Launching VM on Macbook Air

By Janet Ingber, 21 January, 2013

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
I have a Macbook Air with VMFusion. I can launch VMFusion on the Mac, but I'm having trouble getting into Windows. It's hit and miss. How do I do it. Also, Windows7 is on the VM and I've never used it. How do I find the shared documents folder from Windows and how do I launch programs such as MSWord or Excel? They're on my VM.

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Comments

By Musicruz on Saturday, February 9, 2013 - 16:24

What do you mean hit and miss? You said that you have the VMWare Fusion installed on your Mac but haven't used it since then, right? Just to make sure do you have any screen reader installed on the VM?

By Janet Ingber on Saturday, February 9, 2013 - 16:24

I have Window-Eyes on the VM. By "hit and miss" I mean that I once got into Windows, but don't remember how I did it. Am I better off just buying Pages, Numbers and Amadaus Pro for the Mac and forgetting about Windows?

By Musicruz on Saturday, February 9, 2013 - 16:24

Personally, is easier for me to resolve your issue if i could hear what exactly is going on with your computer. If you want, you can add me up on Skype, and I'll be glad to show you how VMWare works. Anyway, if you decided to have a chat via Skype, just add my username Musicruz.

By ray h on Saturday, February 9, 2013 - 16:24

Janet, You pose an excellent question of whether to buy Pages, etc, and go only the Mac way or use Windows and the Microsoft Office suite. Personally, I have spent quite a bit of time with Pages and, although I can function in it, I find Word on the Windows side FAR SUPERIOR. I'd like MS to make their Office for Mac accessible, but it's not there yet. THerefore, my recommendation is sadly to still have the ability to use Windows and Office if you are a heavy word processor or spreadsheet user. That point, however, depends heavily on how much you need these productivity tools. Right now, I just put Windows on this Air and, as I just noted in another thread, I like the Boot Camp choice for me as a beginner because it works totally like a Windows machine (with JAWS in my case).

By Isaac Hebert (not verified) on Saturday, February 9, 2013 - 16:24

When you get to this part, you probably already have the .iso file for the Windows installation. First, launch Parallels Desktop. If you don't have any Virtual Machines, it will suggest that you create one right away. If you do, click on the "+" button. Click Install Windows from DVD or image file. Click the menu near "Install from:" and locate your .iso file and double-click it. Next, choose your desired level of integration between Parallels Virtual Machine and your Mac. The difference is explained here in further detail. On this screen, enter your Windows key: Proceed, and make sure that the option "Customize settings before installation" is checked. Here, you must assign RAM memory to the Virtual Machine. If you have 4 GBs of RAM on your MacBook Air - you can assign 1 GB to the Virtual Machine. If you have 2 GBs - please assign 768 MB to the Virtual Machine. Next, go to Hardware tab and click "Hard disk 1". Click Edit... Be sure to select no more than 32 GBs of space, as explained here. Proceed with the installation of Windows.