I decided to give Parallels 4 a try yesterday, so I slapped down the $40 upgrade fee and had at it. The process seemed smooth enough - the download and initial install went fine. Before I went ahead, I did two things:

• Snapshotted the VM myself
• Allowed Parallels to backup all my snapshots

While I haven't needed the backups (they are useful if you need to down-convert), I did end up needing the snapshot. Here's how it went:

• Well over an hour to backup and convert the snapshots and current VM
• Failed update process at about 50%

The good news is, they have a troubleshooting page that addresses the specific problem I had, although having the update fail because I don't use auto-login seems harsh. Even so, I was able to muddle through, install parallels tools manually, and bring up XP. It looked great, too - fullscreen was gorgeous, I tested Civ IV, and sure enough - the DirectX work they talk about paid off - no more wonky game graphics.

One problem though - I tried firing up VPN to get some work done, and nothing doing - there was no network connectivity in Parallels at all. Fortunately, I remembered this from my last update - I restored the latest snapshot (which had been converted), and the network was fine. Of course, DirectX was hosed, now - after some fumbling, I re-installed Parallels Tools again, and that started working.

All in all, the upgrade was worth it - the graphics are better, it feels faster and smoother overall. But boy, the update process itself could stand some work around the edges.

Technorati Tags: windows, mac, parallels, vm