Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac claims speed superiority

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 65
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by robmack View Post


    Anyone know what the FPS games is in the screenshot?



    Crysis.
  • Reply 42 of 65
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jarman View Post


    Crysis.



    Thanks
  • Reply 43 of 65
    royboyroyboy Posts: 458member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Foo2 View Post


    FYI: if you have a .edu e-mail address, you might qualify for Microsoft's $30 Windows 7 Professional retail upgrade, rather than having to pay the normal retail price of $200. Be sure to tell Microsoft you have special communications needs at your institution. Otherwise you'll only get the Home Premium upgrade for that same $30.



    Well, I spent about 30 minutes on the phone last week talking with Microsoft. Since I only own a Window 98 OS disc, I would need to buy a complete Home Premium Windows 7 OS disc, and not an upgrade. I was told that if I has a .edu address, which my son does have, then I could get what I needed for $99 under the academic discount.



    I got the address and called back the next day. Now the story is that Microsoft doesn't sell a full edition, only upgrades, of Windows 7 under the academic account.



    So now I'm back to paying $199 for the full version of Home Premium Windows 7.



    Anybody know anything differently I can do to get it cheaper (legally)?
  • Reply 44 of 65
    justflybobjustflybob Posts: 1,337member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DJRumpy View Post


    I would think that more folks simply have a Macbook or a mini, not a Macbook Pro.



    I would bet that would be true in most college settings, but for business? All I see when I travel is 15" & 17" MPBs. Not to mention when I attend developer events.
  • Reply 45 of 65
    cyloncylon Posts: 126member
    Sorry, but I just had to shell out the bucks 2 months ago to go from Version 3 to 4, since 3 wouldn't work on Snow Leopard. Now they want me to pay again for a program I use a once a month. I think not.
  • Reply 46 of 65
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Royboy View Post


    Well, I spent about 30 minutes on the phone last week talking with Microsoft. Since I only own a Window 98 OS disc, I would need to buy a complete Home Premium Windows 7 OS disc, and not an upgrade. I was told that if I has a .edu address, which my son does have, then I could get what I needed for $99 under the academic discount.



    I got the address and called back the next day. Now the story is that Microsoft doesn't sell a full edition, only upgrades, of Windows 7 under the academic account.



    So now I'm back to paying $199 for the full version of Home Premium Windows 7.



    Anybody know anything differently I can do to get it cheaper (legally)?



    $200 for that piece of crap. I would suggest you buy xp off ebay. If you wan to be legal...but legal or ilegal they ar such relative terms sometimes...
  • Reply 47 of 65
    So what is the performance hit of vmware/parralels v. booting into windoze? Are there any numbers out there?
  • Reply 48 of 65
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Royboy View Post


    Well, I spent about 30 minutes on the phone last week talking with Microsoft. Since I only own a Window 98 OS disc, I would need to buy a complete Home Premium Windows 7 OS disc, and not an upgrade. I was told that if I has a .edu address, which my son does have, then I could get what I needed for $99 under the academic discount.



    I got the address and called back the next day. Now the story is that Microsoft doesn't sell a full edition, only upgrades, of Windows 7 under the academic account.



    So now I'm back to paying $199 for the full version of Home Premium Windows 7.



    Anybody know anything differently I can do to get it cheaper (legally)?





    You can do a clean install of Windows 7 from an upgrade disc, and have it successfully activate without having to install twice. I just followed the instructions from here.



    You could also buy an OEM version from a place like Newegg, and save some money.
  • Reply 49 of 65
    poochpooch Posts: 768member
    was very excited to download this version and try it out. i've been using fusion 2 and wanted to take a look at the new version of both vmware and parallels.



    installed the thing and launched the app. the thing animates in the dock for several seconds. then sits there with no little dot/reflection below it (i.e., just like it's a non-running app icon in the dock). but when i right click the dock icon it says i can force-quit. (doesn't say open. doesn't say quit. says force-quit.) repeated a few times but with the same results each time.



    so, whatever, i'll let parallels spend their time figuring it out. sigh.



    the uninstall seems to work fine! ;-)
  • Reply 50 of 65
    If I recall, Fusion did not charge to upgrade from version 1 to version 2. BUT they certainly did (39.95) to upgrade to version 3, still, in my opinion, better than the 50.00 upgrade for Parallels to version 5. Don't forget, Parallels charged (not too long ago), 50.00 to upgrade to version 4 and to version 3, etc. They DING you every time and very often. I am still running version 3.0 of Parallels on my of my computers, ready to upgrade it to version 4, but have taken my time and now there is version 5 already. In my opinion, unless one has a new lap top or desk top and wants to to a clean install of Windows 7, then get the recent version of either VMWare or Parallels, they both do fine. BUT don't even think of trying to upgrade your virtual XP to version 7.....quite a pain in the rear I hear. As I have said before, VMWare can charge much less, much less often than Parallels for their upgrades because Fusion for Mac is just one of many many products VMWare makes. Parallels for Mac is....one product only, so I guess business is business. Just my thoughts.
  • Reply 51 of 65
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Pooch View Post




    installed the thing and launched the app. the thing animates in the dock for several seconds. then sits there with no little dot/reflection below it (i.e., just like it's a non-running app icon in the dock). but when i right click the dock icon it says i can force-quit.



