Return to Parallels

MacUser ^ | December 08, 2006 | Dan Moren

[GOP Jedi]

I finally had a chance to revisit Parallels today, after my brief dive into the new beta last week. At that point, I’d complained that I couldn’t get the coherence mode to work, and I had a handful of other little gripes. One of my astute readers asked if I’d installed the Parallels Tools. I thought I had, given that I’d installed them on Boot Camp before launching Parallels, but it turns out that there are two separate sets of Parallels Tools, the second of which are installed from inside Parallels Desktop (Actions -> Install Parallels Tools…). So this afternoon, when I had some spare time, I fired those up, and restarted my Virtual Machine.

Me = blown away.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Parallels chugs my processor power like nobody’s business (on my Core Duo 2.0Ghz MacBook, it uses on average, the equivalent of one core) as well as eating up a decent chunk of my RAM, I’d have this sucker running all the time. The only downside, at the moment, is that since I’m using the Boot Camp partition for Parallels as well, you cannot suspend it (probably because it has to access the actual disk).

Coherence adds not only the ability run Windows apps like they’re Mac apps, but it also lets you drag and drop files between Windows and Mac apps. The ability to run XP and OS X in separate virtual desktops is cool, but Coherence makes that look kludgy. I was shocked and amazed to find that my two-finger scrolling worked perfectly in Firefox running in Coherence mode.

A few small gripes remain: Exposé and command-tab don’t let you pick out individual windows, but I’d imagine that’s pretty time consuming. Also, trying to login to my VPN via either Parallels or OS X failed, but I may just need to play around with that some more. Also, having the Windows taskbar hanging around just above the dock was annoying, but moving it up to the top of the screen and setting it to auto-hide tucks it neatly under OS X’s menubar unless called for.

All in all, Parallels has really delivered on a product that for once really makes me feel like I’m living in the future. When I one day get my eight-core Mac Pro with eight gigs of RAM, I’m going to be all about this sucker. Still, it’s getting me thinking that I need to pop a second gig of RAM into my MacBook stat.

[GOP Jedi]

All Your OS Are Run on Mac

[Swordmaker]

PING for Parallels...

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Terpfen]

Here's a slightly more humorous example...

[quidnunc]

Will Parallels open Intel-based Macs to malware?

I seem to recollect that Rush Limbaugh hinted at something to this effect a while ago, but he said it in passing and wasn't specific at all..

[mhx]

Probably only within the virtual machine itself. I can't see how a virtual machine running Windows can usefully infect the outside Mac OS with something.

[Yossarian]

Probably only within the virtual machine itself. I can't see how a virtual machine running Windows can usefully infect the outside Mac OS with something.

Mmmm, I'd be careful with what sections of the Mac OS disk that you allow the Windows virtual machine to see.

It is quite conceivable that someone comes up with a Windows virus that scans to see if "Mac System"-looking directory structures are accessible, and then deposits a Mac executalbe malicious payload in a place sensitive to the Mac OS.

[af_vet_rr]

Not going to happen - unless somebody shares a Mac directory that they shouldn't - and doubtful, since most will share a folder on the desktop.

Even if they did, I would bet the permissions would still be restrictive.

Having said that, Parallels is nice. I've used it here and there since the very first betas were released, and it has come along way. Does everything I need.