Creation Engine Blog

Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac is available at an education discount price of $39.99

VMware Fusion 3 is available at an education discount price of $39.

Parallels 5 Desktop Webinar - Learn everything you need to know about running Windows on a Mac.

Parallels along with Creation Engine are bringing a clean overview of what is new with Parallels Desktop for Mac 5.0. We will cover running Windows, Linux and other operating systems within a Parallels environment. Whether you are new to Macs or a seasoned pro, there is something fresh and new you will take away from this overview. Learn how to simplify your life with the world’s #1 Mac virtualization solution! This is an interactive session, so bring your questions. There will be extra credit for those that participate.

Parallels 5 Desktop Webinar
Thursday, February 18 2010 at 10:00 am Pacific

Sign Up Now!

Parallels Desktop 5 (download version) Mac	$39.99
Parallels Desktop 5 (retail boxed version) Mac	$79.99

Link via MacWorld

In the “faster” category, Parallels Desktop 5 now includes full Aero support in Windows Vista and Windows 7, and an improved Parallels Transporter promises to speed up and ease the task of converting a standalone PC into a Parallels virtual machine. USB transfer speeds in Windows are faster than before, and Parallels Compressor runs in the background to optimize the size of the virtual machine for better performance.

“Smarter” features include a more Mac-like experience through a new Crystal view mode, which basically makes the Windows operating system disappear—Parallels’ icon vanishes from the Dock and application switcher, and it’s replaced with a Parallels icon in the menu bar. Click that icon to gain access to the Windows start menu, and a folder in the Dock provides access to Windows applications. There’s even an optional MacLook mode that attempts to make Windows’ windows look more like those in OS X—squared corners are rounded off, and the close/zoom buttons are replaced with the standard OS X colored versions.

Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac is available at an education discount price of $39.99

Link via Parallels.com

Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), a leader in 2D and 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, and Parallels, a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software, announced that they have signed an agreement to make Parallels Desktop for Mac Autodesk’s preferred Mac virtualization software.

Autodesk will now support use of AutoCAD software, AutoCAD LT software, Autodesk Inventor Professional software, Autodesk 3ds Max software, Autodesk 3ds Max Design software and the Autodesk Revit software platform for building information modeling (BIM) on Mac OS X via Parallels Desktop. Autodesk added official support for these products on the Mac via Boot Camp earlier this year.

Autodesk products are available at an education discount price from Creation Engine.

Parallels is available at an education discount price of $39.99.

Link via Creation Engine

Link via MacTech

In the majority of overall averages of our tests, Parallels Desktop is the clear winner running 14-20% faster than VMware Fusion. The one exception is for those that need to run Windows XP, 32-bit on 2 virtual processors, VMware Fusion runs about 10% faster than Parallels Desktop.

And, while both products these days have very little CPU footprint, Parallels Desktop had a surprisingly small RAM footprint, which was actually typically lower than the amount of RAM configured for the virtual machine. Presumably, once Windows actually needed more of the allocated RAM, the actual footprint on the Mac would increase.

Finally, for gamers, experiences will differ with each game. In our tests, MacBook users will have a better experience with Parallels Desktop, presumably because of the lower end graphics capabilities of the hardware. Beyond that, you should look at each game and what the feedback from users from both the Parallels and VMware communities.

One thing is clear, given the track record, expect Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion to both keep getting better and better.

Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac free 2GB USB Flash Drive Special on $39.99!

VMware Fusion 2 is available at an academic discount price of $39.

Link via Creation Engine

Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac

$39.99 for new CD-ROM or download version with free 2GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive! $40 off normal price for boxed version.

Offer good through 2/28/2009

Link via Creation Engine

$39.99 for new OEM, CD-ROM only version! $40 off normal price for boxed version.

MacTech – How do Boot Camp, Parallels Desktop, and VMware Fusion stack up?

This article from MacTech magazine provides comprehensive benchmarks on the various ways a person with an Intel Mac can run Windows on their machine:

Boot Camp, VMware Fusion and Parallels are all very good, each in their own way. You should make your decisions based on what your needs are as a result.

If you don’t want Mac integration, and just want to run Windows, go with Boot Camp. It’s faster than a PC anyway.

If you want a virtualization product (that allows you to run Windows alongside Mac OS X), and you want the best performance for the types of things that we tested, then clearly you need to run XP and not Vista. Furthermore, in our tests, both VMware Fusion and Parallels performed well, and were a good user experience. That said, Parallels was somewhat faster in general than VMware Fusion for XP.

If you want the best virtualization performance for Vista, then VMware Fusion is your choice. And, if you want to keep your Mac OS X and Windows environments completely separate, VMware Fusion’s design may be your better choice. (And, although we didn’t test it, we would expect VMware Fusion to have better multi-processor support if you really have an application that is designed to take advantage of it.) If your goal is tight integration between one or more Windows applications and Mac OS X, Parallels is the clear winner when running either XP or Vista. And, as we said before, if you want the best XP performance with the types of applications tested here, Parallels is not only faster than VMware Fusion, but it’s faster than Boot Camp on average for the applications that we tested.

Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac is available at a price of $72.

VMware Fusion is available at an academic discount price of $37.

The two Windows operating systems that are usually installed on an Intel Mac are:

Windows XP Pro OEM SP2C at a price of $150.

or

Windows Vista Home Premium OEM DVD at a price of $139.

The Official Parallels Virtualization Blog: Parallels Desktop & Leopard

As I noted in last Friday’s post, we’re only a few weeks (maybe days?) away from the launch of Mac OS X 10.5, code named “Leopard”. Since many of you (and me) plan on upgrading to Leopard within minutes of its release, the question that naturally arises is “Does Parallels Desktop work with Leopard?”The answer? Of course it does!

We’ve been working with Leopard since its earliest beta forms, and we’re confident that Parallels Desktop is compatible with Leopard. Performance is great, and core functionality works smoothly. You’ll be able to safely upgrade to Leopard when it goes live without worrying that Parallels will work.