I downloaded the Windows executable for the free trial, after failing to get Parallels Desktop working satisfactorily on Ubuntu. My host OS is Windows 7. After downloading, it doesn't know what kind of file it is. It is apparently not an executable and doesn't show an extension, so I don't know how to unzip it either. The file is named: ParallelsDesktop-4.0.6630.449744[1]
I had this problem too! Just rename the file to *.EXE and then run it - I guess they forgot to put the suffix on the filename.....
Thanks. That's a rather glaring fopaw on their part. I wonder why they don't fix this. After renaming it with .exe, I was able to install it on Windows 7, and also create a Ubuntu VM. Very nice.