[NJRonbo]

I may be ready to buy my first Macintosh today. Going full-tilt
with a Mac Pro 2.66 Dual Core and 2GB ram.

I own a crapload of Windows programs. In fact, my entire business
runs with Windows programs so essentially, I'll be buying a Mac to
run Windows. This is fine as I am sure I'll slowly migrate over to
Macintosh for some functions.

I do not want to use boot camp.

My entire Mac existence will rely upon Parallels. I have a few
questions I hope that all of you will answer though I am sure it
has all been answered countless times before....

1. Is there a considerable slowdown either to the outside Mac or
inside Windows environment using Parallels?

2. Can I keep both environments (Mac and Parallels) running at
the same time and switch between both? In other words, as a
far out example, can I have my webcam outputting in MAC but
use my Windows based Instant messenger in Parallels at the
same time?

3. Will Parallels run FULL SCREEN so it actually looks like I am
on a PC computer?

4. All my business is run through Microsoft Office. I want to keep
my 2007 Windows version as I paid a premium to buy it. Can I
effortlessly continue to run Windows Office under 2007 including
using CONTACT for email and synching with my PDA?

5. When you hook up a PDA or other device through USB that
you want to use with PARALLELS, does it get recognized by the
Mac OS to run on MAC or by Parallels? Some I want recognized
by Parallels, some by Mac. Is there always an easy way to
differentiate between the two?

6. Great Question: Running Windows in Parallels under Mac.....do
you get software conflicts and blue screen crashes associated with
the problems you get on a PC -or- does the Mac environment help
stabilize things?

7. Will Parallels run Vista?

8. Am I better off buying Parallels on CD with my Mac Pro or go
to the Parallels website and download from them? I think downloading
may give me the latest version that may be compatible with Vista.


I know I asked a lot of questions. This is a huge purchase
decision based on the fact that I am new to this OS and I am a
power Windows user who needs to *slowly* migrate to Mac.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[crazycylon]

1. there does not appear to be much of a slow down. My only comparions is a Toshiba Satellite P4 I which is much slower than my intel iMac when using XP pro in Parallels. So from my personnal perspective I do not perceive a slow down. System appears very snappy.

2. ?

3. Yes it will run in full screen mode.

4. Don't see why not. But there may be an software hardware authenication.

5. ?

6. No stability would not be improved as Parallels allows XP to use intel chip natively etc. Just like running on a window PC. Only difference is if there is a crash you end back up in the OS X environment.

7. Yes they claim it will. http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/

8. Either way you can update Parallels to most current version.

[NJRonbo]

Question about printing in Windows via Parallels

If I set up a wireless printer on my MAC will Windows under
Parallels be able to share with that printer?

In other words, do I need to set up a wireless printer under
Windows as well as Mac or will Windows find the Mac printer
I have already set up?

[markheller]

When Parallels is running, it runs as a program and within a window on your Mac desktop, so both your Mac and Windows Xp installations are running simultaneously.

With certain features, like USB ports, you assign the port to Parallels if / when you need it. You're possibly going to run into trouble if you want to use a device connected to a specific port and have it be active both in Win XP and in the Mac at the same time. (In other words, the device won't switch between Parallels and Mac just by your clicking in the appropriate window.

For your XP world, you might want to consider boot camp when you need a mostly Windows environment, as you'll see somewhat better video performance under boot camp than you do under the current version of Parallels. If you pursue this option, note that the beta version of Parallels (build 3106 or later) can be configured to boot off of the boot camp installation of Win XP, so that you don't have to have two installs of Windows on your Mac.

If your windows world requires a lot of devices to be connected via USB, this can be a problem, as there are some reports of certain USB devices not being happy under Parallels (or under boot camp) so you should browse the forums and see what you can see about your particular devices of interest.

Note that Apple may not support your machine if you have boot camp installed as it is still officilaly in beta, and if it causes issues with OS X Apple tech support has told me that I'm on my own.

I have successfully used a network printer under Parallels and Bootcamp, and used the wireless network connection under both, so I assume (but have not tested) that a wireless printer will work. Only issue for me so far: driving an external VGA monitor or projector under boot camp; if you need to go in this direction you'll have better luck using a DVI external monitor or projector. Parallels does better, but without video acceleration and limited color depth.

Note that you have to format the boot camp Windows partition as Fat 32 if you want to be able to see it from the Mac desktop, which limits its size to 32GB; make sure your Win XP installation, programs and data can fit within this;

Good luck in your endeavor.

[ghporter]

Since Parallels is just a Mac (and please, not "MAC"-that is an acronym for "media access control" and not specific to the Macintosh platform) program, you would have the entire OS X environment available at all times. This is a Very Good Thing in most cases, as it allows you to do things like copy and paste from one environment to the other. It's also THE BEST WAY to take advantage of the Mac and all of its features.

However, while Parallels is much better today than it was in its earlier incarnations, it's still a virtual machine running under OS X and thus has some limitations. In particular, they still haven't worked out all the kinks in virtualizing the hardware properly, so as you'll see in discussions here there are problems from time to time in getting some hardware properly supported.

If you want a "real" Windows environment that has 100% access and control of 100% of the hardware, Boot Camp is the way to go. Boot Camp partitions a drive (you can install a separate drive on a Mac Pro and completely isolate the OS X and Windows installations) and runs the XP installer, as well as providing drivers for the Mac-specific hardware. With Boot Camp you are running XP natively, as if it were running on a (very well made and integrated) PC. You boot into Windows, it runs "normally" and you can do ANY and EVERYTHING with it that you could with any other machine that runs XP. If your business depends on these Windows programs THIS is the way to go. These are, of course, my opinions, but I think I have enough experience on both sides of the issue to say that they are educated and well-informed opinions.