Well, I've finally got it upgraded....

but what a nasty, ugly experience! Truly, this is among the worst updates I've encountered with any software package. Think of how fewer customers Apple would have if updating to the latest OS X version caused this many headaches!

Similar to others in the forum I too received numerous errors and problems. Before I began I made certain that my VM image wasn't in suspended state and backed up. I backed up again when I began the 4.0 upgrade process. After step 1 completed I received a not very clear message about a problem that would require me to enter "manual mode". Clicking the supplied link took me to a general troubleshooting page that offered a few articles on solving various update issues. Not to a page with instructions on how to fix the specific issue I was dealing with. Then I noticed that my VM was displaying a dialog box asking to install new HW which I dismissed. I decided to see if I could install the Parallel Tools when suddenly the update process started up again.

In step 2 it halted again - this time I saw that Windows XP wanted to validate the license key but for some reason I could not get the mouse to function. I unplugged the mouse and reassociated it with Windows and cleared the validation dialog. Update started up again into step 3 but noticed that my mouse would not work in Mac OS. Unplugged and reassociated with Mac OS X fixed this problem. Eventually I completed the update with the Parallel Tools installation but not without some major concerns that my existing VM image hadn't been converted properly. Once I restarted Parallels it booted and I found that everything was indeed running as it should.

It's clear that the update from 3.0 to 4.0 is a major upgrade and Parallels has been massively rewritten. Not withstanding the complaints from others that this version wasn't ready for release I believe that it's working mostly as advertised albeit the really bad upgrade process. It appears that any time Windows throws up some type of dialog box or message that requires user input the upgrade process can no longer proceed. Now if the Parallels development team can fix this issue I think that many more folks will have much a better product experience.

Thanks,
der

 

I agree, the fix is to remove the marketing wallpaper and show the user the upgrade process as windows is displaying it, then the dialog boxes can be answered.