Turning Off Ads in Parallels
Parallels Support (via Mike Ash):
We use in-product notifications to share several types of information with our customers. First, and most importantly, we share information about product updates which are generally related to compatibility with OS X, new features and product enhancements. Second, we occasionally share special offers from Parallels or other third party companies who provide special deals for our customers. Many of our customers rely on the information about product updates and appreciate the special deals for products that are of interest to them.
Individual notifications can be turned off by clicking the “don’t show this again” button. However, because customers need to receive important product information, there is not a mechanism for customers to completely disable notifications.
The whole thread is disturbing. When Parallels first came out, I used it to run Windows. Lately, I’ve been using VMware Fusion, mostly to run prior and pre-release versions of Mac OS X.
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try this in the terminal `defaults write com.parallels.Parallels\ Desktop ProductPromo.ForcePromoOff -bool YES` from http://redd.it/x0qgs
Customers "need" to receive important product information? Yes, about YOUR product, not about 3rd party crap your customers did not pay for nor did they opt in to receive any information on.
@Sam Thanks. It doesn’t look good that Parallels denies that it’s possible to turn off the ads, yet apparently deleted any messages that posted that tip in their forum. (It also sounds as though they may have sent it to some individual users who complained.)
I'm switching to Fusion. This may or may not be ok for free apps, but it's definitely not cool in an application that I paid good money for.
I grumbled about this a few days ago: https://twitter.com/foltzwerk/status/220264197529931776
Thank you for bringing attention to this. I was considering switching to Parallels due to their iPad app and these ads did not show up in the trial version, so I would not have known about this scummy practice until I had already given them money.
[...] Link. Die parallels die. by jgordon on July 24, 2012 • Permalink Posted in share Tagged s [...]
Little Snitch notwithstanding, you shouldn't have to block traffic to stop third party ads in a premium-priced piece of software. I'm going back to VMWare as well.
wow, seems like a dumb move to me... I haven't touched Parallels since it corrupted my disk, now I've got one more reason to never use it again. vmware should see a nice spike in sales.
Nova Development is also a big time spammer with their bullshit ads constantly. And they screwed me out of a rebate when I bought Parallels originally. I hate this company.
I use Parallels and don't like the ads. I've just tried the tip from Sam D to kill them. We'll see if it works.
Having said all that, it should be pointed out to all the commenters who are so shocked to hear about ads, that the ads appear at the rate of *one* every several days, sometimes a week or more. Undesirable, but not worth getting in a lather over.
I had a choice between Parallels and Fusion to install on my parents' Mac. I chose Parallels, and now we all regret that. Next weekend I'm going to go ahead and wipe that and buy Fusion to install on theirs and my sister's Macs.
What ads? I don't see any. I'm not joking or trying to piss anyone off either, I simply don't see them.
Disclaimer: I own a couple of shares of VMWare.
I tried VMWare Fusion first, then had problems it couldn't fix, but was able to import my virtual OSX into Parallels, which fixed the problem.
The two utilities can read each other's "disk" formats quite nicely, so those of you switching shouldn't have to do any wiping...
Um, VirtualBox, anyone? Totally free and no ads that I know of. It's run Windows XP, Vista, and 7 on my MacBook Pro whenever I've needed.
So will Parallels run OS X in a VM (SnoLeo)? I was hoping it would as Parallels is reportedly much faster.
Thanks for the warning. I was just about to purchase this. The company response to this issue is completely unacceptable. Looks like i'll be using VMware instead.
I switched to VMware Fusion precisely for this reason. Luckily I was able to trade in a Parallels license during a Fusion promotion ($10 I believe). Maybe VMware should run another campaign.
Customer: "I'd also like to know what's going on here. Why are the responses being given in private? Why not answer them here?"
Parallels: "Answered in private message "
I LOL'd hard.
Everyone should just boycott them really, just because your software runs windows doesn't mean you should act like a Windows software developer. If you want to make software that shoves ads down users throats then go make it on that platform not ours.
VirtualBox. The price is right (free), it has a great way to mix apps on the screen, it is very well supported and updated, and finally no ads.
I switched from the others to VIrtualBox last year, never looked back. And IIRC it can import from the other products as well.
Nova Development are spammers. Unsubscribing didn't work, nor did calling them. I was getting 3 emails a week trying to get me to upgrade even though I was up-to-date. The in-app ads are ridiculous, but I'm really happy with the product otherwise and can't bear to give EMC (VMware controlling interest) any of my money.
MY ADVICE:
- Run this command (I verified the .plist)
- Mark every piece of correspondence from Nova Development as Spam
Note: While reviewing the .plist, I found that there were 20 -twenty- in-app ads for which I had clicked the "don't show again" box.
Sam D: Thank you for sharing.
This is all good stuff to know. I'm a happy user of VMWare, but I'm always curious about potentially moving to Parallels.
However, I've always greatly valued being able to trust in particular developers, and it's hard to trust a developer that acts like Parallels is acting. If you want to sell ad-supported products, fine, but be up-front about it, and don't inflict it past buyers who weren't aware of it.
I'm not a fan of lowest-common-denominator software delivery systems like Apple's app store. And to avoid the kind of restrictive handholding Apple's app store imposes, you need to figure out which developers you can trust. It's a really important factor.
(As a tangential example, I'm happy customer of Adobe products despite their trouble in matching OS X UI and installation conventions, since I trust them as a developer.)
Michael, I'm wondering about this statement "...mostly to run prior and pre-release versions of Mac OS X." Until yesterday, prior versions would have been Snow Leopard and previous, which VMware doesn't support (except for Server), and pre-release versions would have Mountain Lion, which it also doesn't support. Or is there some way to run those as a guest OS?
@Don Prior versions also includes, say, 10.7.0 through 10.7.3. You’re right about the OS versions that VMware supports, although for a while there was a version of it that would run Snow Leopard client.
Ha! Now they want me to send them another $50 for an upgrade so it will work with Mountain Lion after having bought the last version less than a year ago. Geez, thats only 150% more than the whole OS cost me. This company is a serious joke. Definitely not going to upgrade and since it doesn't work anymore its been deleted too. I feel relieved and will use something else or use my Dell laptop for Windows. Now if I can only get them to stop spamming me....
[...] been using VMware Fusion, mostly to run prior and pre-release versions of Mac OS X – via Michael Tsai This entry was posted in Technology. Bookmark the permalink. ← Google Maps Adds Sydney [...]
Will be switching to VMWare all of our machines too.
Don't care about the terminal command.
Shady practices like this are way beyond the terminal command.
You suck, Parallels. Now go away.
I too am fed up with the constat spamming by Nova Development. The in app ads also are frustrating. For the amount of money Parallels charges for their upgrades you'd think they would get rid of the ads.
Chock us up as one more business that is leaving Parallels and buying a competing product.
Has Nova become a wanna-be X10 marketing company? Yech!
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