Last chance for Parallels 4.0 upgrade discount-is it worth it yet?

[Enigmafan420]

Guess the title sort of says it all-tomorrow is the LAST DAY to get the $10 off of Parallels 4.0 upgrades.

Is it ANY BETTER than when released? I have downloaded the trial but am still afraid to install.

Maybe a completely clean install of Windows would be better? I hate to do that, takes TOO LONG.

 

[Enigmafan420]

Anybody got an opinion here? Last day of the discount...

 

[XianPalin]

Wish I had an answer, I switched to VMWare ages ago and never looked back. However, the newer Parallels features look pretty nice, I wouldn't mind trying it out again.

Install the trial and try it out again, that's the best way to find out.

 

[Enigmafan420]

Wish I had an answer, I switched to VMWare ages ago and never looked back. However, the newer Parallels features look pretty nice, I wouldn't mind trying it out again.

Install the trial and try it out again, that's the best way to find out.

I did download it-Something about the parallels tools 3.0 and 4.0 don't talk well to each other. I am afraid it will trash my bootcamp partition and really DO NOT WANT to install windows again.

Does anyone have any suggestions on upgrading-what to do first-and how to restore to 3.0 if necessary?

 

[Nordichund]

I bought Parallels 4 and installed it on my MacBook Pro after installing Windows XP in Boot Camp. What a frigging nightmare. I had to delete the whole lot, including Boot Camp. I run Parallels three on my MacPro, and it works fine. I think I'm going to use VM Ware for the MacBook Pro. Those Parallel 4 tools seemed to ruin my XP even in Boot Camp. HORRIBLE I wasted hours. NEVER AGAIN.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

VMware stinks. I tried it with a fresh install using it's installer thing. Crash. Crash. Crash. It even screwed up my hard disk and forced me to reformat/erase and put a fresh install of Leopard on it. VMware looks very choppy. And the GUI is the worst I've seen compared to VirtualBox and Parallels. It's not even that much faster, a few miliseconds is the most Parallels lagged behind in for benchmarks.

Just bear the hour or so to reinstall XP, it takes like 40 minutes. Is there any reason you need Boot Camp and Parallels? Using both causes problems with either Fusion or Parallels.

I'd recommend Parallels, it seems much more like a Mac application and not Windows and Mac fused together and made ugly (it already is though...) with dirt cheap GUIs and bad integration, not to mention scattering of settings. Some settings are here and others are there. You search for them half the time.

 

[avkills]

VMware stinks. I tried it with a fresh install using it's installer thing. Crash. Crash. Crash. It even screwed up my hard disk and forced me to reformat/erase and put a fresh install of Leopard on it. VMware looks very choppy. And the GUI is the worst I've seen compared to VirtualBox and Parallels. It's not even that much faster, a few miliseconds is the most Parallels lagged behind in for benchmarks.

Just bear the hour or so to reinstall XP, it takes like 40 minutes. Is there any reason you need Boot Camp and Parallels? Using both causes problems with either Fusion or Parallels.

I'd recommend Parallels, it seems much more like a Mac application and not Windows and Mac fused together and made ugly (it already is though...) with dirt cheap GUIs and bad integration, not to mention scattering of settings. Some settings are here and others are there. You search for them half the time.

Hmm I have the opposite opinion; Parallels when I tried it out littered my Mac menus with all sorts of BS, which really annoyed me.

I've had zero problems using Fusion's easy install; did it for Vista32 and XP on the MacPro at work; copied the XP VM to my laptop and Fusion asked if it was a copied VM and clicking yes I everything worked just fine.

I don't get your comment about the settings; they are all in the same place from what I've noticed.

-mark

 

[sushi]

Does anyone have any suggestions on upgrading-what to do first-and how to restore to 3.0 if necessary?

You could always give WinClone a try.

That way you can backup your BootCamp partition.

Try Parallels 4.

And if you don't like it, erase your BootCamp partition, then restore from the image made from WinClone.

 

[DaveF]

I upgraded to Parallels 4 on Friday. It was an easy and flawless upgrade. Not everyone has troubles; the problem is you only hear about the problems, and not the successes.

 

[Enigmafan420]

Is there any reason you need Boot Camp and Parallels? Using both causes problems with either Fusion or Parallels.

I mostly use parallels, but there are some things that bootcamp is better for-including USB devices (obviously). I have an Older Minolta black and white lazer printer, and I have been able to get it to work with OS-X, but it works better in Windows-so when I have high volume cheap printing needs, I use Windows.

Also, my wife does embroidery and the software is windows only and needs USB support as well.

I have NOT HAD problems using Bootcamp and Parallels 3.0 at the same time. What kind of problems were you referring to?

 

[synth3tik]

I used Parallels 1.0. Once version 2 came out I upgraded and then maybe a day or two later got VMWare on sale. It still seems they are working at more basic functions in Parallels, where as VMWare is already there and is stable. When I run Windows or Linux I don't want to go at it thinking that I am in a virtual environment. I want the OS to act and run like a native OS. VMWare allows me to do this. Although I applaud Parallels, I have to go with VMWare.

Also it looks like VMWare is on sale for one day. $39.99, pretty good deal
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/609049/

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

I mostly use parallels, but there are some things that bootcamp is better for-including USB devices (obviously). I have an Older Minolta black and white lazer printer, and I have been able to get it to work with OS-X, but it works better in Windows-so when I have high volume cheap printing needs, I use Windows.

Also, my wife does embroidery and the software is windows only and needs USB support as well.

I have NOT HAD problems using Bootcamp and Parallels 3.0 at the same time. What kind of problems were you referring to?

Mainly activation and aero GUI (Vista) problems. For the USB issue, install the software on the VM and then use it from there? It will just channel the connection through the mac.

 

[baboo2]

upgraded yesterday to 4.0 from 3.0
Also had 2.0 Fusion

2.0 (fusion) and 4.0 ( parallels) runs about the same on an MBA (not very good, but will do the job)

I prefer parallels because of the coherence feature

 

[Enigmafan420]

upgraded yesterday to 4.0 from 3.0
Also had 2.0 Fusion

2.0 (fusion) and 4.0 ( parallels) runs about the same on an MBA (not very good, but will do the job)

Why do you say not very good for Parallels? I have 3.0 on my Mac Mini-which has about the same horsepower and it seems okay.

 

[Jeff Hall]

I know it's now past the sales discount deadline, but I've been using Parallels since v2.0 (started out by migrating from a bootcamp partition to VM only), and have never had a serious problem with it. I've safely upgraded all the way to v4.0 now. I've always used Windows XP Pro.

As a rule, I usually wait 1-2 weeks after a new build is available before upgrading, just to see how it affects others first.