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How To Fully Uninstall Windows from Parallels Virtual Machine

Parallels Desktop is a popular virtualization software that allows you to run Windows on your Mac. After using it for some time, you may want to uninstall Windows completely from the Parallels virtual machine (VM) to free up disk space or for other reasons.

Uninstalling Windows from a Parallels VM is easy, but it needs to be done properly to avoid any issues. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to fully uninstall Windows from Parallels Desktop:

Before You Uninstall Windows

Before uninstalling Windows, make sure to:

  • Close all open programs on Windows.
  • If you have important data on Windows that you want to keep, back it up first to an external drive.

Remove the Windows VM

  1. Quit Parallels Desktop if it’s running.
  2. Open Parallels Desktop and go to the Control Center.
  3. Right-click on the Windows virtual machine and select Remove.
  4. In the pop-up dialog, click Move to Trash to permanently delete the VM. This will remove Windows from Parallels.

Delete Parallels Tools

If you want to do a clean reinstallation of Windows later, you should also uninstall Parallels Tools:

  1. Boot your Windows VM.
  2. Open Control Panel > Uninstall a program.
  3. Uninstall Parallels Tools.
  4. When prompted, restart your VM to complete the uninstallation.

Remove Parallels Desktop

If you want to uninstall Parallels Desktop completely:

  1. Quit Parallels Desktop.
  2. Drag the Parallels Desktop app icon from Applications to Trash to uninstall it.
  3. Empty Trash to completely remove Parallels Desktop.

Uninstalling Parallels Desktop does not affect your virtual machine data. But if you also trashed the Windows VM in the steps above, then Windows is completely removed from your Mac.

Alternative: Move VM to External Drive

Instead of deleting the Windows VM, you can also move it to an external drive to save it for future use:

  1. Connect an external USB drive or SD card to your Mac.
  2. Locate the Windows virtual machine (VM) file in Finder under ~/Parallels/. It will have a .pvm extension.
  3. Copy the .pvm file to your external drive.
  4. Follow steps above to remove the VM from Parallels Desktop.
  5. Whenever you want to use that VM again, copy it back to ~/Parallels/ and open in Parallels.

This allows you to uninstall Windows from Parallels while keeping its VM file to reuse whenever needed.

Reinstall Windows Later On

After completely removing Windows and Parallels Tools, you can do a fresh Windows installation:

  1. Reinstall Parallels Desktop if you removed it.
  2. Create a new virtual machine and install Windows normally.
  3. Install Parallels Tools again.

This will give you a clean Windows install with no leftover data or programs from the previous one.

Troubleshooting Problems

If Windows is still showing up in Parallels Desktop after deleting its VM, try restarting your Mac.

Some users also report that emptying the Trash does not free up disk space. In that case, you may have to manually delete the Windows VM files. They are usually located in:

~/Parallels/

Delete the folder with your Windows VM name, e.g. Windows 10.pvm.

You can also use a cleaning utility like CleanMyMac X to scan for leftover virtual machine files and delete them.

Conclusion

Removing Windows from Parallels Desktop is straightforward – you simply need to remove its virtual machine file and optionally uninstall Parallels Tools as well.

Trashing the VM will permanently delete Windows. For future use, you can also move the VM file to external media before removal.

After completely eliminating Windows, you can do a fresh installation whenever needed. Just be sure to delete all old VM files to prevent conflicts.

Following this guide will allow you to thoroughly uninstall Windows and free up valuable disk space on your Mac.

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