Hotfix Update: Parallels Desktop 4.0 Build 3810 is available

Dear Users,

Parallels Desktop 4.0 Build 3810 is available for download:
http://www.parallels.com/download/desktop/

What's new

DirectX 9.0 with Shaders Model 2 support
Windows 7 inside the virtual machine (experimental)
Apple remote disk support
Silent start in Coherence
Possibility to drag Windows files to Mac applications in the Dock
Possibility to remove a virtual machine from the list with a context menu option
Possibility to specify CPU and memory options in the New Virtual Machine assistant
Possibility to suspend Boot Camp virtual machines with the help of the "disp.allow_to_suspend_bootcamp_vm=1;" system flag
Snow Leopard as a primary operating system (experimental)
Snow Leopard as a guest operating system (experimental)
Customer Experience Program
SSE4 support (better performance for media applications)

Bugfixes and improvements

General performance improvements.
Improved USB support (performance, USB1.1 compatibility fixes).
Better performance of Suspend/Resume operations
Improved hard disk performance for virtual machines converted from Parallels Desktop 2.5 and 3.0.
Memory leak in Parallels Desktop GUI that might happen after 1-2 days of work fixed.
Accidental crash in Redhat Linux 5.2 Server x86_64 during installation fixed.
Problems with connecting Palm handheld devices via USB fixed.
Improved sound playback via USB devices.
Empty keyboard remapping in the clean PD4 installation fixed.
Networking issues when the Mac network location changes fixed.
Timezone and daylight saving time were not synchronized in the virtual machine with time synchronization enabled fixed.
AltGr keyboard mapping issues on European keyboards fixed.
Parallels Tools installation hangs during the virtual machine upgrade fixed.
Failure to configure the Boot Camp partition with Windows XP SP0 installed fixed.
Releasing input of a Logitech mouse when rolling the wheel in a non-Coherence mode fixed.
Impossibility to view the configuration of suspended virtual machines fixed.
Duplicated MAC addresses for virtual network cards when a virtual machine is added to the list fixed.
Boot Camp virtual machine hangs on reboot after the second stage of upgrade fixed.
Wrong CPUID emulation resulting in poor performance of Mac OS X guest OS fixed.
Host computer performance issues when many CPU are intensively used in the guest OS fixed.
SMP guests affect host Mac OS X performance noticeably fixed.
Time going slow in Windows guest OSs on some workloads fixed.
Long upgrade from Parallels Desktop 2.5 and 3.0 caused by the hanging or reboot of a process in the guest OS fixed.
Issue with 'chkdsk' in a Boot Camp virtual machine users of existing virtual machines need to reconfigure existing Boot Camp virtual machines fixed.
Delayed Parallels Internet Security installation: a prompt will appear 3 days after the virtual machine installation.
Lower CPU usage inside the virtual machine resulting in longer battery life.
Disabled UAC (user access control) in Windows Vista after upgrading from Parallels Desktop 2.x or 3.x fixed.
The Parallels Tools uninstallation now automatically disables the shared profile.
Broken scrolling in Java applications with Parallels Tools installed fixed.
Broken Dock icons in Snow Leopard fixed.
The case sensitivity problem of the shared folders file fixed.
Shared folders do not list some files if a folder has too many files fixed.

Known issues

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard x86_64 issues:
- No shared networking support use bridged networking instead.
- No USB support.
- The performance of SMP virtual machines may be degraded.
Windows 7 experimental support issues:
- Windows 7 x86_64 installation media cannot be automatically detected.
- No sound support.
- The virtual machine screen stops being redrawn if the Windows Energy screensaver is run.
Dynamic resolution might not work in a Linux guest OS with the default amount of video memory. It might be necessary to increase the video memory size to at least 6 MB to let the feature work.
Time difference is not saved between Mac OS and Linux guest even if the Allow time difference between host and guest" option is enabled.
Recycle bin integration does not work if Mac OS Dock auto hide is enabled.
Disk encryption tools make Windows boot extremely long. To work around this issue, add the kernel.real_mode_vtx=0 to the system flags in the CPU settings.
Sound quality in Mac OS X guest is not very high.
Certain 3D applications (like 3D Canvas, Autodesk Inventor, and some others) may work improperly when 256 MB of video memory is allocated to the virtual machine. To work around this issue, decrease the video memory to 128 MB.
A message about ATI service that failed to start may appear in Boot Camp Windows virutal machine after booting. This message does not affect the virutal machine performance and can be barely ignored.
Windows Vista in a Boot Camp virtual machine may require reactivation after upgrading from Parallels Desktop 3.0 to this version of Parallels Desktop.
A wrong CPU driver is installed in a virtual machine that was initially migrated from a Virtual PC, then used with Parallels Desktop 3.0, and finally converted to Parallels Desktop 4.0 format. This results in high CPU usage in host OS with no application using CPU in the guest OS. To workaround the issue, reinstall CPU drivers in Device Manager inside the guest OS.
Improper textures in Serious Sam 2 and Far Cry.
Poor performance of Black and White 2.
Breath of Fire 4 does not work properly in the 32-bit color mode.
Problem scrolling in Punch Home Design.
Apple iSight disappears from Mac OS X if connected to and disconnected from a virtual machine multiple times in a row.
Apple USB modem does not work in the guest OS.

