One of the reasons I used VMWare Fusion and now use Parallels Desktop is Microsoft Office.

My current setup is to have all documents in my OS X environment but accessible from within Windows i.e. using the Parallels shared folder mechanism. This means that there are no documents in the virtual machine.

The other thing I had to do was to move the Outlook files from the virtual machine into the OS X environment. Microsoft has a pretty good article about moving the Outlook PST file to another location.

Once I had done this, it meant that I no longer had “variable” data in the virtual machine. This, coupled with Parallels’ Compressor tool, meant that I could get a really small virtual machine image. The resulting image is about 13GB in size. To really optimize the size, I probably also need to move the system’s temporary files elsewhere.

The other good thing is that I can then use OS X back-up tools to back up both my work and Outlook files.

I am slowly but surely getting to an ideal personal/work computing environment aka personal computing nirvana.

Until I upgrade to a new Mac with Leopard. Then maybe it’ll start again…

I just got a copy of Parallels Desktop for Mac and have been playing with it on my MacBook.

I have been using VMWare for a long time, initially with their Workstation product for Linux development on a Windows PC, then recently with VMWare Fusion on the MacBook.

I have to say, after several days with Parallels and after migrating my Windows VM from Fusion to Parallels, that I am impressed.

The Windows-OS X integration of Parallels is a lot better than Fusion. One thing I am impressed with is the ability to launch Windows applications from within the OS X environment: you right-click on a file and you can choose to open it with either a Windows or OS X application. What I found especially delectable(!) is that I can rightclick on a calendar attachm-ent (ics file) in OS X Mail and open that with Outlook.

Wow! Now, I can see all those calendar events I have been missing!

What is even more incredible is that the Windows VM can be either powered off or suspended. When you want to open a file with a Windows application, Parallels will automatically launch, boot/resume the Windows VM, launch the application and have it open the file. All this is without your intervention!

The clincher came this afternoon. I have a Blackberry Pearl which I have not been able to back-up since switching to a MacBook. I can run the Blackberry Desktop Manager in a Fusion VM. But the moment I connect the Pearl, the entire Windows+OS X environment will crash i.e. the MacBook becomes a brick. How Windows can you get?!

With Parallels, I plug in the Pearl, tell Parallels to connect the Pearl to the Windows VM and view the connection settings in Desktop Manager. Guess what: Desktop Manager sees the Pearl! Nothing hangs, nothing stutters.

I was able to back up the Pearl and synchronize everything with Outlook. When things work just like that, you just want to start up and applaud. Well, I didn’t applaud; I wrote this blog…

I am pretty sure VMWare will catch up quickly with Parallels. But as it is, I am pretty happy with that $80 I just paid. Of course, I also paid $80 for Fusion at VMWorld 2007. But that means I’ll be able to test out VMWare’s next release of Fusion.