If you have Windows XP SP2 shipped on your computer from me, you can update to SP3 by opening Windows XP , opening Internet Explorer, and going to tools/Windows Update.

It should be available there.

I will post any other detailed instructions should they become needed if there are any hangups or tricks to doing the update. Doing a Google Search for Windows XP SP3 should bring up any info you need to find out what it included in the update.

Having the latest Windows Software is always been very important in the fight against malware. Of course having Windows XP in parallels really cuts down on uninvited glitches anyways!

The main problem seems to be Vista hanging up on shutting down. To me, sounds like typical Windows if you ask me! 

I have found that restarting the Mac before starting a Vista session will never result in a vista hang up on shut down. Obviously you cannot be expected to restart your mac everytime you want to use Vista! 

So far of the 40 Customers of mine since Jan 1st, only 2 have reported this problem. I have no idea of their user habits.

Virtualization: (Parallels)- With the switch to intel chips, it became possible to run Windows at native speeds on a mac. You could always do this with "Virtual PC" but it was slow, because the Power PC chip had to 'fake' being an intel chip. Being 'Fake' uses alot of energy....just like real life!!! You could not really enjoy the windows experience, even browsing a window was slow. Watching video content was out of the question, as was playing a game. Parallels is a program like any other program, you start it when you want, you shut it down. Just so happens the program is a virtual computer. But Macs HAVE intel CPUs, so they dont have to be fake. They run windows at native speeds. In some ways, even faster, because the program uses a disk image as its hard drive, which is instant speed. The main drawback to Parallels, is its still a computer IN a computer. Which means you have to share resources. Ram for one, and video for another. You really cant give more ram to Parallels-Windows because the program has to run efficiently first for Windows to run fast. 50/50 is the best you can do. If you have 3 or 4 GB of ram, your looking good. Even 2GB systems are ok, especially for XP. But Vista requires a large amount of ram, and really only the 3 or 4 GB systems take advantage of Vista. Video is another story all together. Parallels has made alot of strides in getting the program to use the video card as efficiently as possible. Older version 2 could not even run some of the screen savers because there was no hardware acceleration. New is version 3 is support for this, in fact you can play Quake 3 arena on Windows XP run in parallels! In vista, you cannot use the dreamscape feature yet, which is really the best selling point I feel for Vista  Ultimate. Dreamscape is High Def motion pictures that run as your desktop. At this time, you cannot run this feature using parallels. You cannot play advanced games or run alot of the good CAD software that uses major hardware acceleration, because the video card is being shared, and its not enough. So what to do???

BOOT CAMP: This software comes directly from Apple, and allows you to install windows on a separate partition on your hard drive. There is no faking or emulation here, when you boot into Windows using Boot Camp, you are becoming an APPLE Windows PC! You take FULL advantage of your video, and if you have a Mac with shared video memory like a mac mini or macbook, you will find your video more powerful running windows in bootcamp, because the Windows Driver for the video card is better than the Mac driver, and can pull up to 128 MB of video ram, instead of only 64 for the mac. I have seen some games that would not be played on a mac mini normally played with textures turned all the way up!! You have to have the maximum amount of ram though to do this, but you can actually turn a mac mini into a gaming machine!! The Vista DreamScape runs beautifully in this way, running full HD motion pictures as your desktop! Anti Virus protection is very important in this setup. BOOTCAMP is NOT included in my auctions unless specifically stated.   WHY?

$$$ of BootCamp- Windows Disks!- My auction states clearly that Windows is included in parallels only, thats what the license is set up for. You cannot install windows that I send you on another computer. You dont get windows Install disks, you get restore disks. You can RESTORE windows XP or Vista any time you need to. For boot camp, you need the actual Microsoft Windows Vista (or whatever other OS you want to include)Installation disk, and this is expensive. You may be able to use the serial code off of a PC you have, but then you cant turn on your PC again, the number is only good for one computer at a time. If you feel you have a number, you can have Boot Camp done for 39 dollars setup fee. Otherwise, Vista Ultimate is a 299 dollar upgrade in boot camp, and it will get you the actual disk, the serial code, and certificate of authenticity affixed to the computer. This would cost you 427 in any store. 

DIFFERENCES??:

1) To boot or not to boot! You must restart your computer to change from mac to Windows. Not that big of a deal, but alot more work than having them both open at the same time. However, if you need to use software that uses the Hardware acceleration of the video card, like an advanced game, or CAD software, you really have no choice, you have to use Windows In Boot Camp. If you just use a program that you  like in windows, you can just open it up, and close it. You can even drag and drop windows files onto mac, and mac files onto  windows. You can even tell the computer to open Office in PC by default whenever you click on a word document! OR when in Windows, have mac's Word 2008 open by default! You can use Coherence mode in parallels, see pics on my auctions on how that works. You can even work full screen so it feels like your a windows PC. If you have Boot Camp, your a true PC.

How much Space will I lose? - The XP folder takes up about 5 GB. Vista folder for parallels takes up about 11 GB. If you install Vista in Boot Camp, it asks how big you want the partition. If you have a mac mini or Macbook, you dont have alot of space to deal with. There is one advantage, Parallels will run off of a Boot Camp partition. So adding Vista to bootcamp can be done with a 15 GB partition, and then you could remove the 11 GB Folder, and run Vista in Parallels off of the Boot camp partition for a loss of only 4 more GB. You may find you dont need vista in two places, that XP in parallels is all you need for QUICK windows access.

BOTTOM LINE; Which one is for me?

Boot Camp- If you need to run windows software that requires use of the Video cards 3d Accelerator. Better performance is to be expected from Windows Run in Boot Camp.

Parallels- If you just want to use windows for certain tasks that your still more comfortable with in Windows than the mac, for now. If you want Windows as a safety net while your learning Macs. If you want most interaction between Windows and Mac worlds, especially file swapping, internet, email, office applications, ect, everything except advanced games or other software that heavily uses the video card.

A specific test can be arranged of a title you need to use to determine which set up is best for you!