Win98SE VMWare vs. Parallels

I use Windows 98SE daily as my main workstation. I am thankful to Parallels for being first, and enabling me to do that on my MacBook Pro OSX for the past 9 months. I have now tried VMWare Fusion and I find that it performs better in several areas where Parallels Desktop for Mac has continued to give me daily hassles right through build 5608.

1. In VMWare, the Mac CPU runs at about 12% of capacity instead of >50% of capacity all the time; hence much cooler.

2. In VMWare, the mouse moves out of the Win98 window on its own; in Parallels, I have to release it with a hot key combo every darn time.

3. In VMWare, the OSX clipboard pastes into all Win98 and DOS applications. In Parallels, I could paste only into MS Word, but not into other apps.

4. With VMWare, files in Win98 can be shared to OSX. I was unable to do this in Parallels, even using the same strategy (which is Windows file sharing + smb:// [samba] "connect to server" on OSX).

5. With VMWare, I can have a second virtual hard disk (so I have C: and D and also use the CD-ROM. With Parallels, you can only have two drives (either D: or CD-ROM but not both) because IDE 1 doesn't work.

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Similarities:
With both Parallels and VMWare, I have been able to use an external USB2 hard disk and thumb memory. In one test, HDD performance was about 30% faster on VMWare. Connecting is a bit smoother in VMWare: if the VM is active, it grabs the USB device automatically. Both systems boot in about 1 minute and shut down in about 15 seconds. Both cost $80, and again I thank Parallels for that, because licenses for VMWare on other host systems are considerably more expensive, e.g. $189 for Windows hosts.

EMail support: Parallels has given me excellent email support for technical issues, many many times, over months -- all included in my initial purchase price. VMWare gives email support for only 30 days, and then you have to pay $25 for one email incident per year. In the past (when I used VMWare on Windows host systems) I found VMWare support to be frustrating and inadequate. So far, I haven't needed it for VMWare Fusion with Win98SE. You can try VMWare Fusion free for 30 days.

Installation of Win98 SE went smoothly in VMWare. I used a bootable .iso image of my Win98SE installation CD. Video and audio require installation of special drivers but instructions were readily available within the installation program (for video) and on the forums (for audio). Network worked automatically and immediately. USB2 hard disk required the same 3rd party drivers as did Parallels -- that info was available in the VMWare forum. Win98SE initially has Internet Explorer 5. Using that, I could not get Windows Update to work. After I manually downloaded and installed Internet Explorer 6 SP1, Windows Update worked fine. Of course Microsoft stopped providing updates some time ago, but one can still install all the updates that were provided prior the date that support ceased.

If anyone else wants to install Win98SE in VMWare Fusion, and has any questions, I'll be happy to share my experiences.

Keyterms for searchers: Windows 98 Win98

 

You don't have Parallels Tools installed in Win98 for the Parallels version of your tests, hence all those differences. I just don't understand how you missed Parallels Tools which makes your comparison, which is apparently so well though, but has such a deep flaw, that totally skews your results, seems almost intentional.

 

1. In VMWare, the Mac CPU runs at about 12% of capacity instead of >50% of capacity all the time; hence much cooler.

This is not true, just every process is forked, and is not used as VmWare in its name, we are forking processes, but keeping Parallels Desktop name


4. With VMWare, files in Win98 can be shared to OSX. I was unable to do this in Parallels, even using the same strategy (which is Windows file sharing + smb:// [samba] "connect to server" on OSX).

Samba is working with Windows 98, you need to disable NTLMv2 in Mac OS Samba settings, or install AD client in Mac OS

 

Dear Specimen: I have always been careful to keep Parallels Tools installed. Currently, I have the tools for build 5608 installed, matching the Desktop for Mac version. All comparisons I reported were with Tools installed. Remember, I am talking only about Windows 98SE, not about other versions of Windows.

 

I believe this is very particular case
On test lab it is keeping near the same for VmWare and Parallels

 

I find it hard to believe that you have Parallels Tools (correctly) installed, all because you say that the mouse cursor doesn't release when you reach the edge of the virtual machine, that right there, for me means you don't have Parallels Tools installed or correctly installed, unless the Windows 98 Parallels Tools don't have mouse synchronization which I doubt, but I could be wrong.

Check the Parallels Tools icon in Windows tray, open it, and check if all features are enabled.

 

Parallels does not support the mouse function described for Windows 98 or any version of Windows prior to Windows 2000, regardless of whether Parallels Tools is installed.

 

Yes, mouse synchronization is not supported for OSes prior to Windows 200
more information in Parallels Desktop for Mac user guide from http://www.parallels.com/en/download/file/doc/Parallels_Desktop_for_Mac_User_Guide.pdf on pages 87-88