Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac

Parallels Desktop for Mac 3.0

Desktop 3.0 for Mac Review, by Eric Dahl and Narasu Rebbapragada July 20, 2007

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• Reviewed by: sturam

  Strengths: Great idea, but after three hours trying to install this program on my brand new intel Mac laptop - I gave up.Good luck to you. Seems people like the idea of not having to re boot.

  Weaknesses: Sold to me at Apple store and then they told me they do not support it at all - no help from the genius bar.Tech support at Nova Parallels not available on week-ends

  Overall: Would like to hear from some one as to how you install this program in three easy steps. All I got was error messages when I tried to install that it could not read the Windows XP disk that I had to purchase for almost $ 200 extra. Best Buy techs were able to use the disk to install Boot Camp however

• Reviewed by: Scott Mahrer

  Strengths: Ease of use

  Weaknesses: Windows not included

  Overall: I know that Apple is included Boot Camp within Leopard (OS X 10.5), which is a great thing. However, Boot Camp needs you to reboot your Mac every time you wish to switch to Windows or Mac OS. Enter Parallels, which avoids the reboot requirement. Windows actually appears as a window (no pun intended) much like any other Finder window. You can literally switch back & forth between your Mac and Windows environments. This is important especially if you constantly need to refer between documents. It's a real time-saver. Very stable too!

• Reviewed by: dmausner

  Strengths: Runs windows systems within Mac OS, run both systems at once, share files between systems.

  Weaknesses: No significant weaknesses for office use of Windows inside Mac OS.

  Overall: Parallels works right out of the box, or can be customized, to create a synthetic PC environment within Mac OS. Windows runs like any other Mac program, and its C: drive becomes a Mac file. Many windows systems can be created for testing software versions. They can be "booted" by clicking on their icons in the finder. Once started on an Intel Mac, the behavior is exactly like Windows 2000, XP, or Vista; plus, you can switch to and from Mac OS at any time. It has the major benefit that no boot camp is required, and no special disk partitions are needed. If Windows is not needed anymore, its file can be deleted. Viruses cannot propagate from Windows to Mac; the environment is sealed. Special Mac drivers supplied by Parallels allow Windows to operate in the Mac hardware; otherwise every aspect of Windows is the same. Very little system performance degradation was noticed on a 2GHz MacBook Pro. An excellent utility for those who need Office or other MS products to cooperate in a Mac environment. For network operation, including wireless, it is necessary to read the how-to guide closely. Recommended.

• Reviewed by: compcons

  Strengths: Easy install, works flawlessly once installed

  Weaknesses: Heavy memory footprint

  Overall: I've been a Mac Boot Camp user since August 2006. When offered the chance to install Parallels on my machine, I initially thought it would be a hassle. What do I need run two OSs concurrently for? Since I only use Windows a few times a month, why should I bother installing a virtual machine?Well, just a few days with Parallels and my mind changed. No more waiting to boot into Windows or dealing with installing Boot Camp device drivers. I'm not gaming in Windows, there's just a few apps that I need to run in Windows from time to time that aren't available for Mac, as well as the occasional QA testing in Internet Explorer.You'll need a good chunk of disk space for Windows (and a license of Windows, I use XP Pro) and 2GB of memory for smooth operation. With 1GB Memory on a MacBook, the non-Windows portion WILL slow to a crawl (I upgraded to 2GB and everything is smooth.)If you have the occasional need for Windows (or perhaps a daily need) and don't plan on heavy 3D gaming, this is the product for you. I haven't used too many of the fancy coherence features as I don't work in Parallels often enough, but for some, I'm sure this works excellent.

• Reviewed by: wbthomas

  Strengths: Switching between Mac and Windows without rebooting; easy install; launch Windows programs from dock or desktop

  Weaknesses: Windows

  Overall: Parallels 3.0 maintains the dominance of this software as the best solution for Mac owners who need to run programs written for Windows on their Macs. Seems to be faster than the 2.0 version on my Intel MacBook Pro.