    Yep, if Parallels is upgraded from from 4 to 5, with a ceratin setting a major bug can show up, which results in a black screen or in the Blue Screen of Death. But there is a simple solution to this:

    http://kb.parallels.com/en/6873



    Otherwise a first look at it gives the impression that WindowsXP is booting *much* faster and also is running faster. So far so good.

  • Reply 52 of 65
    poochpooch Posts: 768member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kamui View Post


    Yep, if Parallels is upgraded from from 4 to 5, with a ceratin setting a major bug can show up, which results in a black screen or in the Blue Screen of Death. But there is a simple solution to this:

    http://kb.parallels.com/en/6873



    Otherwise a first look at it gives the impression that WindowsXP is booting *much* faster and also is running faster. So far so good.





    this was not an upgrade from 4 to 5; it was a clean install of 5.



    and this was not a b*** screen of death; the parallels app simply fails to launch, even worse than my san francisco mayor newsom's bid for california governor!
  • Reply 53 of 65
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Horrible experience with this upgrade. Completely unusable.



    Original configuration:



    Mac Book Pro 3,1

    4 gigs Ram

    Plenty of disk space



    Snow Leopard

    Previous installation of Parallels 3 (which was disabled by SL)

    Vista Home Premium previously installed



    Downloaded Version 5 ran install

    Choose >use virtual machine >Activate key> ok > indicated I needed to upgrade VM > Ok > upgrading..... 1/2 hour later... You need to continue manually > ok > insert Vista install disk and run setup.exe > I go find disk....returned to find Vista is already running > recovered from serious error you must restart > Ok > Shutting down windows.... 10 minutes > Activate Parallels again > Upgrade VM again 2 of 4 > You must continue Manually > Ok > Vista starts anyway > need device drivers > ok > find on internet > Ok > failed finding ethernet driver > Ok later > Ok > Upgrade Parallels > ok > Activate VM again > upgrading 3 of 4.....30 minutes > You need to continue Again again again restart Windows... 30 minutes > Locked up > reboot Mac > start Parallels > Activate VM again > Parallels tools not installed > ok > upgrading 4 of 4... 30 minutes > lock up > reboot mac > start Parallels > activate again > HOORAY VISTA IS RUNNING only an hour an 45 minutes later. Try to run windows update crash. Try to run Norton, crash!



    Try to run anything stalls for 1-2 minutes try again then waiting, waiting then error message Firefox unexpectedly quit but it is running anyway, SLOW SLOW SLOW .



    Everything is like molasses. You can't tell if anything is launching running whatever. Painting the screen is pathetically slow.



    Completely unusable.



    BTW before SL and before Parallels 5 version 3 with Vista was running perfectly.



    Just my experience your mileage may vary.
  • Reply 54 of 65
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Royboy View Post


    Well, I spent about 30 minutes on the phone last week talking with Microsoft. Since I only own a Window 98 OS disc, I would need to buy a complete Home Premium Windows 7 OS disc, and not an upgrade. I was told that if I has a .edu address, which my son does have, then I could get what I needed for $99 under the academic discount.



    I got the address and called back the next day. Now the story is that Microsoft doesn't sell a full edition, only upgrades, of Windows 7 under the academic account.



    So now I'm back to paying $199 for the full version of Home Premium Windows 7.



    Anybody know anything differently I can do to get it cheaper (legally)?



    Buy a Windows 7 upgrade disc, you don't need the full version. Go to newegg.com to order it the cheapest.



    You could go with a regular upgrade version which is transfferable

    or You can go OEM version but it will be tied to that machine after activation and will not be transferrable if you swap out your computer.
  • Reply 55 of 65
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Well, 5 hours later finally got everything working. Apparently, and not really a big surprise here, Windows must have been doing mystery installation stuff in the background which hindered the usability of the computer and caused erroneous messages to be displayed regarding the status of the installation progress.



    If I could offer any advise, it would be just walk away from the computer after each 'ok' click and come back in 30 minutes. If you have a lot of patience there is a reasonable chance you will eventually get a full installation - many hours later.
  • Reply 56 of 65
    djrumpydjrumpy Posts: 1,116member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by brujaz View Post


    You can do a clean install of Windows 7 from an upgrade disc, and have it successfully activate without having to install twice. I just followed the instructions from here.



    You could also buy an OEM version from a place like Newegg, and save some money.



    Your own link says the same thing. You must do a double install. The first to establish your 'previous version' and the second install on a separate partition.



    I've never seen such a stupid upgrade path in all my years.
  • Reply 57 of 65
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by robmack View Post


    Thanks



    You are welcome Maybe you didn't realize they just used a still image (the one I linked) for their ad and not an actual in-game shot of Crysis running in Parallels Desktop 5. Pretty cheap on their side...
  • Reply 58 of 65
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    Horrible experience with this upgrade. Completely unusable.



