scotty, my desktop gets slower when parallels is running.  Is there an addition of space that can be added to make this work better?

Since Parallels is really running a second operating system, it makes sense that your computers resources would be strained a bit. First thought is to make sure you have the maximum amount of ram installed on your machine. To find out how much ram you have you can view the “about this mac” menu item under the black apple.

The next idea may be to lower/raise the amount of ram that Windows has been alotted within Parallels. If you free up ram within Windows then OS X will have more to function.

Also not a bad idea to update to the latest build of Parallels.

Finally, I’ve used both Parallels and VMware for a while and I would say that VMware is superior. It came to market later than Parallels and has benefited by the early learning curve that Parallels had to endure to make things work. Overall, VMware is what I recommend now. If you are already using Parallels, then stick with it but when you’re ready to upgrade later, you may want to consider

free trial VMware fusion.