Parallels makes it easy for Macs and PCs to just get along, and on Nov. 4 it introduced Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac, offering an updated way for them to bond more quickly, more easily and with better integration.

Parallels 5, according to the virtualization company, is 300 percent faster than the previous version and offers more than 70 new features for consumers and enterprises wanting to run a virtual PC on a Mac. 'Parallels has a long history in the virtualization space, with hosting and cloud computing, and it moved into the consumer space about three years ago, bringing virtualization to the everyday person,' Mary Starman, director of marketing at Parallels, told eWEEK. 'With Parallels 5, the focus is on ways to let people work the way they want to work.'

The latter includes several options for viewing Windows. A user can run Windows in a Full Screen mode, so it completely covers over the Mac user interface-with the option of Active Corners that can curl back to expose the Mac desktop beneath it-or a Crystal view mode, which treats Windows like just another Mac application that can be launched from the dock. Further reading. Trackpad gestures can be used across both platforms, and the keyboard shortcuts a user is accustomed to can be made to apply to both systems.

'We've also done a lot of work to make sure copy and paste is seamless between Windows and Mac and that the full formatting of documents stays,' even between Windows and Linux guest operating systems, said Starman. Parallels 5 is optimized for and offers full support for Aero in Windows 7 as well as Windows Vista. It's said to offer seven times better graphics performance for games and 3D applications than the previous version, with Direct X 9Ex with Shader Model 3 and OpenGL 2.1 support. Full hardware resources can be utilized with support for eight virtual CPUs, with 64-bit Windows and a Snow Leopard Server 64 bit.

'We're definitely seeing market data saying consumers are moving to Macs. We're seeing that with PC and Windows share in general, trending is down about 20 percent, while Apple is still growing,' said Starman. During Apple's fiscal fourth-quarter financial report, Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO, said that approximately half of Mac buyers in its stores were first-time Mac owners. 'There's definitely a move toward Macs in the consumer space, and consumer behavior really drives the enterprise,' Starman continued, offering that she finds Macs are increasingly accepted in the enterprise.

'One contributor to this is the success of the iPod, which exposed a lot of users to what the Mac experience can be like. Then, of course, there's the iPhone, which is really starting to draw people to Macs for the first time,' said Starman. 'It's a simple interface and a more secure machine.

There are a lot of reasons to believe Macs are coming into their own as enterprise devices.' When it comes to running Windows on Mac, Parallels is facing stiff competition from Much like Parallels, VMware is offering support for Apple's Snow Leopard operating system and support for Windows 7 features. Parallels reports that, according to research conducted by the Crimson Consulting Group, Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac performs '22 percent faster than the nearest Windows-on-Mac competitor in standard productivity testing of Windows 7 64-bit on a MacBook Pro.' Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac is available in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish, with Chinese, Czech, Hungarian, Japanese, Polish and Russian coming in the next few weeks. It's priced at $79.99, which the company says includes $175 worth of additional software for free.

Existing customers can update their software for $49.99, and customers who purchased Version 4 on or after Oct. 1, and still have a proof of purchase, are entitled to a free upgrade. The solution can be purchased at Apple stores, Amazon.com, Best Buy, Target and a number of other retailers. A free trial is available at the Parallels' Website. EDITOR'S NOTE: Changes have been made to reflect that eWEEK testers preferred VMWare's Fusion 3 to an earlier version of the Parallels solution.

Desktop 5 for Mac was not available at the time of the comparison. Also, the solution is 300 percent faster, not 300 times faster.

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Wpx4 On Parallels 5 For Mac

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CSS theme courtesy of and at. Hi, some context: I just ordered a fully loaded 15' MacBook Pro (that was announced on Oct. 27th), and while I have an Asus desktop (fully loaded, as well and frequently updated), I would love to see if my new laptop would have the capabilities to run some games on it with Parallels support. I could get the most updated version of Parallels as well, that's not a problem. I (of course) have Windows 10 licenses handy too, so that's not a problem. My main question is:.

Does Parallels have the power to simultaneously run Windows games and the MacOS software in the background?. Do I need to resort to using Boot Camp in order to run games, even with the upgraded graphics card and 16GB of RAM? I'd prefer to not use Boot Camp as the frequent restarting is annoying and tasking on my mental stability. Thanks for your help! Can confirm, a lot of games work 'flawlessly' though I played moderately old stuff.

Some games I played. Assassins Creed 1 - Revelations. AC4+ performance was horrid.

Max Payne 1-3. Tried LoL/Portal 1-2 even though they have Mac versions for kicks, worked fine. I honestly forgot if I tried Dishonored/Skyrim but I think they worked fine. Played on windowed mode 1080p with graphics all the way down. Hardware was i7, GTX 680mx. Strong word of caution: I used my bootcamp partition for the VM in Parallels. Now I don't know if it was my fault or due to the nature of VMs having to suspend themselves/having to constantly shut them off/on, but my hard drive began to fail after 1+ years and my Mac (even when Windows was off) constantly was shutting itself down/beach balling like crazy.

Long story short, I had to do some crazy stuff in terminal and fresh install OSX to fix it. Haven't used Parallels since.

If you're gonna use Parallels, use an external drive for Windows. Does Parallels have the power to simultaneously run Windows games and the MacOS software in the background? It depends on the game. Do I need to resort to using Boot Camp in order to run games, even with the upgraded graphics card and 16GB of RAM?

It depends on the game. There are a lot of games, even newer ones, that have no trouble running inside Parallels or Fusion, and don't appreciably slow down anything outside the virtual machine. Others will slow it to a crawl and/or have frame rate issues.

There are a couple of reviews out there that highlight how parallels stacks up for gaming. Which is to say that yes, technically you can, but you wouldn't really want to. As has already been mentioned, it currently only supports a limited version of Directx10, and, the performance suffers around 40-50%. In otherwords potato quality; you'd almost be better off with a console version(if such exists) for brand-new titles. The Radeon 460 isn't really that screaming of a graphics card.

It's certainly the most graphics performance Apple's shoved into their 15' form factor but, at the end of the day it's a upper middle range class GPU that is probably going to be a reasonably good 1080p performer. I would highly recommend a BC partition if you enjoy any kind of eye candy or frankly like to play newer titles. If you infact have the $1400 2TB SSD option setting aside 500GB or so shouldn't be that big a deal.