    Original configuration:



    Mac Book Pro 3,1

    4 gigs Ram

    Plenty of disk space



    Snow Leopard

    Previous installation of Parallels 3 (which was disabled by SL)

    Vista Home Premium previously installed



    Downloaded Version 5 ran install

    Choose >use virtual machine >Activate key> ok > indicated I needed to upgrade VM > Ok > upgrading..... 1/2 hour later... You need to continue manually > ok > insert Vista install disk and run setup.exe > I go find disk....returned to find Vista is already running > recovered from serious error you must restart > Ok > Shutting down windows.... 10 minutes > Activate Parallels again > Upgrade VM again 2 of 4 > You must continue Manually > Ok > Vista starts anyway > need device drivers > ok > find on internet > Ok > failed finding ethernet driver > Ok later > Ok > Upgrade Parallels > ok > Activate VM again > upgrading 3 of 4.....30 minutes > You need to continue Again again again restart Windows... 30 minutes > Locked up > reboot Mac > start Parallels > Activate VM again > Parallels tools not installed > ok > upgrading 4 of 4... 30 minutes > lock up > reboot mac > start Parallels > activate again > HOORAY VISTA IS RUNNING only an hour an 45 minutes later. Try to run windows update crash. Try to run Norton, crash!



    Try to run anything stalls for 1-2 minutes try again then waiting, waiting then error message Firefox unexpectedly quit but it is running anyway, SLOW SLOW SLOW .



    Everything is like molasses. You can't tell if anything is launching running whatever. Painting the screen is pathetically slow.



    Completely unusable.



    BTW before SL and before Parallels 5 version 3 with Vista was running perfectly.



    Just my experience your mileage may vary.



    Hmmm. So I had Parallels 4 and it worked fine. It had replaced Fusion 1.0/2.x which was slow and buggy for me, high CPU here and there for no reason. Anyhow Parallels 4.0 still worked for what I did (many windows vm's for sysadmin testing) when I did a clean install of Snow Leopard. Parallels 4.0 still worked with SL.



    However my main job at work is supporting a large ESX environment, so I wanted to go with Fusion being a VMware product. So I UN-INSTALLED Parallels 4.0 leaving my many Paralles 4.0 VM's on the drive.



    I then installed Fusion 3.0. I then tried to convert my Parallels 4.0 VM's. All of them failed with the same error after some time, telling me the VM's were not shut down properly, which was false. I then created a Windows 7.0 VM in Fusion 3.0, new and it worked as advertised.



    Fusion 3.0 is slower in Unity mode than Parallels 4.0, the windows glitch if drag them around. Parallels 4.0 did this as well, but way less. The Fusion Menu bar icon is nice, very similar to the dock icon in Parallels 4.0, however when I try to add icons to the list, many are NOT choosable, just not in the list. Things like Active Directory tools, which I use daily. I can drill down through that menu but I cant add them to the first level menu.



    Fusion 3.0 still lacks some tools like Cloning, or Cloning to a Template. This I find odd because VMware workstation on the PC has this and so does Parallels 4.0. Useful tools are just missing for users of VM products.



    Anyhow I bought the Paralles 5.0 upgrade yesterday. I UN-INSTALLED Fusion 3.0 and rebooted. People need to do these things. I installed Parallels 5.0. I opened several Parallels 4.0 VM's just fine and ......(Drum Roll).....I converted my Windows 7 Fusion 3.0 VM just fine. Parallels 5.0 is even smoother than 4.0 in Cohesion mode, which was already better that Fusion 3.0



    Parallels on the Mac is ahead of Fusion no doubt about it.
  • Reply 59 of 65
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Royboy View Post


    Well, I spent about 30 minutes on the phone last week talking with Microsoft. Since I only own a Window 98 OS disc, I would need to buy a complete Home Premium Windows 7 OS disc, and not an upgrade. I was told that if I has a .edu address, which my son does have, then I could get what I needed for $99 under the academic discount.



    I got the address and called back the next day. Now the story is that Microsoft doesn't sell a full edition, only upgrades, of Windows 7 under the academic account.



    So now I'm back to paying $199 for the full version of Home Premium Windows 7.



    Anybody know anything differently I can do to get it cheaper (legally)?



    if you go to newegg.com or fry's, you may be able to get an OEM full version for around $100 if you buy it with a qualifying piece of hardware like a stick of ram or hard drive or something. Good opportunity to upgrade something while getting the OS for 1/2 price. I think the rules for the OEM software are only that you get no formal support from microsoft.
  • Reply 60 of 65
    I've been using Parallels 5 Beta for the past couple of months and it is a rock solid app and runs Windows 7 very very smoothly.



    I've never heard of this Crystal View so I'm going to be doing more research on this.



    The fact it now also supports VMWare machines makes me know I'm going to be sticking to Parallels.



    I've tried VMWare 3 and it's alright but there's always something about Parallels that draws me back. I just prefer it for some reason.
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