Detect if Windows is running from within Parallels?

Question

I'm trying to figure out a way to programatically determine if a copy of windows is running inside a copy of Parallels. I have found this post with very good instructions for determining if Windows is running within VMWare, VirtualPC, or WINE, but I haven't been able to find anything similar for Parallels. How does one go about detecting Parallels?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 01 '16 at 16:13

You can detect if you are running inside Parallels if you interrogate the hardware manufacturer and model information in the .net System.Management class. This Article describes in detail how to get hardware information. If you are running in Parallels, the hardware manufacturer will return "Parallels Software International Inc." and the model will return "Parallels Virtual Platform"

Grant Limberg · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-07T20:45:07.660

0

Turns out that the redpill method works fine for detecting Parallels

Edit:

As Paul Alexander noted in his comment, Red Pill no longer works on Parallels. I did find another method, however. If you look up the BIOS serial number, 'Parallels' is part of the serial number string.

edited Jan 07 '11 at 20:45

answered Sep 03 '09 at 21:29

Grant Limberg

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Sadly, this is no longer true with modern versions of Parallels. – Paul Alexander Jan 07 '11 at 18:09
I love how serious Parallels appear to be about preventing the guest from figuring this out. :) – Hakanai Oct 27 '11 at 00:10

Detect if Windows is running from within Parallels?

2 Answers2