Product Description

Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac makes it easy to run Windows, Linux, and more side-by-side with Mac OS X without rebooting. With Parallels¿ award winning virtualization technology, you can run Mac OS X and critical Windows applications such as Outlook, Access, QuickBooks, Internet Explorer and more, all at the same time. This new release of Parallels Desktop for Mac comes packed with 50+ new features and enhancements including the ability to drag-and-drop files between desktops, run Windows programs like native Mac applications and migrate your existing PC to your Mac. And with the Installation Wizard to help you get started, you¿ll be up and running in just three clicks of the mouse!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #161 in Software
• Brand: Nova Development US
• Model: WHMT
• Released on: 2008-11-11
• Platform: Mac OS X
• Format: CD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .70 pounds

Features

• Update to Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac with accelerated Windows 3D graphics, faster virtual machine performance, expanded USB device compatibility, improved Boot Camp support, Windows Beta 7 support and guest/host compatibility for Mac OS X Snow Leopard
• Advanced virtualization engine with lightning-fast performance--use Windows on your Mac without rebooting
• Run thousands of Windows applications at near native speed--Coherence 4.0 makes Windows programs run and act like Mac applications
• Install Windows XP and Vista in 3 easy steps--drag and drop files between Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS X
• Support for OpenGL and DirectX 9.0 3D graphics software including games

Amazon.com
With more than 1 million users worldwide, the award-winning Parallels Desktop for Mac is easier than ever to use with its brand new Mac user interface and lightning-fast performance. This new version is packed with dozens of new features that make running Windows programs on a Mac completely seamless.

Coherence 4.0 makes Windows programs run and act like Mac applications. Click to enlarge.

Run Mac OS X and Windows side-by-side. Click to enlarge.

Comprehensive internet security and privacy tools. Click to enlarge.

Performance and Innovation Make Parallels #1. Now Includes More than 50 Powerful New Features! Click to enlarge.

Product Update
This new update to Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac delivers brand new features plus performance enhancements including accelerated Windows 3D graphics, faster virtual machine performance, expanded USB device compatibility, improved Boot Camp support, Windows Beta 7 support and guest/host compatibility for Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

New Features in Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac

• DirectX 9.0 with Shaders Model 2 Support: Get smoother visuals for your 3D games and graphics programs.
• Seamlessly Start: Instantly launch Windows in Coherence mode on your Mac desktop for faster access.
• Apple Remote Disk Support: Access shared CD/DVD drives on another Mac from Windows, especially if you're running Windows on your MacBook Air.
• Windows 7 Beta Support: Preview the next version of Windows as a guest OS.
• Windows in Mac Dock: Open Windows files even faster by dragging them to Mac apps in Mac Dock.
• Mac OS X Snow Leopard Support: Test drive Snow Leopard as a guest and a host OS
• Plus additional performance and general enhancements, such as:
  
  
  • Improved USB device connectivity
  • Enhanced Coherence OS integration
  • Accelerated Windows 3D Graphics
  • Improved Boot Camp support
  • Better overall virtual machine performance

Run Windows on Your Mac the Easy Way. Right Alongside Mac OS X.
Parallels Desktop for Mac makes it possible to run Windows XP or Vista, Linux, and more side-by-side with Mac OS X without rebooting. With Parallels' award-winning virtualization technology, you can run Mac OS X and your favorite Windows applications at the same time. You can even drag-and-drop files between desktops! Launch Windows applications like Mac applications--right from your Mac's dock.

Parallels Desktop for Mac 4.0 is the biggest upgrade ever with over 50 new features. It also comes with a complete suite of essential tools you need to run Windows on a Mac. Parallels Desktop now ships with $175 in bonus software including Kaspersky Internet Security, Acronis Disk Director and Acronis True Image.

Lightning-fast performance
Parallels Desktop takes advantage of Intel Core Duo and Core 2 Duo processors and Intel VT-x hardware accelerated virtualization, for near-native speed and rock-solid performance. With support for up to 8 GB RAM, 2TB virtual hard disks and up to 4 CPUs, Parallels Desktop for Mac delivers maximum performance.

