Running Windows 7 With Parallels on Mac OSX Headless

Although I spend much time in Windows and .NET environments, I’m a vivid Mac user and OSX lover. And what a nightmare it is to be having to reboot every time you want to switch. Plus, the extra drive space for installing those every day used apps like browsers, document editors, chat etc. It’s just confusing. Not to mention the significant decrease in hard drive performance running Windows in Bootcamp on Mac, due to the lack of AHCI mode. My solution – run Windows in Parallels. And if you’re, like me, used to working with windows server through Remote Desktop, run it in headless mode and connect using RDP. I don’t know if there’s any actual performance win running in headless mode, it just feels very sleek.

Here’s my setup:

• Windows 7 Professional installed with Bootcamp on its own partion.
• Virtual machine in Parallels 7 using the Bootcamp partition, started in headless mode using the following syntax: prlctrl start of virtual machine. I use shortcuts created with Apple Script Editor to quickly start and stop the machine.

CoRD to connect the machine just like I do with any other Windows host. No rocket science at all. Just a smooth solution that works well in my case.