[Robbi]

alright, i got my mac earlier this year for school, i also received a copy of windows for free through school. when going about choosing a way to install it on my mac, i discovered that i could install through bootcamp and the run it on the mac side from parallels. This had me pumped... but now i find that i just don't ever use the windows 7 installation from the mac side because it is so slow, i prefer to just boot into windows. I also find it bothersome that all of the links to the mac programs show up all over my windows, even when running windows solo.

So i've decided to just do away with the parallels VM and keep the bootcamp partition as is. I've managed to uninstall parallels tools (from the windows side even, which ive read shouldn't be possible... dunno how i pulled it off), but now what i want to know is a few things.

1. how can i safely unlink parallels from bootcamp windows without causing a software licensing apocalypse... is it as simple as "removing" the VM from parallels on the mac side?
2. how can i remove all of the bloody links to the mac programs from windows? since i'll never ever use them again anyway. This isn't as big of a deal as unlinking parallels is, i can put up with the extra useless program shortcuts if i must.

I don't really want to remove parallels entirely, because i use it with an XP installation which runs top notch as a VM (and on a virtual disk, only Windows 7 is installed on a second partition, XP is totally virtual)

My biggest fear in this all is that it will break my windows installation, break my license key, or worst of all lose some/all of my data. I need to preserve this windows installation because i need it for school, considering im taking a computer science course... and i desperately dont want to have to call up Microsoft, throw on some puppy dog eyes, and pray they'll reactivate my license key... I do have backups of all my data, but avoiding the headache of resorting everything is the best option, especially with Christmas coming up, i wanna be with family, not fight with a computer. Please help me make this painless

[ibook_steve]

First of all, why is Parallels running slow? What hardware are you using and how much RAM?

Besides that, all you have to do is simply delete the VM from Parallels. That's it. It shouldn't affect licensing at all.

I don't know what "links" you are talking about. Uninstalling Parallels Tools (with Add/Remove Programs) should remove all traces of Parallels from Windows. Where are these "links" you speak of?

Steve

[Robbi]

Macbook Pro, 2.66GHz core 2 duo, 4GB of ram.

that's what i wanted to know, it's just as simple as removing the VM... bootcamp partition should remain unharmed?

and the links i'm talking about are things like in the "open with" dialogue. they get put there by the sharing settings in parallels so that you can open files from windows in a mac program. But they still show up even when booting directly into windows. I already uninstalled ptools, but the shortcuts are all still there.

[cgc]

Yup...to Parallels, the BootCamp partition is just a document. Uninstalling Parallels will not remove your BootCamp partition.

[ibook_steve]

Originally Posted by Robbi 

Macbook Pro, 2.66GHz core 2 duo, 4GB of ram.

that's what i wanted to know, it's just as simple as removing the VM... bootcamp partition should remain unharmed?

and the links i'm talking about are things like in the "open with" dialogue. they get put there by the sharing settings in parallels so that you can open files from windows in a mac program. But they still show up even when booting directly into windows. I already uninstalled ptools, but the shortcuts are all still there.

Probably memory is the issue. You're probably not devoting much more than 1 or maybe 2 GB for Win 7, which is probably slowing it down quite a bit. XP is fine with 1 GB.

As for the links, in the VM configuration, under Options -> applications, make sure "Share Mac applications with Windows" is turned off. You may have to reboot at least once when running as a VM to make this work.

Steve

[Robbi]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

Probably memory is the issue. You're probably not devoting much more than 1 or maybe 2 GB for Win 7, which is probably slowing it down quite a bit. XP is fine with 1 GB.

As for the links, in the VM configuration, under Options -> applications, make sure "Share Mac applications with Windows" is turned off. You may have to reboot at least once when running as a VM to make this work.

Steve

yes, i'm wawre that memory is pretty much the biggest issue, but i can't change that and i dont really want to turn off all the graphical effects in windows 7 so that's why i'm going to use just XP as a VM.

Well i did get it all to work in the end. thanks for the tip about restarting... i was truing the settings on and off but nothing was changing. I actually had to reinstall ptools, turn the share application setting back ON, then turn if OFF, restart, uninstall ptools from within the VM, restart. I tested the ap sharing shortcuts and they were all gone!

So i deleted the windows 7 VM and rebooted the macbook into windows... sadly through all this it deactivated my product code... but when i reapplied the original code it accepted it happily. Whether this will stand the test of time and not surprise deactivate again i don't know... but sure how it stays genuine...