Unmatched Compatibility
Enjoy all the benefits of having a Mac and keep running the Windows programs you can't live without. Parallels Desktop for Mac runs thousands of Windows applications and is compatible with your favorite USB devices including mobile phones, printers, scanners and GPS devices. With Parallels Desktop you can run any version of Windows, including Vista and XP, as well as Linux, FreeBSD, even MS-DOS, at the same time as OS X! Parallels also supports running Mac OS X Leopard Server in a virtual machine.

Remotely manage your Parallels virtual machine with our Free iPhone App. Click to enlarge.

Comprehensive Protection and Privacy
Parallels Internet Security by Kaspersky protects your Windows programs from virus and spyware threats and even includes a firewall and anti-spam tools. Parallels Desktop also includes SmartGuard instant "snapshots" which make backup and recovery easier than ever.

Additional Features

• Advanced virtualization engine with lightning-fast performance
• Use Windows on your Mac without rebooting
• Install Windows XP and Vista in 3 easy steps
• Coherence 4.0 makes Windows programs run and act like Mac applications
• Run thousands of Windows applications at near native speed
• Support for OpenGL and DirectX 9.0 3D graphics software including games
• Drag and drop files between Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS X.
• Parallels Energy Saver maximizes notebook battery life
• Built-in Windows virus and spyware protection
• Migrate your existing PC to your Mac. Even import Boot Camp partitions and VMware Fusion virtual machines.
• Use iPhone to manage virtual machines
• Speech recognition support. Use your voice to control major Parallels commands.
• Unmatched Ease of Use

Includes $175 in Essential Windows Software

• Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 protects against virus and spyware threats, plus firewall and antispam. $79.99 value
  
  
• Acronis TrueImage Home backup and recovery software for Windows. $49.99 value (display image7.jpg)
  
  
• Acronis Disk Director Suite disk partitioning software for Windows. $49.95 value (display image8.jpg)

With more than 1 million users worldwide, the award-winning Parallels Desktop for Mac is the #1 Mac System Utility.*

90 Day Money Back Guarantee
If you are not completely satisfied with Parallels Desktop for Mac for any reason, you may return the software directly to Nova Development within 90 days of purchase for your money back.

*No. 1 claim based on NPD Techworld Reports for the period 8/1/06 - 8/31/08. Reviews and awards cited may be for previous versions of Parallels Desktop for Mac. Windows operating system sold separately.

Customer Reviews

Parallels over VMWare Fusion and VirtualBox
I have been a Windows user for 25 years and I have made the leap and replaced my Dell laptop with a MacBook. I am an application developer on the PC and Unix platform, and thus I run a lot of industry strength development packages and tools. I use Virtual PC to host different server environments on my Vista desktop, and on my laptop I run all kinds of server applications, from a Sybase database to a WebLogic web server. So when it came time for me to move to a Mac as my mobile platform, I needed a virtual environment for environment. With the adance of hardware assisted virtualization, now is the time.

I tried three virtualization packages - the Sun VirtualBox, VMWare Fusion, and Parallels. After hours experimentation and testing, I have decided on Parallels. Here are my findings.

VirtualBox is just not for prime time, lots of graphics corruption right out of the box. For instance, when you switch from full screen Windows to the OS X desktop, some of the Windows desktop would be left on the screen, obscuring the OS X screen. The interaction between the Windows desktop and the OS X desktops is not as seamless as that provided by Fusion and Parallels, and numerous other little things that detract from the overall user experience. So even though VirtualBox is free, it's not worth what I need to put up with.

VMWare Fusion and Parallels are actually very similar in how they work, and I don't see any difference in terms of performance. But after extensive usability testing I have found that Parallels gets more of the little things right. And it's the little things, the attention to details, that differentiates the excellent from the merely good.

For example, when you maximize a Windows application in Windows full screen mode under Fusion, the application would maximize to cover the Taskbar. Under Parallels, however, the application correctly maximizes to cover only the client area of the desktop not cover by the Taskbar. I know VMWare must know how a correct Windows application should behave, and I attribute this behavioral error to either that they were lazy or that they hoped people don't notice. Neither speaks well for the code that runs underneath the surface.

