Is 4.0 upgrade a complete standalone package?

I'm recovering from a catastrophic computer failure. Lost everything (except my data backups, of course). New Mac Pro, fresh install of Leopard. I now have all my apps re-installed except Parallels 3.0. I swung by parallels.com to check for any upgrades, and discovered that 4.0 is out.

I see that when you upgrade from v3 to v4, you have to convert your virtual machine image to the new format, reinstall Parallels tools, etc. I don't even have a copy of my old virtual machine image (nothing on there I needed to save), and I would prefer to just install 4.0 from scratch. But at the upgrade price, of course, since I already own 3.0.

The upgrade info says that you don't have to uninstall 3.0 before upgrading. But it doesn't say if you have to install 3.0 before upgrading.

So, my question: Can I buy the v4 upgrade and install it without installing v3 first? Or do I have to install v3 first, then install the upgrade, then convert the fresh blank v3 virtual machine to the v4 format, then re-install Parallels tools, etc.?

 

Parallels Desktop 4.0 is a standalone package. So, you can purchase the upgrade, download the software from
http://www.parallels.com/download/desktop/
and just install it without installing version 3.0 first. You will be able to create new Virtual Machine in version 4.0.

The only thing you need to note if you buying upgrade in this case, that you will be asked for 2 license keys - upgrade key for 4.0, and your permanent key for 3.0 (or for 2.5 if you had upgraded from 2.5).

 

Excellent! Thanks for the quick response.