hey all. i'm new to this whole parallels thing and have a few questions. i've searched the previous posts but couldn't find the exact answers i was looking for. i apologize if it's already been asked and the length of this post, but your help would be appreciated. i'm a medical student and i've only had limited need to run windows apps (mainly just for school b/c they have DRM streaming videos...does anyone have a solution for this besides loading up a VM every time btw?). for parallels, i've been running a "borrowed" version of XP that i had stored away from like 5 years ago when i made the big switch to my mac. but i've also decided to purchase a windows mobile pocket pc device and while the missing sync (www.markspace.com) has been great, i've been having problems installing all the medical software i need since everything is in a .exe format instead of .cab. i figured i'd just install everything through xp but now i find out that i can't do that b/c activesync software requires an updated xp, which my copy of xp obviously won't allow me to do. so that leads me to my situation now. i'm ready to fork over the cash and buy a legit copy of windows. i figure if i'm paying a few hundred for a copy of windows i might as well get vista, however limited the support available now is. i just found out that i can get an OEM copy of vista ultimate for half the price of the full retail version and i'd really like to make this purchase. but how does the "one install" OEM licensing work through all of this. i'm assuming i can make an installation through bootcamp and then just have parallels use that partition when i feel like just using a VM. there shouldn't be any licensing problems here right? then my question is, what happens when leopard comes out which i will definitely be purchasing. i will be doing a clean install of leopard and formatting everything on my macbook. how will this affect my "one install" OEM vista license? will i be able to reinstall onto a bootcamp partition? if you delete the os from your hard disk and then reinstall it on the same hard disk am i violating microsoft's license? will i have to buy a retail version of vista then (if that would even work)? thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions y'all might have.
I dont know if this will help you any but here is a quote from the support page's FAQ but logically it should work... but I am no parallels expert so I really have no idea
Vista licensing requires that you buy one of the most expensive versions of Vista to run it on a virtual machine. Check the microsoft site for details. However, the good news is...if your current copy of XP is legit, you should be able to go to the Microsoft site and download the upgrades to make it current.
True but Ultimate and Business Edition do allow you to "Legally" run Vista in a virtual environment aka Parallels... but that doesnt mean you can't actually run vista home basic and premium in a vm... you can it is just illegal...
