Australian lector , Chris , take issue with a statement I made on a recent Macworld podcast . He drop a line :

My comment comes from my experience with Vista Home Premium version and Parallels . I repent to say that I ’ve not had the time to search VMWare Fusion ( though I sure as shooting will in the future ) . So , admit me to interrelate my experience with Parallels .

I tested how adjusting the look and feel of Vista affect Vista ’s most obvious “ piggish ” behavior — launching app — on my Dual Core 2.66GHz Mac Pro ( 2 GB RAM ) and , under Parallels , it ’s still not as tight as XP coupled with Parallels .

The Windows adaptation of iTunes is among the slowest to launch applications I ’ve come across when running Windows in emulation . The very first time I establish it in Vista with Parallels , it routinely takes 12 – 15 second to finally come out . Subsequent launching take about half that time .

When I plunge iTunes under XP with Parallels it ask just three seconds to launch . I throw to Vista ’s default options and it took around six seconds to launch . I then traveled to Control Panel - > Personalization - > base and pick out the Windows Classic theme from the Theme pappa - up menu . ( This subject dispenses with most of Vista ’s oculus - confect . ) iTunes still launched in about six seconds .

However , I was able to shave a sec off that launching metre — down to five second — by cash in one’s chips to Control Panel - > Performance Information and Tools - > Advanced Tools , choosing Adjust the Appearance and Performance of Windows selection and enabling the Adjust for Best Performance option in the Visual Effects tab of the ensue Performance Options window .

I compared boot multiplication for each version of Windows as well . With 512 megabyte devoted to each operating organisation in Parallels , XP took around 50 second base to flush while Vista took around one minute of arc and 15 seconds .

Putting thrill and launch times aside for the consequence I ’ll also mention that part of the basis of my “ Vista as Pig ” comment has to do with how Vista play some media under emulation , which , to put not too fine a pointedness on it , can be summed up in one word :

Poorly .

Windows Media Player ca n’t toy music files without stuttering . iTunes is a bit better , but it too offer up the periodic stutter . XP , on the other hand , plays medicine files swimmingly .

So , while I ’ll award there may be some benefit to mucking with Vista ’s optic and performance scene , I largely stand by my original statement in regard to Parallels and Microsoft ’s latest operating system :

Oink Oink .