Parallels Desktop for Mac build 3036 Beta is available for download.

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Hello community!

We are continuing our efforts for bringing you even more feature-full product and we are making our latest Parallels Desktop for Mac Beta Build 3036 early available to you. It will be one more FREE update of the currently available version.

Heres a short overview of the new features and enhancements introduced by this Beta:

* New Look and Feel and Improved Usability. Completely redesigned windows and dialogues to make them even easier and smooth. Too many changes to describe just check them out yourselves

* Virtual Machines Catalogue. A very useful feature for those having more than one VM now all of them are available through centralized VM catalogue which appears on each Parallels Desktop for Mac instance start in case you have more than one VM

* One-click Virtual Machine Aliases:
* Automatically created by OS installation assistant or by drag-and-drop from title bar pressing Command-Option keys combination
* Clicking on Alias automatically starts the Virtual Machine
* Shutting down the VM automatically closes Parallels Desktop for Mac application

* Resizable Main Window. Resize Parallels Desktop for Mac main window as you do with any other Mac application

* Auto-Adjusting Screen Resolution. Your Windows auto-adjusts the screen resolution to the actual Main Window size.

* Drag and Drop files and folders between Windows and Mac. A long awaited feature that lets you seamlessly drag and drop files and folders from Windows to Mac OS X and vice versa.

* Read/Write BootCamp partition. Since this build, an Apple Boot Camp partition with Windows XP installed could be used as a virtual HDD for Parallels Desktop for Mac.

* Boot from BootCamp partition. Another long awaited feature that lets you boot your 32-bit Windows XP residing on Boot Camp partition directly in Parallels Desktop for Mac.
IMPRORTANT! You need to boot in your Windows XP natively through Boot Camp and install Parallels Tools for Boot Camp package in it before your first boot in Parallels Desktop for Mac.
NOTE! It is not possible to suspend Virtual Machine connected to Boot Camp for integrity reasons.
NOTE! Running Boot Camp in Virtual Machine will need to reactivate your Windows XP installation.

* Parallels Transporter Beta bundled. Migrate your Windows PC, VMware or Virtual PC VMs to Parallels virtual machines. Please visit Parallels Transporter forum for details.

* Coherence. Shows Windows applications as if they were Mac ones. Try it and enjoy best of both worlds truly at the same time. No more switching between Windows to Mac OS.

* Improved graphic performance. Up to 50% on different applications.

* Connect/disconnect USB devices schema improved. No more wait 5-10 seconds message on USB device connecting to Parallels Desktop for Mac.

* Up to 5 Virtual NICs. Now Virtual Machine can have up to five virtual network interfaces.

* Enhanced Shared Networking Mode. Run Cisco VPN and many other complicated networking applications in conjunction with Connection Sharing Mode.

* Switch between networking modes on-the-fly. Switch networking modes while the virtual machine is running.

* Transparent mapping of Command-AZXCV key combinations. Now you can also use Mac copy/paste key combinations in Windows.

* Power On/Power Off/Suspend/Resume/Pause animation. Just try and see. :) Were very interested in your feedback about the feature.

* Shared folders configuration on-the-fly. Add/remove/configure shared folders on-the-fly via menu or Status Bar icon without the need to stop your Virtual Machine.

* Drag and Drop CD/FDD images and folders to the Parallels Desktop statusbar. Just drag and drop CD or floppy image you want to connect or Mac folder you want to share onto a respective statusbar icon.

* And dozens of other not that evident enhancements.

Just download Parallels Desktop for Mac Beta Build 3036 to have them all available on your Mac! It will be a FREE update once it becomes Generally Available.
IMPORTANT! Resume and shut down all suspended Virtual Machines prior to upgrade.

Please remember that this is beta software, and like any other beta software you should treat it very carefully. Do not install this Beta into the production environment yet. Do backup your virtual machines before starting them.

If, for any reason, you would like to downgrade to previous stable build, use this link to get it.
IMPORTANT! Uninstall Parallels Tools from the guest OS prior to downgrading and install them again after finishing the downgrade procedure.

As usual, any feedback is extremely appreciated at [email protected] mailbox.

