| ![Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac [OLD VERSION]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XBcQjLHKL._SL500_.jpg)
| From: Nova Development US
List Price: $79.99
Buy New: $44.90
You Save: $35.09 (44%)
New (32) Used (7) from $38.99
Rating:  271 reviews
Sales Rank: 230
Format: Cd-rom
Platform: Mac Os X Intel
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Standard
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Operating System: Mac OS X Intel
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 1.5 x 7.5 x 5.2
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: 100722
Model: 23707
UPC: 727298404005
EAN: 0727298404005
ASIN: B000GHIV2Q
Release Date: July 17, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: SAME 2008 RETAIL BOX VERSION 3.0 AS DISPLAYED WITH INTACT (UPC) BAR CODE FOR REGISTRATION,UPGRADE & TECH SUPPORT ELIGIBILITY * CONTAINS ALL PRODUCT LICENSES ,WARRANTIES, REGISTRATION NUMBERS & USER GUIDE * NEED IT NOW? SAME DAY SHIPPING BY A VETTED 5 STAR STAFF THAT E-MAILS YOU A USPS DELIVERY CONFIRMATION NUMBER SO YOU CAN TRACK YOUR ORDER FROM OUR DOOR TO YOURS FOR WORRY FREE TRANSACTIONS!
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 11-15 of 271
 Simply extraordinary August 16, 2006
Setsuko Tonai (San Antonio, TX)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
Never thought I'd see the day where I'd open up my laptop with a big white apple on the cover and see Windows running inside - better, faster and more reliably than on any other computer on the planet! Parallels is simply amazing. Can't imagine you could ever be disappointed with this software. It's an engineering marvel and a beautiful application.
 Unpolished But Still Amazing October 20, 2006
Joaquin Menchaca (San Jose, CA USA)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
This software has a lot of quirks and crashed on some environments (see notes below), but still the potential of what this software does is just amazing and the potential is incredible.
I mostly run Windows XP, and I do not notice any performance degradation, and I utilize this for a variety of chores in development, scripting, and Windiows system administration. I also do presentations, documentation, and accounting (Office, QuickBooks). It works flawlessly in this regard. I switch back between Windows and Mac OS X often without problems. I only have to limit the number of programs I run on both environments given that I only have 1 gig of memory.
Note, contrary to one reviewer stating that this is an emulator, that is not true. This is a virtual machine that uses some hypervisor technology. Essentially, it is almost like running a full Windows on your box, and is very similar to how VMWare works, except slightly better in some aspects.
Overall, this product is great and essential. There's no need to run one OS at a time through BootCamp, as this solution will work. It may have some rough edges as it has an unpolished feel, but it just works, and for that, I purchased this after trying the evaluation.
Crash Notes:
- booting up on Windows Vista RC1 DVD (distributed at SANS convention) crashes Parallels. (reported this)
- changing screen resolutions for testing with Mandriva Linux installation (xorg) crashes Parallels.
Anoyances:
- ALT-ENTER goes to DOS mode (when command shell windows is in foreground) as well as enter into full-screen. ALT-ENTER again switches out of DOS mode, but switches out of full-screen.
- Windowed Mode: window dimesions grow outside of screen-resolution, cannot resize and get scroll bars. This forces you to go to full-screen.
- Mac OS X envioronment: virual network device on Mac OS X is created (en2), but doesn't appear through any user interface or even Profiler, but appears in commands. Wierd behavior with this and default routes.
- Windowed Mode: cannot easily mount floppies, CD-ROMs, etc, by dragging them on icons in Window. Would be nice behavior, but then Parallels window extends beyond the Mac's screen depth.
- Full-Screen Mode: some mac dialogs super-impose over full-screen mode, cannot click on things behind Mac window.
- Windowed Mode: moving cursor across Doc inside Parallel's window causes cursor to interact with dock, but then it's still glued to dimensions within Parallels environment.
- other bizarre issues where cursors between Mac and Windows seem to fight for control. Don't hit key combination for using Dashboard widgets!
