By DWIGHT SILVERMAN, HOUSTON CHRONICLE Published 07:40 p.m., Monday, September 5, 2011
One of the reasons I prefer Apple 's Macintosh computers is that I'm not limited as to what software I can run. Macs will run both Mac OS X and Windows programs, and they can even run those two operating systems at the same time.
There are several ways to do this - so many, in fact, that I wrote a book about the subject - but my favorite approach is to use Parallels Desktop for Macintosh . This software uses a technique called virtualization to run Windows as though it were just another program running on your Mac. Windows - and any other operating system you choose - runs in a simulated computer called a virtual machine, or VM.
What this means is that you can have Windows and Mac apps running side by side, and even copy data or drag-and-drop files between them, For example, you can edit pictures in Apple's iPhoto program, then drag the results into a Microsoft Word 2010 document.
There are a couple of other popular Mac virtualization programs, most notably VMware Fusion and Oracle's free VirtualBox. However, with the release of the newest version, Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac runs circles around both of them. It's easily the best way to run Windows on your Mac.
Parallels 7, released last week, has been tweaked to work particularly well with Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion, the latest version of Apple's operating system. There's also a combo iPhone/iPad application that lets you access your Windows virtual machine over the Internet, which you can use to get around those devices' inability to display Flash animations. More on that later.
Parallels 7 is easy to install, and for newcomers to virtualization, the new version makes installing a Windows virtual machine less confusing.
Many first-time users don't always understand that, along with the virtualization software, you've got to have a licensed copy of Windows as well. You install Parallels, then use that to install Windows, usually from a disk or a download.
But now, you can buy Windows 7 directly from within Parallels. When you set up a new virtual machine, you're given a choice of several operating systems to install, including Windows, Ubuntu Linux and Google's ChromeOS.
You can buy the Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate editions of Windows, but there's a caveat: These are the full retail versions of Windows, and you'll pay full price. If you want to save money, buy what's known as an OEM copy of these editions and you'll pay substantially less. It's the same software, but it doesn't come with any support. If you don't need hand-holding from Microsoft, it'll save you serious coin.
The previous version of Parallels was already quite fast, and enabled the slick Aero interface in Windows 7 and Vista. Parallels 7 is even faster, and not just in terms of Windows' responsiveness. Parallels 7 now suspends - similar to Hibernate in Windows - and resumes its VMs much faster. Users of the previous version are all-too-familiar with waiting a long time for a suspended Windows VM to spring back to life, and this new release fixes that problem.
If you've got Lion on your Mac, you'll appreciate Parallels 7's integration with its new features. Your Windows applications now show up in a folder in Launchpad, the iOS-style program launcher. And individual VM windows now appear in Mission Control, the running-app manager in Lion.
And Parallels 7 is the first version that lets you run the non-server version of OS X in a VM on your Mac. While this is primarily of interest to software developers, it's cool just to know you can run Lion on top of Lion.
If you've got an iPhone and/or an iPad, you'll want to shell out the $4.99 to get the iOS application (it's free for users of the previous version). Once you do, fire up your VM and log in to Parallels' connection service. You can then access the VM from the app, which is essentially like running Windows on your iPhone or iPad.
You can then surf the Web on your Windows browser, and even see Flash animations that don't show up in the iOS browser. While navigating Windows via finger taps can be annoying, this is very useful if you need to remotely access data on your VM.
Parallels 7 sells for $79.99 for new users; those already running Parallels pay $49.99. There's also a student version for $39.99.
dwight.silverman@chron.com blog.chron.com/techblog twitter.com/dsilverman
Windows - and any other operating system you choose - runs in a simulated computer called a virtual machine, or VM. What this means is that you can have Windows and Mac apps running side by side, and even copy data or drag-and-drop files between them, For example, you can edit pictures in...
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