Any Parallels Users ? A Few Basic Questions On, Please

[Robert4]

Hello,

Is there a dedicated Forum, somewhere, other than the Parallels one that they maintain ?

Am considering purchasing the basic Parallels program to enable
running W10 on my desktop MAC.
If anyone is familiar with the program, and using, would like to ask the following:

a.The "Basic" $ 100 package is for lifetime, and not a yearly subscription ? The site isn't too clear re this.
Correct ?

a. Are all the contents on the HD in the Windows pc copied to the
Mac HD (assuming there's enough room) ?

Or, is it that if something is called for from the MAC, it just goes "and gets it from the pc ?

b. How well, and quick, can you go from the the Mac OS to Windows ?
Am I correct that there is no re-starting required ?

c. Any general thoughts ? Worth the $ 100, e.g. in your opinion ?

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Robert4]

Hello,

Considering purchasing Parallels:

Does Parallels re-install All the programs on the
Windows pc to the Mac HD, or must you do it individually, and
re-install each on the MAC ?

Or, does Parallels "grab" the program, when requested, from the pc, and simply runs it on the MAC ?

Any clarifications on how this "works," would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Boyd01]

Parallels just gives you a virtual machine on which you can install windows. What you do with it is up to you - it's the same as if you bought a new Windows PC. I set it up from scratch on my Mac and then manually installed my Windows software. But you could restore a backup I suppose, just like you might do when migrating to another real Windows computer.

When you create a virtual machine, one of the options is to use a disk image. Not so familiar with how that works on Windows, but I assume you could use a full backup from some kind of imaging software for that. I created a couple MacOS virtual machines that way from Carbon Copy Clones that I had of old Macs. They work exactly the same as the real computers.

 

[kitKAC]

Any there any particular reason you want to use Parallels? VMware Fusion is free for personal use.

https://www.vmware.com/products/fusion.html

 

[Robert4]

Hi,

Thanks.

Will take a look at it.

Best regards,
Bob

 

[Boyd01]

Hello,

Is there a dedicated Forum, somewhere, other than the Parallels one that they maintain ?

The correct place for this sort of question at MacRumors is the Windows on Mac Forum. Please don't start multiple threads on the same topic. I have merged your two threads and moved them to this forum, but re-directs will remain in their original places.

As for the questions:

Don't know what other Parallels forums exist. I asked some questions on their own forum and didn't find much help. Basically, I had to figure things out on my own, with the aid of Google searches. But my questions were about running older versions of MacOS in Parallels.

a. The standalone version is a "lifetime" purchase, but you will not get any updates when a new version is issued. There's a good chance that an old version will start to have issues after a few MacOS upgrades. But if you still continue to use the same version of MacOS, you may be fine. There are some limitations to this version which may or may not affect you. (IIRC) Virtual machines can not be any larger than 16gb and can only use two cores. I got the pro version, which is a subscription, because I need 32gb and 4 cores for my primary Windows application.

a. As I said in your other thread above, think of Parallels as a new real PC. You can put whatever you want on it. It's up to you. If you have a Windows app installed that is associated with a specific file type, when you double-click one of those files on the Mac, Windows will start automatically (if it isn't already running) and the file will open in that app. There are some preference settings related to this however (IIRC).

b. You start Parallels like any Macintosh app, just double-click on your virtual machine. When you do, it's exactly the same as booting a real Windows PC and should take about the same amount of time. There are various settings that control the behavior, you can have it take over your whole screen so your Mac behaves exactly like a PC or you can use "coherence mode" where it runs in a window and any Windows apps run in their own windows just like Mac apps. You can easily switch between these modes as desired.

But once the virtual machine is running, there is no delay switching between Windows and MacOS - it's instantaneous, and you can also copy/paste between Mac and Windows programs. I really like this and got rid of my old HP desktop tower. Much better experience with Parallels with no need to copy files between different computers. For me, the big plus is that my Parallels Virtual Machine has almost nothing on it but the operating system and a few Windows apps. I store all my data files under MacOS where they are backed up with Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner just like my Mac Files. Under Parallels, all of you Mac files are accessible to Windows as though the Mac was a shared disk.

I believe there's a free trial of Parallels although they made it kind of hard to find on their site the last time I looked. Maybe best to just give it a try, then you'll understand how it works pretty quickly.

 

[4743913]

Any general thoughts ? Worth the $ 100, e.g. in your opinion ?

If you are using an Intel machine, I would recommend Boot Camp first. I use Parallels on my M2 Air to run Campaign Cartographer 3 and its well worth the $100 if you need some windows apps. Keep in mind that not all windows apps will run on ARM. Do your research first.

 

[vilart]

You'd better use the "shareware" first, and then buy if you want. Torrents are here to help.

 

[StoneJack]

I use Parallels to play Age of Empires 2 DE, maybe run a couple of Windows apps, you can't find on Mac at reasonable cost (such as Celtx). Other than that, probably don't use it much. Parallels run quite good if you ask me. I have an annual license and upgraded to latest 17.5. I have a licensed Windows 10 machine. Didn't try 11, without 11 Parallels won't play Age of Empires 4 though.