Comments on: VMWare Fusion 2.0 takes on Parallels Desktop 4.0 for ultimate virtualization

By: Fred

Fred — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:27:42 +0000

Hopefully this isn’t a dumb question. I need to run Windows for a day-trading program. My Mac has 2 screens. Will the program running on Windows continue to run (live streaming quotes) while I’m working on the Mac?

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:55:32 +0000

Great review. i have been using parallel and have to say I find it buggy on my macbook. i have been looking at getting fusion so this has basically convinced me to do so.

only questions I have is, can the windows application within fusion see apps and docs i have on the mac? Can i copy and paste links from safari in mac to firefox in Fusion?

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:53:48 +0000

Eytan, I have Parallels version 4. I may give one more chance, after furious backup. I am crossing my fingers.

By: Eytan

Eytan — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:13:21 +0000

It may be the OEM version. You MUST use XP service pac 2.0 or better to install, and you install it as a bootcamp volume. Then you should just be able to say to use the Bootcamp partition once in VMWare. What version of VMWare you running? THe latest? I have not tried it with Parallels in a while.
Full disclosure: I use Parallels on my laptop and VMWare on my desktop. The Laptop no longer uses a partition but instead uses a Virtual Volume (it USED to be dual boot the way you say though, but I only ever did that with 3.0 and below, have not tried with 4.0 because I had switched to a VM Volume). My desktop (a 2008 Dual Quad Core Xeon Mac Pro) has a dedicated drive for XP, which has been partitioned itself (the smallest one I had was a 250, and 250 GB was way too much to give Winblows ). This volume can be booted from or opened in a VM and I have had no problems with it.
I hope you find a solution, I know it can be done. Check out the Parallels forums

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:57:25 +0000

Eytan, thank you. I have tried this twice and I had to restore my XP partition each time. That is a lot of my work is, so I am understandably gun shy at trying again.

By: Eytan

Eytan — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:52:33 +0000

@Dave
I have successfully done this with both VMWare and Parallels Fusion (use the same Bootcamp partition both to start up from and as the partition for my VM)

By: DAve

DAve — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:39:09 +0000

I have a question. I have a Mac Book Pro with partition running an OEM version of XP. I tried Parallels and, once installed and run, I can no longer boot into XP. SO I must only run Windows via Parallels. And Parallels support was really unhelpful. I want to be able to do both, boot into XP directly and through the virtual machine. WOUld Fusion enable me to do that?

Thanks.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:36:58 +0000

I’ve been using Fusion on both my desktop and laptop. With both of them, I used an existing Bootcamp virtual machine since I want to be able to boot directly into Windows if I ever need much better performance. On my laptop, everything works great. On my desktop, I simply cannot get Vista Home Premium to work. Tech support is virtually nonexistant at VMware, although you supposedly get it free for 30 days. I didn’t have time to play with it in time to take advantage of the initial support and it ran out. You can buy it but even then it’s only by email. I’ve tried all the forums, etc., etc. and am now ready to give up and try Parallels. I’m using Vista Ultimate on my laptop so maybe that’s why it works. Don’t know, but since I’ve never been able to get it to work on my desktop, and I don’t want to pay for support for something that I could never get to work, I’ll either give up or try Parallels.