This past week I put the Windows installation on my MacBook Pro to a good test – and it worked flawlessly.
I was part of a training for a big new system that allows teachers to create and maintain IEP’s for the many (many!) special ed students in our overly large school district.
Although the application is web-based, that didn’t mean the designers had any clue about web standards. It only works completely using IE 6 in Windows.
But using the Parallels Desktop software I was able to run the system and still be able to switch back to my Mac applications (must have my aggregator open :-) when I wanted.
And it ran as well as (or better than) the HP desktop machines used by everyone else in the lab.
However, nothing is perfect, especially when it comes to computers. There are a couple of little annoyances in the Parallels software that I hope they clear up in the next version.
When you start up a “virtual machine”, you must choose between the wireless connection or the hard-wired ethernet port. If you forget, you’ll have to shut the OS down, make the change, and start it again.
Also needing a fix, some USB devices don’t work properly in Windows. For me, the worst of these is that Windows only sees my USB 2.0 port as the much slower USB 1.1.
Still, even with the little problems, this is a far better solution than having to actually own and use a real Windows computer all the time.