Is the Parallels 9 Upgrade Worth Doing?

[jrs22]

I bought a Macbook Pro last year from B&H Photo which came with a free copy of Parallels 8. I installed it with Windows 8 so I could run MS Office Pro (I need MS Access so I must use the windows version). I've had very few, if any, problems other than slow opening of programs. I shut down Parallels when I shut down my MBP and so I have to wait for it to reopen before I can use MS Office.

I just received the offer of a $10 Itunes gift card effectively reducing the price of the upgrade to $39 so I need to decide this week if I was to take this offer. Has anyone upgraded from 8 to 9 and has an opinion?

 

[robanga]

I've been seeing the upgrade notice as well and they have $10 in iTunes available until 10/4.

I'm wondering if 9 is required for Maverick's?

 

[X-Ravin]

I have not noticed any appreciable performance difference with 9. With hindsight I would have just stayed on 8 and saved the money.

 

[NxNW]

Has anyone upgraded from 8 to 9 and has an opinion?

Just bought a MBP last summer with P8 on rebate, but I missed the cheap P9 update by a couple of weeks ... doh!

Anyway, I didn't see an awful lot of compelling reasons to upgrade to P9. There was some mention of faster startup/shutdown times, which isn't that much of a must-have. A few other things too, nothing really special.

The big deal of course is what happens if and when an OSX upgrade breaks your current P8. You won't get any support on it and || will push you to P9. So far, I haven't seen any good upgrade deals either, which is a bummer. I'd stay on 8 until it doesn't work any more.

Edit ... Robanga above mentioned something about Mavericks (OSX 10.9). I have read there might be compatibility issues there. Do you due diligence before throwing down.

 

[mmomega]

I am running Parallels 9 + Windows 8 & Server 2012 R2 on my '13 13" MBA on Mavericks with no compatibility issues that I have noticed.

I upgraded because I had $50 burning a whole in my pocket that day

 

[jrs22]

I'm going to take a chance on mavericks and win 8.1 working in my current install. A $10 gift card isn't enough for a purchase that may not be be necessary. I won't really need Access until February and maybe there'll be some Black Friday sales if I really need it.

 

[robanga]

I'm going to take a chance on mavericks and win 8.1 working in my current install. A $10 gift card isn't enough for a purchase that may not be be necessary. I won't really need Access until February and maybe there'll be some Black Friday sales if I really need it.

I think i am going to try the same. Parallels wouldn't force an update yet would they?

 

[jrs22]

Once mavericks and win 8.1 are out there'll be some valid comparisons of speed and other features. If I have to pay $50 to upgrade every year that there's a small OSX upgrade I would sooner install boot camp.

 

[Russ-NewToMac]

Don't upgrade

I have not noticed any appreciable performance difference with 9. With hindsight I would have just stayed on 8 and saved the money.

I upgraded to Parallels 9 and had issues. Everytime I started Parallels I had to register again and activate, even on my Parallels account it showed the key as registered and activated. Have spent 6 days and nearly 5 hours with the support guys and they still can't work it out. I've uninstalled 9 and returned to 8 where I am not having that issue with registration.
If anyone how's to solve the problem with 9, please post. Right now I am waiting on Parallels to respond to my refund request for 9 because I don't think it's ready for distribution.

 

[whiteonline]

I upgraded to Parallels 9 and had issues. Everytime I started Parallels I had to register again and activate, even on my Parallels account it showed the key as registered and activated. Have spent 6 days and nearly 5 hours with the support guys and they still can't work it out. I've uninstalled 9 and returned to 8 where I am not having that issue with registration.
If anyone how's to solve the problem with 9, please post. Right now I am waiting on Parallels to respond to my refund request for 9 because I don't think it's ready for distribution.

I believe your issue is a fairly isolated one. I've had no issues and have not read of the same. I wouldn't declare a product "not ready" because of it... Their team is pretty responsive, so hopefully they work it out one way or another...

Regarding the OP, I find Parallels 9 to be better with managing the Windows 8 Modern UI than Parallels 8. The upgrade works for me, and I am all for financially supporting progress. I'm sure there will be deals (like the cult of mac sales) in the near future.

 

[jrs22]

Regarding the OP, I find Parallels 9 to be better with managing the Windows 8 Modern UI than Parallels 8. The upgrade works for me, and I am all for financially supporting progress. I'm sure there will be deals (like the cult of mac sales) in the near future.

I suppose for me the issue is that other than an intense period of using MS Access for a few weeks each year I just do the occasional letter or spreadsheet, and the process of opening Excel or Word seems very slow for this purpose. My money might be better spent on Pages and Numbers or some other replacement that opens quickly and has enough capability for the simple work I do these days.

 

[macnisse]

I have P8 on my current ML install and recently there has been pop up warnings at startup of P8 VMs informing that P8 will NOT be compatible with Mavericks. Of course, this is followed by a "upgrade now" link to prallels. Staying put at the moment as everything is running very smoothly.

 

[James_C]

I bought a Macbook Pro last year from B&H Photo which came with a free copy of Parallels 8. I installed it with Windows 8 so I could run MS Office Pro (I need MS Access so I must use the windows version). I've had very few, if any, problems other than slow opening of programs. I shut down Parallels when I shut down my MBP and so I have to wait for it to reopen before I can use MS Office.

I just received the offer of a $10 Itunes gift card effectively reducing the price of the upgrade to $39 so I need to decide this week if I was to take this offer. Has anyone upgraded from 8 to 9 and has an opinion?

Parallels does not tend to make older versions of Parallels compatible with new releases of OS X. It tends to make people upgrade to the latest version of Parallels. There are know issues with the kernel extensions that need to to be loaded for Parallels to work in version 8 and Mavericks. My advice would be if you are planning to upgrade to Mavericks is to grab the Parallels Ver 9, if you have a discount voucher. I have been running Ver 9 for a month, and I have had no problems with it running Windows 8.1.

 

[pickaxe]

I have P8 on my current ML install and recently there has been pop up warnings at startup of P8 VMs informing that P8 will NOT be compatible with Mavericks. Of course, this is followed by a "upgrade now" link to prallels. Staying put at the moment as everything is running very smoothly.

AFAIK P8 definitely works on Mavericks. But what can you expect from a company that installs trojans and displays ads on the computers of their paying customers?

 

[robanga]

They just want revenue every time Apple updates...is that so bad of them?

 

[935684]

I'm still running Parallels 7 with Mavericks on my Mac mini, and Win XP. I've had absolutely no problems, so far. However, I've just ordered a copy of Win 8.1 from Ebay, which should arrive within a few weeks. I guess my luck will run out once I install Win 8.1. Mind you, I only use Windows with Quicken and an annual Canadian income tax program, so I'll have time to upgrade, if necessary.

 

[hiddenmarkov]

I have not noticed much difference from Pararllels 8 to 9. Only difference I have noticed is it seems to have resolved a small bug I had when running cli linux guests.

I had an annoying bug where parallels direct access to a cli only server guest would get upper and lower case confused. If had say caps locks on it type lower case was how this bug turned up.

I already had a workaround in place of going in via ssh in iiterm (a 3rd party terminal application) so while good progress...it was progress I didn't really need.


parallels 9 for a bene will offer to give you a free trial for parallels access iirc. Neat tool I suppose if you want to work your Mac from an ipad. I have a MBP so its not a major effort to use around the apartment. Trial will run out however and then they kindly mail you offers for buying a subscription for it.