Best regards,
Tim and Parallels Team

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Download links:

Parallels Desktop for Mac Beta Build 3036 - http://download.parallels.com/beta/Parallels Desktop 3036 Mac en.dmg

Parallels Tools For Boot Camp - http://download.parallels.com/beta/Parallels-Tools-Bcp-1.0.3-Win.exe
 
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oszillo said:
First I have to say that I am very excited by the efforts of the Parallels team. The Coherence mode is fantastic. However I have problems with the new Boot Camp option:
After installing Beta 3060, booting Boot Camp installation of Win XP and installing Parallels Tools for Boot Camp in every dialog of Parallels the Option "Use Boot Camp" is still greyed out. Any suggestion? (I am running german Windows XP System builder Edition)
Click to expand...

are you using "custom"?
 
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ilkevinli said:
Hi,
I have WinXP installed via Bootcamp. I installed the Parallels beta 3068 and set it up to run the WinXP via bootcamp and installed the paralles tools natively in XP. When I try and run it, I get the following error:

Picture 2.png


Anyone know whats wrong ??
Click to expand...
No. I but I got the same error.

MacBook Pro, OS X 10.4.8, 1.5 GB of RAM.

Would love to know what to do to fix it.

I also had problems installing the Parallels Tools for BootCamp. At first it wouldn't run, giving an error that it couldn't run something. Then it finally did run, but then just ended. There was no completed message and I don't see a Parallels folder in the Program Files folder. So not sure if Parallels Tools are even installed.
 
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hussainahm said:
Are you using XP Corporate ? i am and i installed Parallels Tools for Boot Camp but it wouldn't install correctly, the install log said it couldn't find driver cache or something .. anyway i get the same error as you.
Click to expand...
I get the same error but I am not using Windows XP Corporate. I am using a retail version of Windows XP Professional SP2.
 
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Novice question

I have only used/owned a Mac for about a week, and paralles has made that possible. I started using boot camp, but quickly moved to parallels. Can someone tell me the advantage to using boot camp with paralles, instead of using parallels only to run XP?
 
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cflem said:
im trying to install the Parallels Tools in the BootCamp windows install and the install goes fine then just quits without finishing... i have tried it on a clean install and my backup image... all to no avail.. im on a 24" imac...

Anyone have a clue?
Click to expand...
Yup, same here.
 
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My mouse drift solution

rangr said:
is no-one else having this loss of mouse problem? the build works perfectly as far as i can tell, but going into coherence mode makes cursor drift slowly to right and down screen, diagonally. i then have to uninstall and reinstall tools to make it work again, which is a bit tricky without mouse control!
Click to expand...

My mouse also drifted to the right bottom screen corner after activating the coherence mode. The solution was to enable full hardware acceleration in the extended monitor settings in windows xp. I decreased the acceleration level in the past for another parallels beta and forgot this setting.

anzeige.jpg

The image shows a german xp version.
 
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my 2 cents worth

Have installed this beta and have to say that it is an impressive set of updates. Definately some key features have been added that we have all been shouting about.

Now for the fine tuning as far as I see with regards to coherency.

In VirtualPC from Micrsoft, they had a feature that added the windows Start menu as a Dock icon. Clicking this icon brought up the start menu right in place. This should be an easy feature to add.

Finally, a feature that creates a parallel dock icon for each windows app that is running would be good. VritualPC also had this feature I believe.

With these two key features, you could automatically hide the windows start bar and it really would add a level of integration between the mac that makes it that more seemless between the two OS's. Don't forget to remap the windows ALT+TAB key to the Macs CMD+TAB. That way we see even less of that ugly windows.

A little cool addon would be a 'make windows apps look like mac apps' that changes the windows theme when in coherence mode!!! Just a thought.

Everything else are just minor bugs in my eyes.

Great work guys! Top stuff. Passion truely is the source of invention.
 
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…and here. I have a Windows Vista NTFS partition through Boot Camp, and a Windows XP NTFS image in Parallels from which I'd like to access it. My Parallels Tools are up-to-date. The drive does not appear in My Computer, nor in Computer Management. (If I create a new image, it is detected as "new hardware" upon next reboot.)

