Macworld Forums: Parallels Desktop 7 makes Windows-on-Mac fast, stable - Macworld Forums

Post your comments for Parallels Desktop 7 makes Windows-on-Mac fast, stable here

The anti-virus 90-day trial is a non-issue. Microsoft has finally ponied up and offers Security Essentials as a free anti-malware solution for Windows users, and in my experience it is very effective.

As someone with a newer Mac Pro and Radeon 5770 (and alot of RAM), would Parallels allow me to efficiently run MW3 for PC or no?

I wish Parallels all the luck in the world but as a Parallels user I've run out of apologies.

I had to buy Parallels 5 upgrade from 3 when 3 would not run on 10.5 or 10.6 (I forgot which/when). Now 5 is said not to run on 10.7 so I've postponed Lion on this machine no matter I own Lion and have it on another Mac. Where I have a little used license for VMware's Fusion 2 and Windows 2000 Pro. Forgot where I was and accidentally launched it, and it ran!

Well, that did it for me. Next upgrade to Parallels will be VMware Fusion.

After having suffered through Parallels 7 on my new generation Mackbook Air 13", I ended up having to go to VM Ware for stability. The Mac Genius folks told me that Parallels has been unstable on the Airs and that there wasn't much to be done about it (possibly related to the video chip set, but they couldn't be sure). The system was locking up and crashing at least 5 times per day. One important note, Parallels support is capital T terrible. They will give you some pointless advice and then tell you that the "case is closed." My IT guys actually laughed about how bad it is. That said, VM Ware seems to be more stable, and I haven't really had many system lock ups as a result. If only I could escape from Outlook...

JimH2, REALLY??! My family has a MacBook Air and did a lot of homework before deciding to buy Fusion or Parallels, including reading MacTech's extensive benchmark tests of Parallels 7 vs. Fusion 4 (http://www.mactech.c...marks-fall-2011), a MacBook Air specific review by Walt Mossberg in The Wall St. Journal (http://www.online.ws...0864428302.html) and a MacBook Air torture test review by Bloomberg BusinessWeek (http://news.business...VSP50J7PEVPP7I3). The benchmark tests results showed Parallels 7 blows away Fusion 4 in performance and stability, and the MacBook Air reviews said Parallels 7 and its mobile app for iPad an iPhone worked great. So we bought Parallels 7 which has performed great. We even love accessing our Mac and Windows applications from anywhere on our iPad. **If** your post is legitimate then I'm glad you've found something that works for you. But your post takes so many random jabs at Parallels that are the opposite of what objective experts and test results say, why don't you just admit you work for Fusion and that your post was sad attempt to sling mud at a great Parallels product?!

This post has been edited by FunnyGeek65: 17 November 2011 - 11:55 AM

 FunnyGeek65, on 17 November 2011 - 11:47 AM, said:

LOL. Pot? It's Kettle calling.

At least he didn't sling URL's, Throw in random useless features that no-one wants( iPad access) and ignore day to day usage issues.
That post was so written by someone from Parallels it is downright silly.


I have the exact same results running VMWare 4 and Parallels 7. VMware easily takes the cake for stability. Parallels is so focused on being pretty and dumbed down that it doesn't bother working on whats needed, functionality and stability. Having said that, I will add that BOTH recent updates (v7 for parallels, and v4 for VMWare) are starting to show their bloat on older( 2008 and before) macs.

This post has been edited by Tom: 17 November 2011 - 12:15 PM

 n4hhe, on 17 November 2011 - 09:02 AM, said:

I am still running Parallels 4. After upgrading to Lion it still appears to work, although I admit I haven't tested it extensively.

I've been using Parallels heavily for 3 years now and have always found it to be stable, fast and reliable. I run Win7, Google OS and Ubuntu with no issues and I have upgraded to Lion. It works so well that I have held off upgrading to 7! Why fix what works....and no, I don't work for Parallel. I carefully compared Parallels to VMware and I must admit that Parallels was the better deal. I have absolutely no problems and have not had one crash or issue. I'm sold on Parallels for life. Just a comment to the P-haters out there!

This post has been edited by d_tisdal: 17 November 2011 - 04:42 PM

Why pay money for Parrallels or VM Fusion when Virtual Box from Sun does the same thing for free?

Got a strange problem since upgrading from Parallels 6 to 7. Every time I start Win7 the virtual machine reloads my printer drivers. I've installed nine printers on my Macbook Pro, and all seven reload on the VM. I've been round the block with Parallels support techs, but their best advice was to load the drivers with Bonjour and skip the virtual printers. Not really a satisfying solution! Any suggestions?

 Steven Carter, on 17 November 2011 - 06:39 PM, said:

Wow... I totally forgot about Virtual Box. I just downloaded it and I'm running it now. Thanks for reminding me!

I switched from VMWare Fusion to Parallels several years ago because quite simply Parallels was faster. I honestly don't know if that's still the case or not, though other reviews seem to suggest that Parallels might have the edge still. I upgraded to Parallels 7 fairly soon after I upgraded to Lion because I had a batch of work to get done that required Windows and it worked flawlessly. I really like how the full screen support works, very convenient. I've done some lightweight testing with games with 7 and it's clearly better than 6, though to be honest I still use bootcamp for games, the performance difference is still to high to ignore. That said, Bastion was quite playable under Parallels 7, so not too shabby at all.

I've never seen the stability issues that other allude to with Parallels, and I've run version 5, 6 & 7, so clearly your mileage can vary.

All in all, I'm happy that I upgraded.

I was able to install a Lion VM on PD7 running Snow Leopard. I pointed PD7 to the Install Mac OS X Lion.app file, which showed up as the InstallESD.dmg within the app package. I don't think it had to download the entire Lion installer from the internet, but I can't confirm as I did have an internet connection.