Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac [OLD VERSION]

I used v3 for a year and a half and I was happy because it delivered the goods for basic jobs. I decided to upgrade and the result couldn't have been worst : the software is slow and the installation was a nightmare (among other things it didn't recognize the wireless network...?) . The last straw is that the rebates that Nova Development(the manufacturer) offered were not even honored . Amazon billed me the software but didn't deliver it until 3 weeks later. As a result my posting of the rebate was technically overdue because Nova went by the invoice date. I won't buy more products from this Company. Value and service are very poor.

I have used previous versions of Parallels and version 4 was by far was the worst. It was incredibly slow on a brand new Mac and I was never able to get it running smoothly. Google search will show all the people who had many issues upgrading from previous version.

I just discovered Sun Microsystems' VirtualBox which is totally FREE and runs like a dream! Incredibly easy to use and super fast. Why would anyone continue to pay for Parallels and with the frequent jumping of versions claiming to be better than previous with little delivery of the promise! I'll stick with virtualbox and never look back.

I'm using Parallels to run Windows XP inside of an iMac with 4GB memory, latest Mac OS X. Works very well for me. I haven't installed the included Kapersky anti-virus because I don't use Windows for email or much internet stuff (and I've read that the anti-virus can slow down or possibly destabilize Parallels... this is just hearsay). I've been running mainly Visual C sharp and Quicken.

Parallels is pretty slick with all the various options -- if you want you can have individual Windows windows appear mixed in with your Mac windows. I find I prefer to keep Windows in a "cage" by giving it only a single Mac window in which the Windows environment appears.

One thing that is slightly annoying is dealing with different shortcut key conventions in moving between Windows and Mac. This is not Parallels fault. They give a lot of options in this regard.

In general, Parallels works well, and seems to have a lot of capacity for customizing it; but I find the plethora of settings too daunting and stick with the defaults for most things.

Parallels 4 is much faster than Parallels 3. MUCH faster. But Parallels 5 came out four days after I purchased Parallels 4. Parallels has a "free upgrade" offer. But they have been very slow to provide an upgrade, even after I filed all the proper paperwork.

Product works okay but was disappointed that I purchased it and almost immediately Vers 5 came out. I was given no indication that this was coming when I made the purchase and was not given any significant discount toward purchasing Vers 5 when it came out.