- Multi-Screen: if Windows on another monitor (full-screen), no way to return control to Macintosh cursor. Have to switch out of full screen mode in order to regain control of cursor, which sort of defeats the point of having multiple monitors and Parallels.
 Good Product, One Major Limitation, EXTREMELY Poor Support January 19, 2007
Stan Dubin
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
I've had Parallels Desktop for Mac for a few weeks now. For the most part, it works very well. When booting or shutting down, it pretty much ties up the Mac, but that isn't the end of the world. What was very disappointing is that the program does not recognize the Express Card slot. I have a Verizon air card in there and I take my Mac around to do demonstrations that REQUIRE the Windows version of Internet Explorer.
Okay, that's also not the end of the world, but I really wanted some help on this and like other reviewers here, reading through their manual and FAQs, I was somewhat snowed by technical jargon. The effort to make their educational material understandable to the "rest of us" simply wasn't present. Initially I was not able to find in their materials that the Express Card was not supported, so I tried to contact them for help.
So I emailed them. And waited their obligatory 72 hours. Then emailed again. 72 hours later, I emailed them again. After one more block of 72 hours, I was finally convinced they wanted me to pay the $30 for a phone "incident." I paid it. Then I called and got their answering machine. Left a detailed message. Two days later and no return call, I called back. Same thing. Machine, left message, no return call. After a week of this, I called American Express and asked for the $30 to be returned to my card due to non-delivery of the service.
They've got a product that has many strong points. But someone in an executive capacity at Parallels has to realize you just can't ignore your customers on tech support lines. Well, I guess you can, but then realize the fact that more and more of us will post reviews like this and eventually that erodes sales.
Best Software of 2006! August 16, 2006
Steve Bauer (Portland, OR)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I was using Bootcamp on my MacBook Pro and got tired of rebooting to get back into XP all the time. With Parallels I now never have to reboot and can run Windows and Mac in their own Windows. This is my favorite product of 2006 by a landslide!
I'm very impressed May 14, 2007
C. Stull (Scottsdale, AZ USA)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
I saw Parallels demonstrated this week in the Apple booth at Software 2007. It looked pretty slick so I prepared to order it on Amazon until I saw the reviews complaining about documentation, bugs, performance, and support.
I returned to the Apple booth the next day and there were two reps from Nova Development. They were knowledgeable and very helpful. As for support, they admitted that it was a bad situation. Their business plan was to sell 10,000 copies in the first year and they have sold hundreds of thousands. The demand cratered their support lines... not an excuse, just a fact of life. They hope to get it resolved, but that takes time.
As for documentation, they said it was developed in Russia and the manuals were written in "Ringlish." Again, they are "working on it."
So I threw the dice and bought a copy of Parallels and WinXP from Amazon. The installation was a snap if you use the manual as a "guideline" versus taking it literally. I am new to the MAC yet I had no problems at all. Yes, the manual could/should be better but I had Parallels and WinXP running in less than 30 minutes.
I didn't need support so I cannot comment but it is safe to say you are probably on your own for now. The manual has a lot of info in it and actually is quite helpful, but the install routine did most of the work for me.
A few thoughts, 1. You have to have a full version of WinXP so don't whine that it doesn't come with Parallels. Do you really think an $80 product is going to include a $160 product free?? 2. Don't even think about Parallels if you don't have the horsepower. I have a 4 core MAC PRO with 8 gig of memory and WinXP is blindingly fast. An XP reboot from beginning to end is about 10 seconds. I've never seen XP so fast. I'm not saying you need this much processing power, but a small machine will probably choke on virtual machines. 3. This is a relatively new product so some things are not perfected yet. With the large and growing user base, I expect to see all sorts of enhancements over time. The only big hole I see at this time is gaming. Maybe later.
Overall, this is a fabulous product. If you have doubts after reading the negative posts, I encourage you to give it a try anyway. I did and am very happy and impressed.
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