When the Mac OS “Snow Leopard” was announced, I pre-ordered the software. Upon receiving the installation CD, I immediately installed it (knowing that I had Time Machine backups already in case something catastrophic occurred).

The installation was pretty straightforward and quick. It really wasn’t a super upgrade; nothing stood out at me, as I was playing with the OS. I did notice that waking up from sleep and shutting down was a lot faster. This helps if I am at an airport and want to shut down fast.

The biggest issue was trying to run my virtual Windows XP machine through Parallels. Upon double-clicking the alias/shortcut to launch Windows XP, I received an error saying that Parallels 3.0 cannot run in my current OS version (Snow Leopard).

So, I decided to upgrade Parallels 3.0 to 4.0. It helped that it was reduced to $39 (from $49) for the Mac Upgrade. After payment was made, I received the download link and activation keys in my inbox. I downloaded the software and tried to run the installation package and managed to get through few of the software wizard screens then reached a screen regarding a “Conflicting virtual machines” error. The problem was it was saying that a virtual machine was running already — which it wasn’t. To make sure I rebooted and re-ran the install but same error occur. After much dismay, I managed to locate the exact error AND solution in the Parallels site which is located at the following URL: http://kb.parallels.com/en/6659

I hope this helps someone else out there as well. Good luck!