April 1st, 2009
As many regular readers will know (stop here Marg!) I have moved from being a PC person to a Mac person. With that move though my work still requires that I use Microsoft products or software that only runs on a PC.
So with that in mind I invested in the new Parallels Desktop 4.0 software for the Mac. This brilliant software allows you to run virtual machines within your Mac operating system. Having installed Parallels 4.0 Desktop, it was then very simple to install Microsoft Vista Ultimate as a virtual machine.
What I have been so impressed with is just how easy it is to use both Mac applications AND Vista applications on my MacBook Pro under what Parallels calls coherence mode. This for me effectively means I still just have one desktop but I can use either a Mac application or a Vista application at the same time, without rebooting or opening up separate windows.
I can cut and paste as normal; I can access the same documents on either operating system using the new Shared Folders functionality and with SmartMount, access to my DVD drive and USB sticks is seamless. All of which can still be backed up using the Apple MacBook Pro Time Machine software. The only minor thing I don’t like about it, is that on standard install if you edit a file using a Vista application, it remembers this and should you try to edit that file again, while the parallels virtual machine is not running, it will automatically start parallels for you. To get round this I had to reset the default application for many of my files.
Anyway, as the quote from MacWorld on the Parallels website says “If your job requires Windows, but you love your Mac and OS X, Parallels will truly give you the best of both worlds.”
I Agree. Despite the minor problem mentioned above, I think it is brilliant and for less than £50 quid, a bargain to boot.
Pryordurkin rating 4 stars.
Posted in Shopping