Preparing Windows image for installing and Configuring Parallels Desktop for Chrome OS Enterprise and Education Edition

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Read this article to learn how to prepare a Parallels Desktop Windows image for further deployment and configure the Parallels Desktop in Google Admin console.

Export the Windows Image

Once you have created and configured a Parallels Desktop Windows image, you need to export it as an archive and then make the archive available for download to Chromebook users.

To export a Windows image, in the Chrome browser, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open the crosh terminal. In the terminal, type the following command:

vmc export -d PvmDefault <ArchiveName.zip>

where:

Example:

vmc export -d PvmDefault Windows.zip

When you execute the command above, the following will happen:

Upload the Windows Image

Copy the ".zip" archive that you created in the previous step to a server with HTTP or HTTPS download access. End users will be downloading the Windows image to their Chromebooks from a storage server via HTTP or HTTPS. CDN is recommended for very large deployments.

Configuring Parallels Desktop Settings

Parallels Desktop settings in the Google Admin console control whether users are allowed to use Parallels Desktop and specify the Parallels Desktop Windows image properties.

To specify Windows image properties:

  1. Sign in to the Google Admin console.
  2. On the home page, click Devices.
  3. Click Chrome devices.
  4. In the left pane, select the organizational unit containing Chromebook users.
  5. In the navigation bar (at the top left), expand the drop-down menu and choose Settings.


     
  6. On the User & Browser Settings tab, scroll down and locate the Parallels Desktop section. To quickly find it, type "Parallels" in "Search or add a filter" at the top.



    Specify the settings as described below.

Parallels Desktop

Select Allow users to use Parallels Desktop from the drop-down menu. This enables users to download this Windows image and run Windows on their Chromebooks.

Parallels Desktop Windows image

Specify the image download location and the checksum:

Required disk space

Specify a free disk space limit (in gigabytes). The minimum recommendation is the size of the original Parallels Desktop Windows image (before it is exported as an archive) plus an additional 20 GB. You can specify more if you wish to make sure that users have enough disk space for Windows and application updates, documents, and other data.

Tip: To obtain the size of the original (not the exported) Parallels Desktop Windows image, execute the vmc list command in the crosh terminal. The command displays the virtual machine name and its size in bytes.​​​

After following the instructions above, users in your company with enrolled devices can install Windows on their Chromebooks.

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