Another example, when you task switch using command-tab in OS X, you can tell which applications are Windows native applications because Parallels would superimpose the two vertical bars Parallels logo over the Windows application icons. Parallels gets credit for extra effort. Fusion on the other hand not only does not show you which applications are Windows apps, but cmd-tab is simply not implemented correctly in virtual Windows and thus task switch is almost impossible when you're not in unity mode (Windows and OS X apps side by side). Very bad.

Yet another example, you can access the entire collection of Mac applications right from the Windows desktop because Parallels sees fit to create shortcuts to all the Mac application right on the Windows Start menu and you can of course duplicate those short cuts anywhere in the Windows environment.

Example number four, you can control the boot sequence of the virtual machine using the Parallels application menu, while with Fusion you need to get in to the virtual machine's BIOS to do that - and the BIOS screen flashes by so fast you need to manually edit the configuration file to slow down the welcome screen so you can actually see which keys to hit to enter Setup or choose the boot device. This is another example of lazy application development.

And not to belabor the point, example number five, VMWare only emulates multiple processors, NOT MULTIPLE CORES, so that Core 2 Dual you got there is useless if you run XP Home which only supports a single processor.

Now I don't know about you, but speaking as a developer, I think thoroughness and thoughtfulness on the part of the user interface is a good indication of the amount of effort that has gone under the surface to make the application work right.

As far as Parallels' performance is concerned, this is what I found. Now I can't speak for gamers, as I don't play games on my laptop. But Parallels is able to run industrial strength servers and development environments on my 2.0GHz, 2GB dual core MacBook faster than my 1.7GHz, 2GB single core Dell. So it definitely does what I want it to. And if you only run Office or Quicken, then you have nothing to worry about.

If you have made a transition to OS X and need a virtual environment to run your Windows apps, I encourage you to go download the trial versions of both Fusion and Parallels and do the testing yourself, using the applications that you want to use. Give it some time and don't get too excited by the initial wow factor of seeing your Windows application and your OS X application coexist side by side. Be thorough and dig deep, and you will find the choice you really want to live with day to day. And mine happens to be Parallels.

vastly improved, speedier, many useful features
Parallels Desktop for Mac version 4 is a major upgrade, yet, same price as previous version. I had issues with the speed of version 3, but no more provided you have sufficient RAM ( 2+).

It installs effortlessly, in my case I was upgrading, and it was easy, saved all my doc's that were on my Windows XP Pro deskstop, and creates Virtual Machines of BootCamp and Windows XP that I had installed. Then it goes thru a well done video tutorial or you can just go to work. I had issues on my iMac, new in March '09 with installing the new HP Wireless printer. I tried the online database from Parallels, and it wasn't too good helping me. So next I tried a Tech Support person from India, who's knowledge of Windows and Mac were mediocre. Rather than a simple check list of things we could go through, he waste much time, and in the end, didn't fix the issue, so daily new emails came to me to try things, finally, I asked a fellow Alaskan Apple Users Grp member for assistance. He had it fixed and installed in half hour. Part of the problem was that Parallels includes a Virus software free, with a yearly subscription of updates, and it was installed, and it's built in Firewall, was stopping the printer drivers from being installed correctly.

The many new features of Parallels v 4 are important to note. First of all, you'll see how much quicker it loads after it's revised and much improved 3 click installation that detected my Windows XP, and you can click it's icon in the dock where you can access Windows programs or your Mac apps. Another feature I liked was drag and drop between Windows or Mac, like attaching a doc to Outlook Express or Mail. The ability to open files in either platform was good. and since Spaces works too, I found I could use more desktop areas/spaces and have more open windows. I liked the new clip tool that let's me attach a screen shot via Mac's copy/paste clipboard. or The Shared Folders feature allowed me easily move files between both OS.

I noted more speed in Parallels, but it still could be better on a MacBook with only 1 Gig of Ram. My 4 GIG iMac was fine. Windows 3D features are now active, I didn't play any games, but did see they are now up and running. I did try out a new game, that's Windows only, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventure, and it worked well for me, the novice gamer. As I started to explore more of the new features, each was helpful, like PowerSafe, that extends battery life, great for the portable. I also noted less forced shut downs here too. Most welcome. When I plugged in my iPod, Parallels asked me if I wanted it to match it to Mac or Parallels.

