Parellels Desktop vs VMware Fusion! Which is better?

Virtualization solution from Parallels (called Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac) allows nice integration between Windows and your Mac.

Parallels call this feature Coherence for its ability to hide the Windows desktop and make it appear as if your Windows applications are running directly on your Mac. VMware Fusion also has the same feature called Unity. It also works very well, although not with Windows Vista, yet.

Coherence completely blew the broad between Windows and Mac and allows users to get the best of both worlds at the same time. It works very well! With this feature, Parallels Desktop now goes even further to deepen OS integration and to create a seamless user environment.

Parallels Desktop is better integrated into the Mac OS desktop by means of registering file types with the Parallels guest applications. MS Office applications could be opened by simply clicking on them. You can also get Windows notifications on the Mac desktop - which is cool.

Parallels set up shared folders between OS X and Windows quite nicely. Fusion asks you to do this manually.

Fusion lets you access Windows programs from its Applications menu. Parallels let you run programs from its Applications menu or the dock icon.

You can open Mac files with Windows apps and Windows files with Mac apps (which means you have the ability to choose).

After some time working with Parallels you can almost forget that you’re running two OSes!

Parallels have Snapshot Manager feature which lets you save a copy of your virtual machine at a point in time. You can create a snapshot for a stopped or running virtual machine. When I created a snapshot of my Windows XP, it took about 23MB. Parallels also have an intuitive UI for managing the snapshots. You may have any number of snapshots and they can all be managed nicely. VMware also has snapshots, but they seem less robust.

The capability of Parallels is more likely, you just don’t notice that you are working with virtual machine and it seems to be just a real machine with real applications. Parallels Desktop has nice usability.

I’m pretty satisfied with Parallels, especially since they have a fairly active support team with forums, knowledge base and all the other necessary stuff. My stand is defintely with Parallels!

Recently Parallels launched Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac. One thing for sure, easy, fast and powerful Windows on Mac computing has got significantly better. Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac has tons of new features which includes:

Easy
Get Easy access to all your applications and data while enjoying the complete Mac experience.

Modality view mode - Track activities of multiple VMs simultaneously

Smart Connect - remembers your USB device connection preferences

SmartMount - automatically mount removable media for access across different OSs

Fast
Experience the Fastest speed for all applications with the latest performance acceleration technologies

Up to 50% performance enhancement - and support for 8-way SMP, 8 GB RAM and 64-bit OSs

Adaptive Hypervisor - automatically optimizes performance for Windows program or Mac application in focus

3D graphics - Accelerate Windows games and 3D graphics with support for DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2.0

Powerful

Run Windows smoothly on your Mac with the complete suite of powerful essentials for Internet security, data protection and disk management ($175 value in bonus software)

PowerSave - energy saving mode offers longer Mac use with up to 20% longer battery life

—————————-

If you already have version Parallels Desktop 3.0 you can upgrade to version 4.0 at a cheaper rate. However for customers who have purchased Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac since September 1st, 2008, you are eligible for a FREE upgrade to Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac. Click here for details.

Save $30 instantly on McAfee Total Protection and Internet Security!