Parallels Desktop Switch to Mac Edition 7.0 (Mac)

I'm reviewing this on a Mid 2011 i7 imac with 16Gb of RAM running Lion. I'm a novice OSX user but technical Windows user.

I already had Parallels 6 installed, so this was really just an upgrade for me - I have already moved my Windows system into a VM but this took about 12 hours over a gigabit LAN. The windows image was around 1Tb. When it completed, the Windows install worked flawlessly. Everything was working as it should be and worked well. The software added it's own virtual drivers in device manager and has no issues with these. That was obviously done under Parallels 6, and I'm assuming that under 7 it will work just as well if not better - the package contains a high speed USB lead which I suspect would have cut down those 12 hours!

Upon sticking the DVD into the mac it checked the web site and gives the option of using the DVD install media or downloading the latest version from the web. This option works well and is obviously needed on a Macbook Air for example (no optical media on those!)

I created a Boot Camp image, and again this was very easy to do. Once installed it there is an update with some tools to help manage the Windows environment from within OSX. Running Parallels as VM is perfectly fine. It works with all windows apps and even allows you to play games through it. As you would expect though there is a small performance hit running this way, but booting directly into Boot Camp gives you a performance boost - I only use boot camp for those most demanding games, but even then not that often as you can run most things from the Mac. I do have to run Modern Warfare 3 from Boot Camp however, but this is to be expected.

It's very easy to share files between environments and runs fine in the background - I have run video encodes in the windows machine in the background and used the Mac with no issues at all. The updated version also cures something that drove me mad - whenever I opened up a VM it would shrink all other open windows to about half the size for some reason. This has now been fixed :)

Minor irritation is that it asks to install Kaspersky every so often - you do however get a free 90 trial for both Windows & iMac environments, a nice touch.

Another nice touch is the video tutorials you get with it. This covers more than you would expect. For example -

Intro to Lion, Launchpad & Dashboard, gestures, Email, Safari, iTunes, iCal all feature in the videos. You also get a lot of info using Windows and Mac environments as to be expected, but you also get details on how to optimise for performance and preserve battery life (up to 20% more!)

When you register you also get access to Parallels Mobile that lets you access any VM's (and iMac) from a iPad, touch or iPhone. It's a clever feature, but not sure how useful or relevant for myself - as such I didn't use it!

I should also point out that I don't use any of the mixed modes that are available (modality, coherence) as I prefer to keep my systems separate as I tend to use them for specific tasks

For anyone who wants to run Windows from a Mac, either in a VM or real mode, then I'd strongly recommend this software. It's about as good as you can get performance wise and works well with lots of bells and whistles. Not all were relevant to me, but sure others would get value from them.

I use this software everyday and think it is something that is genuinely useful and helps me get more done without fighting the technology.

Highly recommended

The conversion using Parallels Desktop Switch to Mac Edition 7.0 (Mac)
Was much easier than I was expecting. I had bought my MAC with dual booting installed. Unfortunately the windows side did not work as I expected. Now I have used the Parallels software I am almost completely happy. It picked up all the data I had accumulated on my windows computer, some of it was duplicated and the duplicates are now on my MAC. This will be cleared over the next few weeks.

I notice that this version of Parallels would also permit installation of one or more Linux operating systems.

The only limit appears to be the size of the disc in my Mac.

With a great of scepticism, I elected to transfer a Sony Viao laptop onto a new MacBook Pro 15".

The key point is: that the transfer, and resulting virtual machine exceeded all expectations.

If you want to save time, stress, effort get this. It's works even for people who hate doing nerdy techy stuff. There are little video clips that show you what to do. It's a piece o' p1'ss.

Other highlights:

+ You can use Mac keyboard shortcuts in Windows-mode

+ Windows programmes can be accessed by iPad & iPhone

+ On my Mac Mini (which has 8GB or RAM) everything feels lightning fast.

If you want to save some money, you can just get Parallels Desktop 7.0 (Mac) if you are technically competent, and don't mind copying files over manually. (It really depends on what your TIME is worth to you).

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PS - If you really are hard up for cash, you could try installing the free VirtualBox by Sun; it let's you emulate Windows software on a Mac. Is it difficult? Unless you _enjoy_ troubleshooting and nerdery, just get Parallels