Desktop 4, 5 left behind

New releases of Parallels Desktop and Server have been made compatible with OS X Lion, the company says. The virtualization software lets users run Windows programs on a Mac, whether for personal use or in a corporate or other institutional environment. To run Parallels tools on Lion, people must be using new builds of Desktop 6 for Mac or Server for Mac 4.0. The latter includes the special Mac mini Edition.

The developer warns that neither Desktop 4 or 5 support Lion. Instead owners must currently pay $40 for an upgrade to v6. In buying the software, users can sign up for a $15 "Upgrade Protection" plan that covers the next six months.

Parallels also cautions that while it is "actively working" on it, none of the updates actually support the new features of Lion. There is no public timeline for the enhancements, which may include the ability to virtualize up to two instances of Lion at a time using a single license. The option is permitted by Lion's EULA, but even a single virtual instance of Lion is currently unsupported by Parallels Desktop or Server.

by MacNN Staff