Getting to know Parallels
I’ve been an advocate of using multiple operating systems from the same computer for a long time, and that’s especially true for my Macbook. Despite the fact that I love OS X I still find myself needing to use Windows quite a bit. Up until recently I primarily used Boot Camp to get this done, as well as VirtualBox to run Ubuntu as a virtual machine. Sometimes though, I only really need to use maybe one or two Windows applications and so to restart my computer and boot into Windows for only a few minutes is a waste of time. Additionally VirtualBox is pretty clunky and has some performance issues. Because of all of that I decided to give Parallels a go.
My main reason for trying to use Windows as a virtual machine stemmed from a topic I’ve blogged about pretty frequently. I really want to be able to manage my blog from OS X. The only problem is that none of the desktop blogging applications for OS X appeal to me, especially the free ones. I love Windows Live Writer though, which of course is Windows-only. Now that I have Parallels up and running with a copy of Windows XP I can automatically pop in and out between OS X and XP and blogging from OS X has become a non-issue. I’m writing this post in Windows Live Writer in OS X and it’s all because of Parallels.
The first thing I noticed about Parallels was the ease of installing an operating system. Like I said I set up Windows XP which can generally be a laborious process when you’re installing from scratch. When you start up Parallels for the first time you’ll be prompted to set up a virtual machine, and the nicest thing about it is that there’s an option to do a streamlined install of the most popular operating systems out there (XP and Vista). All I really had to do was provide my cd-key and let Parallels do its thing. In a little bit I had a completely functional copy of XP on my Mac and I was able to start working right away. One of my biggest concerns about virtualization software is that, although it’s extremely useful the technical aspect setting up a virtual machine might be too daunting for your average user to take on. That’s a non-issue with Parallels. It literally only took me a few clicks and I was good to go – no worrying about formatting or partitioning drives or any of that. You just go through a normal wizard and away it goes.
Working with Windows in Parallels is pretty seamless. You can either work in a Window on your OS X desktop or press alt+Enter to go fullscreen. I prefer fullscreen personally, but if you really only need to pop in for a couple seconds working in a window is fine. When you’re in fullscreen mode you’re basically using Windows though. It looks like Windows, it works like Windows, and there’s no hardware or software hiccups like you might expect. Performance is good too, I didn’t notice any slowdown. One other thing I thought was cool was that when you are doing something in your virtual machine and you go to look at your dock in OS X, the dock icon doesn’t just say "Parallels," it actually shows what the active window is in the virtual machine. For example right now I’m using Windows Live Writer so even if I have my Parallels window minimized I can just look at the dock and know that the reason I had Windows running was that I was working on a blog post. It’s a little feature but it’s definitely nice to have.
Anyways, my favorite feature is that I can easily share files between my Mac and Windows XP because when you’re setting up the virtual machine you’re given the option to have access to that machine’s virtual drive. What that means is that I have a Windows XP disk drive on my desktop so that if I need to grab a text document I created in Windows or copy over something from the OS X side all I have to do is drag and drop. Alternatively if there’s a file in OS X I can immediately share it to my Windows virtual machine. For example, I’m writing this post in Parallels but I wanted to take some of the screenshots you see throughout (you can click to enlarge them by the way) in OS X. I went ahead and took the screenshots and then copied them onto my Parallels version of XP’s desktop and instantly had them. I didn’t have to reboot XP or anything, they appeared as soon as I copied them over. The best part about running in Windows in Parallels though? That would have to be the "no worries" approach to operating a Windows computer.
What I mean by that is this: everyone talks about how insecure Windows is. How there’s so much spyware and all these viruses just waiting to cripple your machine. Sure the hype might be overblown a bit but it’s definitely there and it can be a nuisance. A lot of times that’s an intimidation factor to new users, especially those who aren’t sure exactly how to protect their computers. When you’re running Windows as a virtual machine, none of that matters. So you got a virus? No big deal. You can just delete your local Windows virtual machine files and start up a new session – none of it will affect OS X. Worry-free computing, that’s how it should be.
So really all I can say is that if you’re on a Mac and you aren’t already using Parallels you should at the very least give it a shot. You can get Parallels and see for yourself! Feel free to send comments and email to let me know how it goes. =)
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Shane McGowan – Pair of Brown Eyes
Rainbow Six Vegas 2