 

I installed this patch and now Windows XP needs to have the Tools reinstalled. The install seems to be hanging. I tried restarting XP and Parallels but it still wants to hang. Parallels does not think the tools are installed now but there is a c:\Program Files\Parallels\Parallells Tools Folder. I tried running the uninstall.bat but that failed too.

Any ideas?

 

Time Sync still broken

Time sync is still broken in Win XP VM's with build 3810 (but still works okay in Vista). Time will update on rebooting XP, but not when resuming from suspended state.

 

can somebody who installs this please confirm if the copy/paste problems are solved, as unless i just missed it, it is not mentioned above.. thanks, drew..

 

I am thrilled that the ability to suspend a Boot Camp session is back, but I can't quite understand how to enable it. Where do I find the system flags? And is there still a danger to damage my bootcamp partition if I don't shut down my parallels session and then try to boot Windows XP natively?

 

There is a special "advanced" field in VM configuration, located on the CPU page.
Go VM Configuration -> CPU -> (select 'advanced') -> System Flags
Write the value of the system flag there. Restart the VM to apply changes.

As for danger to damage your BootCamp - in some cases, it does exist (that is why we don't want this feature to be easily accessible).
Imagine the situation
* You copy your file in VM and suspend it
* Next time you boot natively and work there - everything is OK here
* Then you boot back to Mac and resume your VM - copy operation continues, though it doesn't know that filesystem could already be different. It could be harmless, but could cause problems in some cases.

So it's up to you to use this feature and be careful - know what you do when you enable this feature.

 

Thanks for the heads up. Of course I'll be careful, though it's always good to know what problems occur so that you can be sure to avoid them.

 

Any idea what "Silent start in coherence" means? I assumed it means that the virtual OS window doesn't show when starting a suspended coherence session, but the window still shows on my machine. After the session is fully resumed, then coherence kicks in.

 

I upgraded from 3540 to 3810 today. All kinds of things broke on my only program I run in XP Home (AmiBroker). I have two identical Mac Pro (early 2008) machines, so I could make some comparisons, and I back both up. When I ran the backed up VM from 3540 on 3810, but did not let it upgrade the parallels Tools, everything seemed to run fine. Once I let it upgrade PT, things broke badly again. If I uninstalled PT and installed them again it was still broke. Can anyone give me something else to try. This is impacting my work and I am about to abandon 3810.

Thanks,
Dennis

 

*Host computer performance issues when many CPU are intensively used in the guest OS fixed.
*SMP guests affect host Mac OS X performance noticeably fixed.
*Lower CPU usage inside the virtual machine resulting in longer battery life.

This build with the above issues addressed is now giving me the expected performance boost in my Vista guest I was expecting from 4.0. No more unusual 100%CPU usage that makes the OSX side unresponsive for minutes! Excellent work guys. Very happy.

 

BSOD with Build 3810

I upgraded to Build 3810 on my MacPro two bad things happen:
1. As Vista 64 starts I get a BSOD: Every time. I've rebooted several times, but always the BSOD
2. it says that Parallels tools needs to be installed: It was already installed before I upgraded.

I need some help on this because this is my production machine at work.

 

BSOD screenshot please

 

Much better!

My windows XP machine is back to what it was (if not better)! Resume and Suspend times are much better with this build and my Mac Apps do not gRind to a halt when using the VM.

Thanks

 

Actually it means the following scenario -
* imagine you have some Windows application 'kept' in Dock, like Outlook or Excel
* when you launch it, you expect Outlook to open, not virtual machine

With this feature VM will start in "background" and will launch application
in Coherence mode automatically, just like it was launched natively.

 

John@Parallels,

See the post "BSOD with Dec 2008 update" for an attachement of the BSOD

 

what a surprise - still no windows mouse "snap to" functionality...

 

Hi,
I have the impression that the guest system (Windows XP) is much slower no. Can anyone confirm this?

Stephan

 

John

I read this part of the update:

"A wrong CPU driver is installed in a virtual machine that was initially migrated from a Virtual PC, then used with Parallels Desktop 3.0, and finally converted to Parallels Desktop 4.0 format. This results in high CPU usage in host OS with no application using CPU in the guest OS. To workaround the issue, reinstall CPU drivers in Device Manager inside the guest OS."

But I am not sure what you mean by "CPU drivers" I am attaching a list from device manager which shows "PC - ACPI Uniprocessor PC driver" at the top and then a bunch of Intel Drivers at the bottom.

Which one(s) are you referring to?

Thanks

 

I think so too. What are the optimal settings we should be using? 2 cores or 1? 3D Accel or not? etc.

 

After installing 3810, my CPU usage has shot up dramatically with one or the other CPU being neat 100% utilization at any particular moment -- even with no applications running. I found the following in the Known Issues for 3810 which seems to explain the problem:

The problem, however is that the "workaround" instruction --i.e., "reinstall CPU drivers in Device Manager inside the guest OS" -- is practically useless. Where do we find the "right" CPU driver? Please help quickly -- this problem is untenable as my MBP is running dangerously hot and I would like to avoid any physical heat-related damage. Thanks.