Hi all, I just bought my first Macbook with Leopard pre-installed and I bought a version of Parallels from the store I bought the computer. Installed from disk just fine. The boxed version was Build 3188, I believe. Activation went fine. I went to "Check for Updates...". Nothing happend. Saw the note on the website about using Build 5160 with Leopard... manually downloaded it... installed fine, but now my activation code that I had doesn't work anymore. I get an error about "This activation code not valid with this version..." What gives? I just bought this 5 days ago from a legitimate retailer - Micro-Center The box doesn't have a version number on it. So, my first question... is Build 3188 considered Version 3.0 or Version 2.5? When I looked at the "About..." it just says "Parallels Desktop for Mac"... no version. Obviously, I won't be able to return the software to the store since I opened it. From some of the discussions, my fear is that I bought an old version and I won't be able to upgrade without paying a upgrade fee. I imagine that I won't be the first one in this boat. Thanks in advance for anyone's help here!
Bought the old version... free upgrade details Found out that I bought the old version. The old boxed version didn't have a version number on it, so I didn't realize that I bought the old one. Found a website if anyone makes the same mistake... here you can send in for a free upgrade if you buy an old version by mistake. http://www.novadevelopment.com/parallels/free_upgrade.aspx Hope that helps someone out there. Thanks.
I ordered Parallels 3.0, specifically, from an online vendor, around mid-October 2007, before Leopard was officially released. I received a boxed Parallels where the Manual read Parallels for Mac 3.0, as well as the envelope of the installation CD. Upon installing Parallels, it performed a very short update (I don't remember exactly what went on), at the conclusion of which I found myself running Parallels 3.0 for Mac, build 4128, and that's the copy I registered online at Parallels web site. I installed Windows XP Pro (with SP2) that I bought from the same vendor. Windows ran fine. Then came Leopard, that I installed through "erase and install". Parallels build 4128 still ran fine, as well as Windows. I then installed Ubuntu 7.10, all OK. Then came Parallels recommendation to use build 5160 for tested compatibility with Leopard. So I upgraded to build 5160, no problems of any kind, running now find under MacOS X 10.5.1. VersionTracker now reports that build 5580 is available, the reviews of a couple of users are good, but 5580 is still a beta release: Parallels download web page only lists build 5160. By the way, I have read, a week or so ago, a post by a Parallels 3.0 user, under Leopard, running build 4128, satisfied and unwilling to change. All my queries to Parallels support (no more than three) have been answered promptly and accurately. My point? Parallels seems, TO ME, to be a responsible software house. I hold no interests, personal or financial or whatever, in Parallels.
Difficulties with Parallels, Leopard & XP I just purchased a imac with pre-installed Leopard and bought Parallels 3.0. The Parallels installation worked fine. My XP installation, however, did not. It hung (I waited more than 2 hrs.). The Parallels window (after rebooting and restarting Parallels) says that XP is stopped, but nowhere does it say how to restart things or how to reinstall XP. I bought phone help and was on hold more more than 2 hrs. The message indicated I was 3rd, then second, then next caller and then became: 3-2-1 5-4-3-2-1 5-4-3-2-1 6-5-4-3-2-1 caller and then it was past their support time. I don't consider that great support. So now that it is a weekend, I'm hoping to get some support from someone here on the forum. Is there a trick to doing the XP installation? I gather that people have gotten 3.0 to work with Leopard and some people are running XP. I uninstalled Parallels after it stopped, used FAQ suggestions about files to further delete, since the uninstall leaves everything behind. I think my machine is now completely clean, so I can start again.
I take it for granted that your new iMac is an Intel machine? If you are not using the current Parallels 3.0 build (5582), you should do that. Build 5582 is Leopard stable, you can download from Parallels web site. In the Parallels window for XP (where it says 'Stopped' in red letters probably), click the green triangle, it should start XP. When you installed Parallels, it probably installed a Parallels XP alias (its name is the same as the name you gave to your XP installation), and this should prompt the Parallels window for XP *and* start XP. I am running Windows XP Pro SP2 (as well as Ubuntu 7.10), with Parallels build 5582, on a Macbook Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GHz 2MB. Hope this helps. Charly
Thanks I am using an intel Mac. The green arrow did not restart things. But, the build that came in the box from the Apple store was 4428, so I'll try getting the newer build. Thanks.
Clicking the green triangle should have worked even with build 4428. If upgrading to build 5582 does not solve your problem, I believe you'd better erase you current XP installation, and start a new one. Judging by other forum members, it would be best not to use the Express Windows option, but to go for the Custom one. That will enable you to select the settings you deem best for your system, such as: quantity of RAM you want to allot the guest Virtual Machine, Windows XP in your case, the side of the virtual disk you want to allot (consider the size of your iMac's hard drive), etc. It much depends on what you want to do with your XP Virtual Machine when it works. An "average" virtual disk size is considered to be 32GB, and that's generous. As for RAM, you might want to allot a maximum of 50% of your iMac installed RAM, and that's overly generous. If you want your virtual XP to work at its best, you should select the option that allots priority to XP, but consider that this configuration will slow down your MacOSX while XP is running. Again, it all depends on what usage you want to make with your XP virtual machine. When XP starts working, which I wish for you to be as soon as possible, please be ready to update it from Microsoft's update servers. This might take a while, but there are updates, that Microsoft calls "critical" that you should apply. Best of luck. Charly. This is written from my virtual Windows XP Pro Virtual Machine.
