Starting a virtual machine automatically

This article explains how to configure your virtual machine to launch automatically when your Mac starts up.

Note: In contrast to the macOS virtual machines created to run on Mac computers with Intel processors, macOS virtual machines on Mac computers with Apple M series chips (macOS ARM VMs) are built using Apple's Virtualization framework, and all the virtual machines' components are managed by the framework. As a result, the configuration options for macOS virtual machines on Apple M series chips are somewhat restricted.

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Starting a virtual machine automatically in Pro and Business editions

Parallels Desktop Pro and Business editions allow setting a virtual machine to be started automatically when:

• Mac starts
• User logs in

Note: The option to start a virtual machine when the Mac starts is no longer supported with the release of Parallels Desktop 20. 

To start a virtual machine automatically based on one of the conditions above change its configuration in the following way:

1. Open the virtual machine's configuration.
2. Go to Options > Startup and Shutdown, then click on the Custom radio button and change Start Automatically option accordingly.
   
   
    
3. Close configuration window. Next time depending on its settings the virtual machine will start automatically.

Starting a virtual machine automatically in Standard edition

First we have to change the configuration settings of your virtual machine as :

1. Open virtual machine's configuration
2. Select Options Tab > Startup and Shutdown > Set the option Start Automatically as "When Parallels Desktop starts ".
   
   
    
3. Close configuration window and proceed further.

Then in order to have the Parallels Desktop Application to be started automatically whenever you start your Mac, please follow the steps below :

1. Log in as the user who wishes to have a login item or as an admin user.
2. Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu.
3. Choose Users & Accounts from the View menu.
4. Click the name of the user.
5. Click the Login Items button.
6. Click the "Add {+}" button.

The item you selected will automatically open the next time you log in.