates the successful transfer of the PC system.

I have just one virtual machine on this test system. Parallels Desktop can support other virtual machines running Mac OS X, Linux and various flavors of Windows.

This is the dormant Windows XP system.

During initial startup, the test machine was automatically configured by the Parallels Desktop application.

The only manual configuration required during the initial configuration process was a log-in to my Windows system.

The virtual machine running Windows XP was configured successfully by Parallels Desktop just after the migration process completed.

This is what my Windows XP desktop looked like running on the PC.

Here is what my Windows system looked like running under Parallels Desktop on the Mac. Applicatoins and networking worked right from the start on my test system, including VPN connectivity over my wireless network.

A Windows message from some of the ThinkVantage utilities gracefully indicated that they would not run on this platform.

Since the source computer was a laptop it used battery information to manage power. Battery information was not available to the virtual machine since it is now being handled by the host Mac system.