All TLM students need to have access to the Windows OS. More than half of TLM faculty use Apple computers, but even they need to be able to run Windows, since there are several tools that work only on Windows. In the past, we have recommended VirtualBox, but now even Microsoft supports Parallels as the official method to get Windows working on an Apple computer. If you’ve been an Apple user for many years, you may fondly recall Bootcamp, which allowed you to reboot your computer and choose whether you wanted to run MacOS or Windows. Basecamp is no longer supported on Macs that are powered by Apple Silicon processors.
Once your @middlebury.edu email address works, you can purchase Parallels from OnTheHub for $49.99 per year. Once you have Parallels installed, all you have to do is create your first virtual computer and you can download and purchase Windows 11 directly from Microsoft!
As a side note, Middlebury Mac students can get access to Setapp, which gives you access to hundreds of awesome Mac applications such as CleanMyMac, Downie, Permute, BetterZip, and Paste. It’s available for $64.72 through the Middlebury OnTheHub store.
When you install Parallels and Windows, there are a few default configuration settings we recommend, as there are some quirks with some of the Windows applications we’ll ask you to install. Make sure your Windows isn’t booted (shutdown from the Start menu) and go into the configuration (the gear icon in the Control Center, or in the Actions menu):
Go into the “Sharing” pane and make sure you disable “Mirror Mac and Windows user folders” (this creates the most problems), and then select “Share custom Mac folders with Window” and “Share Mac volumes with Windows.” On the Share Windows” tab, “Access Windows folders from Mac” can be disabled or enabled.
In the “Applications” pane, we recommend that you do not “Share Windows applications with Mac.” This is a neat feature, but it really makes things confusing! We recommend keeping Windows in a window. We definitely don’t recommend enabling “Share Mac applications with Windows.
And finally, if you have trouble with Windows applications, either application text being really big or really small, you might need to change the settings in the “Hardware” section, ”Graphics” pane.