All in all, a welcome new way to run Windows, and be able to use your Mac at the same time. I'd recommend it.

Here are Software Requirements:

Primary Operating System: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (including Leopard and experimental support for Snow Leopard) or higher running on an Intel® Mac.
Hardware Requirements

Mac Computer Support for any 32- or 64-bit Intel®-based Mac:

iMac
Mac mini
MacBook
MacBook Pro
MacBook Air
Mac Pro Tower
Processors Support for any 32- or 64-bit Intel® Core Duo processor featured in new Intel® Macs::

Intel® Core Solo
Intel® Core Duo
Intel® Core 2 Duo
Intel® Dual-Core Xeon
Includes full support for Intel Virtualization Technology (VT)
Memory Requirements 1 GB of RAM (2 GB recommended to run Windows Vista). Support for any memory configuration (up to 16 GB), without modifying your host system
Disk Space Software Installation -- 450 MB of available hard drive space for Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac installation (plus space to allocate to your virtual machine.)

Virtual Machine Installation -- Hard drive space allocation for virtual machines is dependent upon the guest operating system. 15 GB of available hard drive space is recommended per virtual machine for Windows and Linux.

CD-ROM CD-ROM drive for installation (if applicable)

Networking: Internet connection is required to receive online Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac product updates

Display: 16-bit or 32-bit display adapter recommended

Hardware Requirements:

Processor: Virtualized Processor of host Mac
Motherboard: Generic motherboard compatible with Intel i815 chipset
Memory: Up to 8GB RAM available for each virtual machine
Keyboard: 104-key Windows enhanced keyboard
Mouse: PS/2 wheel mouse
Display: VGA and SVGA with VESA 3.0 support
3D Graphics support (DirectX9.0 with Shaders Model 2, DirectX Pixel Shaders and OpenGL 2.0)
Intel® Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE4) support
IDE Drives Up to 4 IDE Devices; CD/DVD-ROM Drives, Virtual Hard drives or any combination of the two. Virtual Hard Drive from up to 2TB each
Floppy Drives 1.44 Floppy drive mapped to FDD image file
CD Drives CD/DVD-ROM drives mapped to physical drive, ISO or DMG image file

Burn CDs and DVDs directly in virtual machines, play audio CDs, and read data from copy-protected CDs and DVDs.
Sound Card AC'97-compatible sound card. Sound recording is supported
Serial Ports Up to four Serial (COM) Port mapped to a socket or to an output file
Parallels Ports Up to three bi-directional parallel (LPT) ports mapped to output file
Ethernet© Cards Up to 16 Virtual NICs
Ethernet virtual network card compatible with RTL8029 bridged to Apple Ethernet or Apple Airport adapter, connected to host-only or shared networking
USB Ports: USB 2.0 support; 8 USB 2.0 ports and 2 USB 1.1 ports

Amazed at how seamless this program works
I recently upgraded from a workhorse Win98 PC home system that I've had for nearly a decade to a new iMac. (I've used Macs at my place of business for years, so was familiar with them and shared files between systems fairly seamlessly.)

Since I had some legacy software and hardware that I didn't want to re-purchase and upgrade (or were simply not available for Mac), I had Windows XP pre-installed with Parallels Desktop at the time I purchased my iMac. (I also upgraded the RAM memory to 4 Gigs.)

I am experienced enough to be skeptical about the claims of software out of the box. But because of Parallels, my migration from my Win98 system to my new iMac has been amazingly painless, straightforward and seamless. (Obviously, whoever installed the system set it up exactly as I needed it to be configured).

In addition to getting my old Quickbooks 2001 and Quicken 2003 software to run perfectly fine within Windows XP on the system, I even got an 11x17 scanner that was only compatible with Windows to work perfectly on the first try in the new system, and an old Epson printer that had no Mac drivers can print from both the Mac and Windows sides!! (I did track down some Mac drivers thanks to a community of software people who are committed to creating drivers for all printers for all operating systems.)

It runs seamlessly in the background, and I am able to share folders and files back and forth with no problem. I have a lot of memory, but I only open Parallels and Windows when I need it, I don't open it automatically at startup.

I'm so happy that the advent of Intel chip Macs and great software like Parallels has made the Mac/PC divide virtually non-existent!