User`s guide

Principles of Working With Parallels Desktop 63
Memory Preferences
The Memory pane of Parallels Desktop Preferences allows you to adjust the maximum amount of
physical memory (RAM) that the system will reserve for all virtual machines running on your
Mac.
By default, the Automatically option is selected. In this case, the total amount of RAM to be
allocated to all running virtual machines is automatically calculated by the system based on the
following main factors:
 the total amount of memory installed on your Macintosh computer and
 the amount of memory required by Mac OS X for its operation.
The allocated amount of memory is shared among all running virtual machines. You can
configure the amount of physical memory for a particular virtual machine on the General tab of
Virtual Machine Configuration (p. 169).
You can redefine the default behaviour and manually set the amount of memory to be reserved
for all active virtual machines. To this effect, select the Manually option and specify the needed
value by:
 dragging the slider, or
 using the spin box arrows, or
 typing the value directly into the field
Locking Parallels Desktop Preferences
If you want to prevent Parallels Desktop Preferences from further unauthorized changes, click
the Lock icon
at the bottom of the window. The next time anybody wants to change the
settings in any pane of Parallels Desktop Preferences, an administrator's password will be
required.