Parallels Desktop 5.0 English (Mac)
Parallels Desktop 5.0 English (Mac)
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In December 2009 I bought Parallels Desktop 5.0 English (Mac) as it promised seamless operation of Windows and its applications on a Mac. I immediately experienced problems with stability of MS Office applications – Word and Outlook – and contacted Parallels throught their telephone helpline (in the US) and by email. Despite removing and reloading the program and implementing the Parallels support team’s suggestions and updates, the instability with Word and Outlook remains. The crashes happen often, but not exclusively, when performing a spell check or find function in Word or Outlook. The last suggested ‘fix’ from the support team was to contact Windows. However, I have the same versions of Windows Ultimate 7 and MS Office 2007 working perfectly on my Dell desktop PC so believe the problem is with Parallels and not Windows or Office. The support team appears to lack knowledge of this product and seems extremely keen to close down the reported fault before a solution has been found. I believe Parallels 5 has been put on the market without first being fully tested and debugged to make it compatible with Windows Ultimate 7 and MS Office 2007. Working with Word and Outlook on my MacBook Pro with Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6 is frustrating and anything but seamless. On the plus side the other MS Office applications work OK. My advice would be to consider buying another Mac/Windows application, or wait until this one is fully debugged.
Rating: 2 / 5
If you want to save time rebooting to use bootcamp this does the job very well. It was easy to set up and administer. The thing I like most about VM’s is that if you think there is a problem with the system just delete the vm and start again. It also keeps all those nasty windows dlls etc away from you nice tidy mac os.
Rating: 4 / 5
I would avoid this company. Having purchased v4 very recently (only 6 weeks ago), they now want to charge me to upgrade. Without the new version I cannot do Windows 7, but with this company they keep wanting to just take your money. what is more, the upgrade path takes ages (nothing online, nothing electronic, but their customer services have to “look at your case” to see it they even allow you an chargeable upgrade).
Some companies will treat their customers fairly, others like this one are just money grabbing and want more.
Remember if you buy this, a new version out is a few weeks will cost you.
Personally I will never buy anything more from this company (Parallels) as their upgrade policy more than stinks.
Rating: 1 / 5
This rates as one of the worst software packages I have had to endure – thank goodness that Amazon is such a good supplier and I was able to return it for a full refund. The core of the software is obviously no longer on my machine – but bits and pieces still seem to appear weeks later. The instructions are misleading and the technical support is terrible – a protracted process to get a ticket/allocation number and then a series of support people who don’t read the text you send and provide standard replies to things you don’t need or have tried already. (Eventually you will of course reach some good people).
The biggest problem is the transfer facility – this simply did not work and when it fails there is a small box that tells you that – but it is hidden behind the main screen and only becomes visible when you stop and close down the transfer operation. In the end – the only way to transfer across is (it appears) to get a special lead or a large portable drive.It doesn’t say that on the box however!
This product is intended to run Windows on the Mac as a virtual machine, so I’m assuming it is intended for people like me – familiar with Windows but not so good with Mac software. If so – forget it. It was the most frustrating event ever and I’ll try something else once the frustration of dealing with this product has gone.
Rating: 1 / 5
@ Deimos Actually you might want to take a look at parallels website, and you will see they are offering a free upgrade to version 5, if you purchased version 4 after october 1st. 2009.
From what i have read it appears that parallels has this time beaten VMWares fusion in the speed and compatability stakes, who knows how long that will last though, but right now it looks like this is the best option.
Rating: 3 / 5