Warning dangerous bugs beyond install issues in V4.0 Build 3522

Normally I never post to these forums... But if this saves someone time and anguish, I'll feel better.

I suspect what's happened is that Parallels idiots (management) pushed the smart guys (engineering) to release V4.0 because they saw market share drops (from VMWare reviews, recommendations) before the product was ready. Or like idiots (management) everywhere, they wanted something by a certain date and by god, they were going to release it by that date, ready or not.

Usually the smart guys (engineering) concentrate on the "really hard stuff"(multi-cpu support etc.) while leaving the "easy stuff" (install process, documentation, etc.) for later. Since the product was released with dead-line-itis, the easy stuff doesn't look like it's finished.

Now with the revelation of all these issues (and possibly bad reviews) the idiots (management) will blame the smart-guys (engineering) for lack of QA and bugs, and problems. "Why didn't you tell us????" (the cry of the idiots, blaming the engineers)...

Upgraded from V3.0 to V4.0 today: Here are the issues I ran into as well as one BIG problem:

Initial annoyance: (part I)
1. After shutting down V3.0, downloading V4.0 running the V4.0 installer results in a crash of the installer near the end.
2. Ran the un-install program, deleted remaining files the uninstaller didn't clean-up, rebooted macpro, then reinstalled.
3. As expected the installer finished cleanly this time.

Upgrading the VM from V3.0 to V4.0: (part II)
1. After install, started to upgrade my Windows XP image. A simple issue of Windows wanting to re-authenticate with the Microsoft mothership, and throwing out the dialog box thew the Parallels upgrader into "manual" mode. Instructions at Parallels, are somewhat helpful, but not really... as they don't talk about this...
2. After drudging threw the upgrade, via "manually" upgrading, I'm ready to experience the wonders of 4.0!

Initial impressions: (part III)
1. No formal benchmarking, no extensive tests, but things seem slower... my video files are playing slower... , network access is slower... everything is just not as "crisp" as when I was using V3.0... "Where's my 50%" I'm thinking...
2. Let's play with settings... Increase video memory, increase # of CPU's, etc... Hmmm no big difference...
Let's reinstall my video players... (GOM Player) and codecs... Yes... Now better... But maybe there is more I can do.
3. Hey there is this cool thing says "Run parallels compressor" hmm looks like it cleans up and optimizes the VM, yeah.. maybe that's what I need to do, make my VM all clean, shiny, and new and FAST!

Disaster: (part IV)
1. Warning first. DO NOT RUN THE PARALLELS COMPRESSOR in V4.0.
2. After successfully running, somehow the parallels compressor reduced my VM image file size from 26GB to 3.6GB!
3. After successfully completing the compressor, I rebooted the VM. Resulting in...
4. BSOD!!!!!!! Ack! What Happened??? Why is my VM BSOD'ing? What did the compressor do to my VM image????

Disaster Recovery: (part V)
1. It looks like something in the compressor has trashed the VM image badly, there are files missing and the file system appears corrupt...
2. Recovered back to a copy of the VM before the upgrade, and started all over... (re-upgrading)
3. Being very careful of "parallels compressor"... but still tempted...

Disaster Recovery: (Part VI)
1. OK, let's just run the defrag tool built into windows... That's gotta be safe...
2. Run defrag tool, reboot computer... FILE SYSTEM corruption... HUH?????????
3. (P.S. For those of you asking, I had already rebooted and checked the File-Sys before running defrag)
4. Oh man... Luckly, the File-System issues are only on some minor web-page cache files... ok, I think I escaped a bullet somehow...

Living in Danger: ...
1. I'm afraid of clicking on things in Parallels V4.0
2. I'm afraid of clicking on things in Windows... (Defrag tool)
3. I'm afraid something else is wrong, and even if I don't click on things, and just use my beloved VM image for day to day tasks like running Internet Exploder for websites that don't support safari,firefox etc. I will somehow end up with a trashed VM... and will have to go back to my backups... So...
4. I'm afraid to really install or do anything with my VM as it is... What's the point, if I have to go back to a backup soon...?

Hope someone in Parallels management get's fired... or at least has to handle support emails and phones for a few weeks... then gets fired...

 

Dear Users,

We have created tickets for you in our system.
You should check your mailboxes and follow the confirmation link in
order to proceed with fixing the issue.

If you have not received the notification you may create the ticket by
yourself here:

http://www.parallels.com/support/desktop/request/

Thank you for choosing Parallels.