I have been trying the trial version of parallels desktop and have decided to buy it. Comp USA has it on sale and I'm wondering if I buy it from them instead of directly from the website, would I have to start all over/reinstall xp, etc.
yes, but... Yes I know, but it would be $30 dollars cheaper if I buy it from CompUSA, which would be nice, but not if I have to totally reinstall everything.
I can't say for sure, because I bought off the website myself, but judging from the say the software works, what wou will get at CompUSA will most likely allow you to run the software for 30 days before you have to register, and whenever you do register, you wil be able to use the same virtual machine (same windows install) that you set up on day one.
I'm not a developer or anything, but from a cursory glance at the general way the software works, there should be no problem with what you want to do. I wouldn't be surprised if you don't even have to reinstall Parallels - you'll probably just get a serial code in the box that you can enter into your existing copy. Otherwise it would be very difficult for Parallels to do things like release bug fixes, updates, etc. Even if you do have to reinstall, just make sure you keep the contents of [home directory]/Library/Parallels (assuming you're in OS X or the version for your OS uses the same directory naming scheme). Back it up to somewhere else if you're paranoid!
