A Parallels Desktop virtual machine (VM) is an ideal
environment for using a beta release of an operating system. By its very
nature, a beta OS will contain bugs, unfinished features, and other ‘gotchas’
that might play havoc with your documents or your work.
A VM isolates those
issues in a sandbox-like environment so that any such issue will not damage
anything. I have been using VMs like this for years, and I have written up bugs
in beta OSes released both for Apple and for Microsoft so that the final OS
release will be free of these issues.
I have previously written about using beta macOS releases in
VMs here and here. Apple has now significantly changed the installation process
for Sierra beta macOS releases, and in this blog, I will show you the new
process as I install and use macOS 10.12.4 (Sierra) beta 2.
Step 1: Install the customer release of macOS Sierra in a VM
In the new installation process for Sierra beta macOS
releases, you first need the customer release of Sierra installed in a VM—you
cannot just start with a new, blank VM. Installing the customer release of
Sierra in a VM is easy: just drag and drop the “Install macOS Sierra.app” to
the New VM Wizard in Parallels Desktop, and then follow the prompts.
After the customer release of Sierra is installed, download
and install any Sierra updates.
Step 2 will modify this VM in such a way that you cannot go
back to the customer release. So, it is a good idea to make a copy of this VM.
Find the VM’s .pvm file—it will probably be named “macOS Sierra.pvm” and will
be about 10 GB. Make a copy of that file.
Step 2: Download and install the new “macOS Sierra Beta
Access Utility”
You need to install a new utility to download a beta macOS.
How you do this depends on whether you are an ordinary user or a developer.
Case 1: Ordinary user
Start at Apple’s
Guide for Public Betas, enroll your Mac, and then download and install the “macOS
Sierra Public Beta Access Utility”.
Case 2: Apple Developer
Download and install
the new “macOS Sierra Developer Beta Access Utility” from Apple’s Developer
website. (You will need to be a registered Apple developer to do this.)
This utility adds a new option to the App Store pane of the
System Preferences window. See Figure 2. Ensure that this new option is “set to
received beta software updates.”
Step 3: Check for updates in the App Store, and install them
Launch the App Store app, and check for updates. It will
find the update for macOS 10.12.4 (Sierra) beta 2. Download and install this
update, which will require a restart of the VM. You are done: you now have a VM
running macOS 10.12.4 (Sierra) beta 2.
Have you installed a beta in a VM yet?