For the record XP SP3 and Vista SP1 makes some subtle changes in Windows that required not only Parallels but Apple (Boot Camp) and VMWare (Fusion) to release new versions just to adress those, it's not a Parallels specific problem, the thing you can criticize (and I do) Parallels for is that, unlike the other two companies that had updates before SP3 release, Parallels only released a compatible version (5600 the first one) about 2 or 3? weeks AFTER SP3 was officially released (released as a download, not thru Automatic Update, that was later), this was months ago.
You can't expect to run Windows on a Mac and be shielded from Microsoft's 'issues', Parallels can't make those go away, what it can do is being on the look out for these issues and quickly address them.
Last edited: Aug 24, 2008