Open source command line interface for Visual Studio Team Services from Windows, Linux, and Mac. Manage pull requests, builds, work items, and more directly from a command prompt or from scripts. See the docs for more information. Mar 21, 2017 Question: Q: how to go back to mac after installing windows. I installed windows 7 in my mac successfully, now my problem is i don't know how to go back to mac. Everytime i start, it automatically run windows, can somebody help me?
Windows 10 is now the most popular version of Windows. Installing it on Parallels Desktop® for Mac is easy to do—and does not require you to purchase Windows 10 beforehand.
There are four different scenarios you might find yourself in, with slightly different steps:
Scenario 1: You have just installed Parallels Desktop 14 on your Mac®.
Scenario 2: You have Parallels Desktop on your Mac, and you want to add a Windows 10 virtual machine (VM).
Scenario 3: You want to upgrade an existing Windows VM to Windows 10.
Scenario 4: You want to move Windows 10 from a physical PC into a Parallels Desktop VM.
Here are the individual steps for each:
Scenario 1: You have just installed Parallels Desktop 14 on your Mac.
When you first launch Parallels Desktop 14 on a Mac, it will detect that you have no virtual machines and will automatically offer to download and install Windows 10 for you. Microsoft office home and business for mac 2013. (See Figure 1.)
Once you click “Install Windows,” there is basically nothing else for you to do. The Windows 10 installation files will begin downloading (Figure 2).
Note: If you click on “Skip” instead, you will be directed to the Installation Assitant where you can purchase Windows 10 (see Figure 8).
Figure 2_Downloading Windows 10
Once the download finishes, the installation of Windows 10 into a new VM in Parallels Desktop will begin (Figure 3).
You will be notified when it completes (Figure 4).
Figure 4_Windows 10 installation complete
How long this process takes depends on the speed of your Internet connection and Mac. For me, at home and on a new MacBook Air®, this took about one hour and 40 minutes.
While Windows 10 is installing, you’ll see dialogs about the installation of Parallels® Toolbox, a separate Parallels product that’s bundled with Parallels Desktop (Figure 5).
Figure 5_Parallels Toolbox, a product that is bundled with Parallels Desktop
Parallels Toolbox gives you 30+ single-purpose tools for common tasks. I encourage you to install Parallels Toolbox—I think you’ll find the tools very useful.
After Windows 10 is installed, you should get all of the available updates, and there probably will be several of them (Figure 6).
This may take a while but is very important.
At this point, you have a working installation of Windows 10 in a Parallels Desktop VM. You have not yet purchased Windows from Microsoft. A few features will be disabled until you do so. You can purchase and activate Windows from within your Windows VM, and the entire process takes only a few minutes (Figure 7).
Figure 7_Purchasing and activating Windows 10
Scenario 2: You have Parallels Desktop on your Mac, and you want to add a Windows 10 VM.
Adding Windows 10 as an additional VM in Parallels Desktop is also easy.
To start the process, either choose “New…” in the File menu of Parallels Desktop, or click on the “+” sign in the top right corner of the Control Center window.
Assuming that you don’t have a Windows 10 installation DVD laying around, click on the “Get Windows 10 from Microsoft” button (Figure 8).
Figure 8_Get Windows 10 button in the Installation Assistant
Then choose to purchase Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro in the next screen. If you want to install Windows 10 without making a purchase yet, choose to download it (Figure 9).
Whichever path you choose, you will end up with a Windows 10 installation ISO file and a Windows 10 product key. After that, everything proceeds in the same manner as scenario 1. (See the previous Figure 2 as an example.) Don’t forget to install Parallels Toolbox and all the available Windows 10 updates!
Scenario 3: You want to upgrade an existing Windows VM to Windows 10.
Use these steps if you have a Windows 7 or 8 VM that you would like to upgrade to Windows 10.
Upgrading an operating system is a task best done with lots of RAM. If possible, upgrade the amount of memory allocated to the VM to 4 GB, using the memory pane of the configuration dialog for the VM you will be upgrading. The VM cannot be running when you do this. Be sure that the RAM allocation slider remains in the green area on the memory scale, not the yellow or red areas (Figure 10).
Figure 10_Increase the memory allocation for the VM that will be upgraded
Two years ago, upgrading Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 was free, but that is no longer the case. You now need to pay for this upgrade—at least, this is what everyone thought.
Ed Bott reported on ZDNet in October 2018 that if you upgrade an activated copy of Windows in a specific way, the resulting Windows 10 will continue to be activated. I tried this for a Windows 8.1 VM, and it worked without any problems. Here’s what I did:
1. Make sure you’re starting with an activated installation of Windows.
2. Download the Media Creation tool from the Download Windows 10 page. You must do this inside Windows, not from a Mac browser.
3. Run the Media Creation tool and choose “Upgrade this PC now” (Figure 11).
Figure 11_Using the Media Creation tool to upgrade to Windows 10
4. If you’re warned about an incompatible Parallels Display Adapter, just confirm that you understand. (Figure 12.)
Figure 12_Don’t worry about this warning if you see it
5. This issue will be taken care of when Parallels Tools reinstalls after the upgrade to Windows 10.
6. The Windows 10 upgrade files will be downloaded, and the install will proceed. Parallels Tools will automatically reinstall.
7. When finished, you will have an activated installation of Windows 10 (Figure 13).
Figure 13_Success! An activated installation of Windows 10
Don’t forget to reset the memory allocation in the upgraded VM. The increased allocation was only needed for the OS installation process.
Scenario 4: You want to move Windows 10 from a physical PC into a Parallels Desktop VM.
