loaded Parallels - not working

[donself1]

1st time (and probably last time) Mac user. Just bought Macbook Pro for wife. she uses Quickbook Pro for our business - so bought Office and QB Pro for Mac. Unfortunately QB for Mac sucks as it doesn't allow us to do credit cards, pull up customer list, etc.. - so she says to trash the Mac or get a way to use QB Pro for Windows on Mac. Voila - I buy Parallels, Windows XP and load Parallels. Seems to load just fine and then follow instructions to load Windows XP For Home Edition. It seemed to load ok (although it did load twice, so I have one Microsoft Windows XP and one Win XP to pick from), but neither does more than the following:

a black box opens that says:

" Parallels (R) 3.0 build 4128 (c) 2005-2007 Parallels Software International Inc.

640 KB Base Memory
524288 KB Extended Memory
Boot from hard drive...


and it stays there 5 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, etc... nothing happens.

I'm open for advice, suggestions, etc... and if those suggestions include lighter fluid, a match and a silver bonfire, I'm open to that too. I gotta get this fixed or get her a different computer to keep the wife happy (quickly).

thanks

Don in Texas
(yes - you can email me directly at donself@donself.com if you wish to and have ideas that will help)

[artov]

Most likely you mixed something if there are two Windowses. If you have not installed any software there, why not remove them both and try again?

I have VMware Fusion (and it works fine), so I cannot help you more, sorry.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

I use Parallels and Windows XP Professional without any issues, and I'd be glad to help. Best bet is to remove all your Windows virtual machines (stored in ~/Documents/Parallels) and re-install Windows from scratch -- it sounds like something went wrong with the install of Windows or something. If you encounter problems again, I'd be glad to offer assistance.

[marcelol]

I think the problem is that, I may be mistaken, but I don't think you can run Windows XP Home edition on a virtual machine (I think this is a Microsoft thing, not a Parallels thing). I remember reading somewhere (and I can't remember where now) that you need Windows XP Professional SP2 to run in Parallels.

Cheers!
- Marcelo

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Marcelo:

That has to do with the licensing restrictions of the Windows software, not in actually being able to run it in a virtualized environment. Windows XP Home works just fine for me under Parallels.

[Giaguara]

OEM versions of Windows don't usually like to be virtualized. Normal XP home edition should work (as long as not an OEM)...

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Windows, whether OEM or retail, have absolutely no clue that they're being run in a virtualized environment vs. being installed on an actual, physical computer. Whether a Windows install is OEM or retail or some other version has no bearing on whether or not it will run under a virtualized environment.

I'm running OEM, retail, and beta releases of Windows just fine in Parallels.

[aicul]

I am surprised that the QB pro for mac is so weak in functionality.

Please don't take this question negatively but are you sure that you have the latest release?

This may avoid the unfortunate fight with parallels.