Parallels Desktop 9 for Mac

I was a long time user of VMWare. But It had a lot of problems and didn't use it much. I only used it because it was what we used at work and the VMs were compatible between Widows and MAC. Now I've migrated to Parallels Desktop 9 with Windows 7 and I love it. I've been using it for four months now. I haven't looked back.Complaints by other reviewers that Parallels only supports two versions previous to the current don't hold water as that is the same as Apple for OS X. Parallels is currently only $67 on Amazon. Not all that expensive.Pros:- You can run individual Windows programs as if they were MAC programs with Parallels Coherence (a feature of Parallels Desktop). There are still programs that only run on Windows (my Glucose Meter database is one)- A Parallels VM can have complete access to the MAC's file system- The MAC can have complete access to the Windows File system- If you have an Office 365 Home subscription, you can have MS Office installed on both OS X and Windows - Offce 2011 on MAC and Office 2013 on Windows. If you try to open (using "Open with") an Office file within the VM you will be asked if you want to use the MAC or Windows version of Office- When you plug in a USB device you are asked if you want OS X or Windows to have it- If Windows has access to the OS X filesystem, then a full NORTON Antivirus scan will check both filesystems for viruses, trojans, spyware, etc.Cons:- If you give OS X and Windows access to each other's filesystems, you need to install a Windows antivirus program (such as NORTON) to keep a Windows virus from trashing your OS X filesystem.- OS X's Time Machine will warn you that the VM may run slow when it is doing a backup every time it runs a backup. This is annoying, but you can turn this off. My MAC has 16GB of memory and I've allocated 4GB to the VM, so it never runs noticeably slow.- The VM uses a significant amount of disk space (I've allocated up to 20GB for now). However, it grows the space as needed until the maximum designated.- Changes in OS X versions may require an upgrade to Parallels since the software uses very low level APIs and drivers whose nature may change when OS X changes. New versions of Parallels may not be immediately available when OS X changes versions.- You have to buy your own copy of Windows ($99-$299 depending on version) as Parallels Desktop is merely a host for a foreign OS on MAC

INSTALLATIONThis product was relatively easy to install on my rMBP, along with Windows 7. It works flawlessly, with one annoying exception.GLITCH with PRINTINGI purchased this product for one reason: to run certain proprietary software an hour a day that requires Windows. Originally I was unable to print. Tech support eventually solved this. Problem is, each morning when I open Windows, I have to reset the default printer to the Parallels virtual printer. When I exit out of Parallels, the default printer check mark shifts to a grayed-out printer icon. Apparently there's no way to fix this.PARALLELS' PRODUCT SUPPORTI give them a B plus. I called, and after 15 minutes was speaking with a tech. They're located in Manilla, Philippines. He was pleasant enough, but not especially adept at dealing with new issues. It was I who suggested we re-download the printer driver, and later, that we reboot the computer. This was needed, but didn't solve the issue. To his credit, he was able to take it from there. However, I wasn't thrilled that he was all too willing to quickly settle for the work-around. I cajole him to try other things, which he did, but they proved futile anyway.WINDOWS 8.1I'm thinking I should have gone with Windows 8.1, rather than 7; and that this would have prevented the problem, since my printer is new. I may try upgrading, even thought I despise navigating in 8.1. But I really don't spend much time in Windows, and once there, don't need to navigate much.BETTER THAN BOOT CAMPThe glitch does bug me a bit, given that I've spent over $4,000 on new hardware and software. However, resetting the default printer once a day is easier than re-booting in Boot Camp. So buying Parallels was the right move.

I used to be a PC user (my first computer was the original IBM PC1), but I got tired of Windows always crashing, getting the blue screen of death, etc. I bought a Mac Book Pro, and originally used Bootcamp for the Windows programs I still used (Quicken, SportsTracks, etc). However, it was a pain to shutdown the computer and restart with Bootcamp to run Windows. I had read good reviews of Parallels, so decided that was a better way to go. I was extremely disappointed. First, it took almost as long to load the virtual Parallels machine as it did to restart Bootcamp. But the worse was that the performance was horrible. It literally took at least 10x longer to do anything. You would click on something, and about 10 seconds later, it would gradually open. Everything was like pulling teeth. I suffered with it for about 2 months, and then decided to toss it in the trash, and reinstall Bootcamp. At least once I am in Windows in Bootcamp, the computer performs great. I should say my computer is less that a year old, and I bought the largest hard disk and memory that was available. Still I would get notices that extremely heavy disk usage was occurring with Parallels.