Olga Weis
Last updated Jul 13, 2021
Having started your virtual machine, you might be wondering how to make local USB devices accessible to the guest operating system.
It’s really not that hard, you only need to follow these simple steps:
Scenario 1. Your Parallels Desktop is already in operation:
Scenario 2. Your guest OS isn’t running yet.
Note: Once done, you can check if the device has been connected to the virtual machine. If you reopen the menu, a tick next to the device’s name will indicate a successful connection to the guest system.
Here you go! A few simple steps let you get full access to the locally attached device from the Windows guest system.
But now let’s imagine that you want to share a USB peripheral with a virtual machine that is running on a remote Mac. It’s no secret that the Parallels app does not offer a way to forward devices to remote computers. So what’s the solution?
Luckily, there’s an easy way to access USB (and COM port) devices remotely. FlexiHub is a software application that makes this possible.
FlexiHub not only helps you create a Parallels remote desktop USB connection but also comes to the rescue if a USB device is not recognized by a Parallels virtual machine.
The software is powered by advanced port redirection technology. It allows you to forward USB devices to any remote (real or virtual) machine over the Internet.
FlexiHub is perfectly compatible with macOS, Windows, Linux, and Android. You can use it to connect from Windows to macOS, from macOS to Linux, and in any other combination.
FlexiHub
FlexiHub
That’s it! The USB peripheral will immediately appear in the Device Manager of your guest OS no matter its actual location.
The great thing about FlexiHub is that it works with USB devices of virtually any type, including 3D mice, USB card readers, webcams, etc. If a device is not natively detected by Parallels, you can still connect it to the VM with the help of this dedicated third-party tool.
Being one of the most popular USB redirection solutions out there, FlexiHub is known for its outstanding feature set:
To the delight of the virtualization software enthusiasts, the newest Parallels Desktop version works incredibly well on M1 chip-powered Macs. The latest release has given the exciting possibility to use Parallels Desktop for Windows 10 installation on M1 Mac computers.
However, it should be noted that only the ARM processor version, known as “Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview”, can be utilized within this scenario. That edition becomes available for download at the Windows Insider Preview Downloads web page after you register in the free Windows Insider Program.
FlexiHub
