Parallels Desktop 6 hands-on

Just bought a Mac but miss your old Windows PC’s functionalities? Want to run good old Microsoft Office but don’t want to fork out cash for a new version for the Mac?

Both scenarios my wife and I faced when we recently bought an iMac as a desktop computer to complement the Windows laptops we had at home. My wife loved the iMac’s clean design but had to get used to the Mac OS’ look and feel – plus a lot of her old programs had to be replaced by Mac versions.

I had heard of Parallels’ virtual machine software before, but after several years of leaving the Mac platform, I had not kept up with virtual desktop applications until now. Thus when I installed Parallels Desktop 6 (PD6) a few weeks ago, I was pretty surprised by how far such “bridging” software have come in helping users enjoy the best of both Mac and Windows worlds. …