I also tried installing the Boot Camp tools, but figured those are only applicable if you want to *boot* off that partition, which turned out to be the case.

Has anyone gotten this to work? That is, booting off an image, but being able to access (read/write) a native NTFS partition?

P.S.: A hugely impressive update. The drag&drop works great and fast. The coherence mode obviously has some display glitches at this point, as it doesn't use composition; I suppose this can't really be addressed until 3D acceleration support comes along; other than that, coherence is terrific. Once I get NTFS read/write support working for me, I can share a lot of stuff between Parallels and Boot Camp, thus saving several Gigabytes of space :)
 
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"Open with..." with Parallels application

Hello guys

I had this on my mind for quite some time but the stunning new coherence mode finally "forces" me to bring this in here becauses this would be ever more useful now:

Would it be possible to implement a feature to open files inside OS X - occasionally or by default - with an application installed inside a Parallels VM (using the "Open with"..." feature of the Finder)?

Example: I would love to (always) open MS Office files with MS Office 2003 - now, I have to launch Explorer and open the file from there. Being able to open files directly from the Finder instead would really make me smile at my Mac all day long :).

Thanks for listening and please keep up the great work!
 
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Problem with Coherence

Hello all,

I have a problem with coherence. Indeed, i've just installed the last build, the last parallels tools, i have Windows XP SP2 Corporate but when i click on the coherence icon, nothin appens.

Up to you, what should I do ?

Thanks,
Simon
 
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diamondsw said:
Users do not know what build numbers ARE. Find me one major product that uses a build number prominently. Build numbers are fine for more detail, especially for betas, but why is it that unless you really look, you don't know what version Parallels is? What was v2.1, v2.2, and now (apparently) v2.5? This is why people are complaining that USB 2.0 and Direct3D and such haven't arrived - they don't realize we haven't hit the next "major version", because we don't know what version it IS.

The last software I recall using build numbers were the betas of Mozilla, and even those had corresponding version numbers and a roadmap for what was coming in each version. It was something you could track to, both for end users and developers.

Of course, knowing how much stuff is coming in the next paid upgrade may dissuade people from buying Parallels now (ACPI, USB 2.0, Direct3D?).
Click to expand...

Okay, but *I* don't have an issue with remembering that 1970 is the current release and 3036 is a beta. Clicking "About Parallels Desktop" shows me that I'm running Build 3036 Beta (November 30, 2006). That's good enough for me.
 
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d0csp33d said:
So that means I can start windows from Parallels and run games and everything, since it uses bootcamp?
Click to expand...

No. For 3D acceleration, you'll still need to dual-boot.

What this means is merely that you can share one and the same Windows XP installation between Parallels and Boot Camp, thus saving you a lot of space.
 
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Godrifle said:
Okay, but *I* don't have an issue with remembering that 1970 is the current release and 3036 is a beta. Clicking "About Parallels Desktop" shows me that I'm running Build 3036 Beta (November 30, 2006). That's good enough for me.
Click to expand...

Yes, but it would be far preferable if they could have a more user-friendly numbering scheme, such as calling this one 2.5b1. It's a bit of a nitpick, but it's a valid one. Build numbers are for developers. Users shouldn't have to remember them, nor to look them up. You can easily remember that:
1) the original final release, back in spring, was 2.1.
2) the updates were betas of 2.2; the second final release (adding support for Core 2 Duo Macs and lots of other stuff) were 2.2.
3) the release coming up now, bringing Coherence, Boot Camp partition support, etc., will be 2.5.
4) the release bringing USB 2.0 support, 3D acceleration, etc., will apparently be 3.0.

Those numbers exist, so it's baffling why the team doesn't communicate them that way.
 
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How to change Memory setting if locked up?

miker51 said:
Tim -
Upon further testing, I have found that the problem seems to stem from allowing Parallels to automatically set the amount of system memory. If I set it manually, the VM boots up just fine.
Click to expand...

I have the Mac Pro- beach ball problem too so how do you get to set the memory manually if the machine is locked up?
 
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