Parallels causes slowdown, freeze on new MBP

Just got a new Macbook Pro, latest OS X with updates, 4 GB of RAM. Downloaded the free trial for Parallels and installed it. When I opened it up, the dock icon started bouncing, but then started bouncing more slowly and erratically, as if it were dropping frames in the animation. This slowed the entire computer until nothing worked except in super-slow-motion, a force-quit taking 2 minutes for the force-quit window to appear, 3 minutes to register the click on the button, 5 minutes to react to clicking the confirm, and then it just sat there, the whole computer seized up, and I had to force-restart by holding down the power button. Tried uninstalling, making sure there were no residual files, and reinstalling, same deal.

What the?

Any suggestions?

 

Do you have Screen Sharing or VMC server enabled?