“The 12 Days AFTER Christmas” Giveaway: Day 13 – Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac
This contest is closed. Congrats to faithful Macenstein reader Chad.
On the Thirteeth Day After Christmas, Macenstein gave to you (or, more accurately, gave you a chance to win…) Your very own copy of Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac!
Sure, we all love Apple and the ease of OS X, but sometimes there’s things you just can’t do on a Mac – like run the latest games, business software, and viruses. But who wants to go through all the trouble of partitioning their drive and rebooting into Boot Camp? When you HAVE to use Windows, you want to get in and out QUICK, and there’s nothing quicker than Parallels 5 for Mac. Optimized for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and boasting unmatched virtual machine performance, Parallels 5 lets you launch thousands of Windows apps directly from the Mac Dock. Best of all, Parallels lets you show as much or as little of the Windows interface as you like, so your friends won’t even know you’re running Windows, thus preserving your Mac Street Cred.
Choice is good. Not having to choose is even better.
Mac OS or Windows? Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac lets you seamlessly run Windows and Mac OS X side-by-side, drag-and-drop your files between operating systems, and run Windows software on your Apple computer without rebooting.* Run thousands of Windows programs faster on your Mac
* Enhanced! Install Windows XP, Vista or 7 in 3 easy steps
* Enhanced! Optimized for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
* New! Full support for Aero, including Flip 3D in Windows Vista and 7 & OpenGL 2.1
* New! OpenGL 2.1 support for Linux guest Operating Systems
* Enhanced! Parallels Compressor automatically reclaims hard disk space
* Enhanced! Intel VT-x2 virtualization technology drives maximum performance
* Enhanced! Unmatched virtual machine performance
* Enhanced! KVM paravirtualization for Linux gives unmatched performance
To enter:Among Mac users there is a perception that Windows is… um… somewhat less than secure. But how deserved is that reputation? To enter, leave us a comment telling us have you or anyone you personally know ever lost data to a Windows virus? Winner will be picked randomly 7 days later and notified (kind of like in The Ring, only with less killing… we hope). Open to all readers world-wide. Good luck, and thanks for reading Macenstein! (Oh, and be sure to enter ALL our “12 Days AFTER Christmas” Giveaways!)
Please note: Comments may take a while to show up, please do not double-post. Thanks!
One time a virus crashed my computer and deleted some important boot files so I could never access my hard drive again (this was back in the day when external HDDs were too expensive to be usefull). Since then its always been Mac 🙂
I can’t recall anyone in my family ever losing data due to a virus, which is fortunate, as they don’t backup even though I’ve told them to :(.
Never lost data personally to a virus. LOTS of clients have though. Typically because of old IT companies not protecting them. We come in to fix what others have caused.
A “ViRUS” program deleted my whole hard drive.
When I had a Windows box, I lost data numerous times. One time we lost the whole instillation.
Parallels, yep I’ve seen a Windows virus take away not only a user’s data but the entire hard drive. His kids used the family PC on the web and whatever had taken over his machine brought the system’s performance to a standstill. The virus was also preventing the web browser from visiting virus scanning web sites like Ad Aware & Trend’s House Call.
I think he had to have the drive wiped to recover from that mess! That’s what happens to Windows if you let kids use it!
Nope.
yes, I know someone who has lost data due to a PC virus. it took major contortions to restore the machine to normal – the virus prevented loading/running the antivirus and disinfecting tools
yup, my son destroyed his PC last month by clicking a web ad by accident and blam-o, infection up the wazoo. didn’t even try, just popped it the XP CD and started over.
that’s the reason my PC is only for games. everything else is on my Macbook.
A lot of people!! Anti-virus programs are safe until a new virus comes out. Then, they become old and useless. Also, as Windows is insecure, the virus attacks the OS easily, and data is lost….
Never lost data to a virus here, I’m generally pretty safe with my web use and downloads, as are the people in my life. So I can’t say that anyone I know has lost data from viruses. Many of them have had viruses, but most are smart enough to back up data, and know to run anti-virus software.
I had a total of three viruses in a six-month period back in 2003 that I likely caught when Cox insisted that I remove my router/firewall from my network to troubleshoot my modem on several occasions. It might not have been an issue except that my software firewall crashed several times per day on my Windows 2000 box, which is something I never was able to fix until I reinstalled Windows. Anyway, both machines on my network got infected, and I had a very difficult time getting everything back to normal. I lost a few Word files that were infected, but thankfully I had backups and only lost recent changes.
