As I’m sure you all know, Microsoft have released the public Release Candidate version of Windows 7. Thanks to Parallels Desktop 3, I have Windows 7 installed in a virtual machine environment on my iMac. I would love to say it was plain sailing (in fact for the most part it was), but as with the Beta release, I was faced a networking problem.

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Both Beta and RC1 versions install without a hitch using Parallels, so this tutorial is to help anyone who is experiencing the same post install issue. I know I’m not alone, so hopefully this will help anyone else with the same problem using Parallels Desktop 3 for Mac.

First off, if you haven’t already installed Windows 7, you can get the Release Candidate here. When selecting the operating system in Parallels 3, you need to choose “Windows 2008 (Experimental)”.

Once installed, this will likely be where you hit the networking hitch, even if you chose shared networking in Parallels. The trick is to install Parallels Tools (Actions -> Install Parallels Tools), BUT Parallels Tools will not install, and indeed will throw up an error message.

Don’t worry though, there is a way to work around this. First you need to restart the installation of Parallels Tools, but beware, you will likely need to cancel the previous install in the Actions menu in Parallels. When you restart the installation, instead of clicking on “Run PTStart.exe”, click on the “Open folder to view files”.

When you do this, you will be confronted with a Windows Explorer windows like this

Right click on PrlTools and select Properties. In properties, select the “Compatibility” tab

Check the box that says “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” and then select “Windows XP (Service Pack 2)” from the drop down menu. Click Apply, then OK. Then double click on PrlTools.

Select “Complete” for the setup type and set the ball rolling. You’re nearly done, but just beware that you will see a few messages like this:

Just click on “Install this driver software anyway” each time. Near the end of the install, it may look like the system has crashed (no response from the mouse), don’t panic though, just leave it a couple of minutes and you should then see a nice window telling you installation is complete and asking to restart Windows.

After rebooting you should have fully working networking and internet. Hope this helps

Henry