In this last scenario, you start out with the Installation Assistant dialog (see previous Figure 8) but choose “Transfer Windows from a PC.” You will then see the Transfer Windows dialog shown in Figure 14.
This process will copy everything from a physical PC to a Parallels Desktop VM: apps, data files, and Windows itself. The physical PC will not be modified.
The most common way to transfer is via the network. The amount of time this will take depends on how much information is on the PC and how fast your network is.
There may be several Windows PCs on your network, so you need to indicate which PC you want to migrate into a VM. Do this by installing the Parallels Transfer Agent on the PC to be migrated.
There are two computers involved in this transfer: the Windows PC you are transferring from, and the Mac running Parallels Desktop which you are transferring to. Some of the actions you’ll take to set up this transfer occur on the PC and others on the Mac, so you will need to go back and forth between the two computers to set everything up. These tasks are not complicated, as shown in this video:
Figure 15.
I hope you’ve seen how easy it is to install Windows 10 on Parallels Desktop. Feel free to download a free full-featured trial of Parallels Desktop and install Windows 10 like explained in scenario 1 right away at no extra cost.
Let us know in the comments below, on Twitter or Facebook which way of installing Windows 10 on your Mac worked best for you.
If you're looking to install Windows on your Mac, Boot Camp is the best way to go. Whether it's for a great gaming experience or you just want to try out Windows 10 on Apple's svelte hardware, here's how to get it all set up.
What you'll need before you install Windows 10 on your Mac
Before starting anything else, be sure you have a Mac that supports Windows 10. Straight from Apple, these are the compatible models:
- MacBook Pro (2012 and later)
- MacBook Air (2012 and later)
- MacBook (2015 and later)
- iMac Pro (2017)
- iMac (2012 and later)*
- Mac mini (2012 and later)
- Mac mini Server (Late 2012)
- Mac Pro (Late 2013)
If you own an iMac with 3TB or more, check out this Apple Support document for more information on installing Windows 10 on your machine through Boot Camp.
Do you have a Mac that can run Windows 10? Good! Make sure you have at least 64GB of free space on your hard drive for the Windows installation. During the installation process, you can set the Windows partition to whatever size you want, as long as the drive has enough storage.
Finally, update your Mac's OS to ensure there are no compatibility problems. You'll also want to perform a backup of your Mac in the (rare) case that something goes wrong.
How to download the Windows 10 ISO file
To start, we need to grab a Windows 10 ISO file from the Microsoft website. You can download it straight to your internal hard drive.
- Navigate to the Microsoft Windows 10 ISO download page.
- Click the dropdown menu below Select edition.
- Click Windows 10 in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update section. You can download the Creators Update through Windows once it is installed.
- Click Confirm.
- Click the dropdown menu below Select the product language.
- Click your language of choice.
- Click Confirm.
- Click 64-bit Download.
- Click Save. The ISO file will now be downloaded.
Once the file has finished downloading, continue on to the next set of steps.
How to install Windows 10 with Boot Camp
Once you've downloaded a Windows 10 ISO, you can complete the following steps.
- Launch Boot Camp Assistant from the Utilities folder in Applications.
- Click Continue. Boot Camp should automatically locate the ISO file on your system.
- Click and drag the slider in the partition section. It will be set to 48GB by default, but you can add as much storage as you want within the limits of the drive.
- Click Install. Windows support software will now be downloaded.
- Type your password.
- Click OK. Your Mac will restart and you will see the Windows 10 setup screen.
- Choose your language.
- Click Install Now.
- Type your product key or click I don't have a key. You can enter it after the installation.
- Click either Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 Pro based on your preference.
- Click Next.
- Click Custom: Install Windows Only.
- Click Drive 0 Partition X: BOOTCAMP. Do not choose anything else.
- Click Next. Windows 10 will now be installed. Your Mac will restart several times during the process.
- Click Use Express Settings or Customize Your Installation when the Windows 10 setup screen appears. In this case, we use express settings, as all can be changed after the installation.
- Type a username. You can also add a password.
- Click Next.
- Choose to use or not to use Cortana.
Windows 10 will now boot fully, and you'll be able to use Windows normally.
How to install Boot Camp software on your Windows 10 partition
When Windows 10 loads for the first time on your Mac, a Boot Camp software installer will automatically pop up.
- Click Install.
- Click I accept the terms in the license agreement.
- Click Install.
- Click Finish when the installation is complete.
This is an important process, as it installs a bunch of drivers and software that will help make your Windows 10 experience as good as possible on your Mac.
How to return to macOS from Windows 10
Microsoft Installing Windows On A Mac Pro
One of the best parts of Boot Camp is how easy it is to switch back and forth between operating systems.
- Click the Show hidden icons button in the Windows 10 taskbar.
- Click the Boot Camp button.
- Click Restart in OS X.
Your Mac will now restart, and you'll be brought right back to macOS. To get back to Windows 10, and indeed another way to switch from Windows 10 to macOS, is to restart your Mac and hold down the Option key on your keyboard until a boot menu appears. From here, you can choose which OS to load.
Updating Windows 10 and more
Now that you have Windows 10 installed on your Mac, you can update it to the Creators Update.
The easiest way to do so is to use Windows Update.
- Click the Start button.
- Click the Settings button. It looks like a gear.
- Click Update & security.
- Click Check for updates.
The Creators Update should begin downloading and will install. Follow the steps on screen, and you'll be up to date in no time.
Looking for more Windows 10 Creators Update help? Check out the ultimate guide over on Windows Central.
Updated March 22, 2019: Updated for macOS Mojave.
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