I guess this doesn’t count as a virus, but when installing an update to Office 2000, my registry got trashed somehow and that Windows 2000 computer wouldn’t boot at all, which was all the worse since I was trying to finish a project for work that was due the next day. I ended up mounting the drive to my iBook to get some of the data off, buying a new hard drive and a copy of Windows XP (the software I had to use was Windows-only), and finishing the work that night. This was before Intel Macs, but i remember thinking when Parallels and VM Ware came out what a help it would have been to have been using a small, frequently backed up virtual machine just for that project rather than my desktop.
I’ve never lost any data to a Windows virus, but I do know a couple of people who have. Data recovery can be especially painful for those without the luxury of Time Machine.
I remember doing a Ballmer when something I clicked on the net screwed my computer. The chair’s still alive.
A friend of mine lost his entire computer’s hard drive.
‘Nuff said.
Many close friends and family members (to which I’m their personal tech support) suffered data loss from Windows viruses – usually by downloading stuff online that they shouldn’t (browser toolbars, “joke” programs etc).
once I got a trojan virus, my antivirus picked it up and quarantined it. a few months later I decided that I wanted to move to a free antivirus software. when I uninstalled my old one, the file got loos again and I was then faced with a permanent Blue Screen of death. I moved to Mac 1 week later.
I have never lost data due to a virus. I have both a MBP and a cheap PC laptop for my work. I don’t keep any of my work on the PC, just the software I need. So I cant lose anything on the PC.
Lost the harddrive and motherboard from WInCih.95
Not that I can remember of.
my PCs have been affected several times with virii, but i have never lost any data from one. i have lost time though.
yep about 2 years ago
have you or anyone you personally know ever lost data to a Windows virus?
Yes Sir, my job! Network attacked and all files gone… even employee sign in sheets. Luckily, I did everything on my MacBook Pro and had my owen copies of major files to help get the department moving again. No one else had “clean files.”
The guy that keeps the network running was on vacation.
So everyone got paid on time. 🙂
Yes, I encountered twice, one happened on my office computer and out IT guy spent a day to fix it and recover the data.
Absolutely!
Yes, but it was a long time ago…
Not personally, but a friend
Not Only ONCE!!!!! 2 till now!!!
One time, my computer seemed to run on Virus OS instead of Windows. They were everywhere in my important windows folders. Fortunately it was still possible to recover my files
You know my mother has a gift of going to every website she shouldn’t, of clicking everything flashy and saying “Congratulations!!! You won…” and of downloading everything she shouldn’t.
She’s the kind of user, only using her computer for surfing, chatting and playing Solitaire…
So no important lost for her, but that’s just because she doesn’t have important data…
But yeah, she crashed the computer several times and reformats are pretty much on a monthly basis, with all that crapware, spyware, adware and viruses floating around…
I have lost entire hard drive content before due to Window’s lameness. I now own 0% Microsoft gear 🙂 but sadly my clients still insist on sending me artwork in .pub format!! Hence the need for windows!
Personally not, but one of my freinds had to reinstall the Windows on his machine because of a virus and all data went with the old Windows partition.
I can write an encyclopedia about viruses on windows… only an example: i’ve lost my college thesis the day before my exams… after this episode i’ll catch a Mac… 🙂
^ What s/he said, I’ve never actually lost any data to a virus itself but have lost count of the number of times I’ve had to re-format a PC due to a virus infection.
I lost the hd once,my sister and my neighbour lost files and time too
Those pesky viruses… 🙁
Waaaaay back in the day… a friend lost everything to a nasty virus for windows 3.1
Once my BIOS got erased by a virus. Windows started up with a BSOD and after a reset nothing happened. Not even a beep. Think it was the Chernobyl virus.
lost all my music once.
Yes, during my every 6 month reinstall of windows to keep the computer from slowing down. I’m so happy I left that crap.
Not really, I’ve had my share of viruses, but the only time the actual data was lost was because I had not made a backup. However, I was able to slowly and painfully recover most of the data.
actually, no I haven’t 🙂 It have lost a lot of data due to necessary formats after hardware and software (only windows) problems. A lot of boot problems with xp which made my pc unable to reboot and therefor more or less even more useless
I’ve never lost data because of windows virus back in the xp days, but my sis had several viruses, and they did kill some data… but I don’t think it was too important.
No
Oh yeaah…..in my old pc user days my computer would suddenly start running slow during use and then stop working all together. Copying my files on an external hard drive would take forever since the OS became so slow due to a virus.
The only option left was to install windows all over again…which i had to do like 100x in my life already.
Nope
Oh yes.
We use WinBlows at work and people are regularly getting infected and have to wipe their drives.
Nope, but it’s been close.
No
Yep. My hard drive destroyed itself.