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

[STim]

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

------------
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

 

[Slicedbread]

I'm having problems loading windows xp thru bootcamp.

whenever I cold boot and hold down the option button, the screen where i choose which version of windows to load (config 1 or parallels), the computer hangs. no keyboard response and I must reboot the computer. the only reliable way of getting into bootcamp I have found is that I must boot into OS X, and then choose System Prefs \ Startup Disk \ Choose the win XP partition and press the restart button.

any ideas?

 

[Portdogmc]

i need help with coherancy. I'm running xp sp2 on my macbook. When i click coherence view on the parallels taskbar or under the menu bar, it does nothing. i followed these instructioned with no prevail:

You should run your Windows app and then go to Coherence mode by clicking on toolbar icon. VM and Windows desktop will disappear and you will have your Windows app directly on top of Mac desktop. You also optionally could have Windows task bar on or off (on by default) and run new Windows application when in Coherence mode.

am i supposed to get a check-mark next to coherence mode in the menu bar? nothing happens when i try to use it

 

[reimic]

Have someone solved the problem with the windows activation? In Bootcamp it works perfect but in parallels not. I have only three days for activation. THANKS for helping!!

 

[chucker]

i need help with coherancy. I'm running xp sp2 on my macbook. When i click coherence view on the parallels taskbar or under the menu bar, it does nothing. i followed these instructioned with no prevail:




am i supposed to get a check-mark next to coherence mode in the menu bar? nothing happens when i try to use it

Are your Parallels Tools up-to-date?

 

[Portdogmc]

Are your Parallels Tools up-to-date?

prolly not. ill try removing parallels tools and installing it now.. thanks

 

[Portdogmc]

cool now it works. but when i go back to os view, i have no mouse pointer control!? all the mouse does is mouse diagnol down and right. if i dont move the trackpad, then it stops going down and right. but whenever i move the mouse, it moves down right.. ahhh so annoying. to get it to work again i must shut down the vm and turn it back on

 

[chucker]

cool now it works. but when i go back to os view, i have no mouse pointer control!? all the mouse does is mouse diagnol down and right. if i dont move the trackpad, then it stops going down and right. but whenever i move the mouse, it moves down right.. ahhh so annoying. to get it to work again i must shut down the vm and turn it back on

Known problem. Try this solution.

 

[pkropf]

Too Sweet!

The Coherence feature is just too sweet. Very nice.

I noticed one bug. When running on a dual headed system with the Parallels window on the second display, selecting the View -> Property Sheet doesn't show the VM's property sheet. It just shows the VM window again. Move the Parallels windows to the primary display and everything works as expected.

- Peter

 

[Portdogmc]

Known problem. Try this solution.

on that solution, how do i get to those windows where i chnge those settings? thanks so much

 

[chucker]

on that solution, how do i get to those windows where i chnge those settings? thanks so much

1) Control Panel (in Start Menu, Start -> Control Panel; in Classic Start Menu, Start -> Settings -> Control Panel)
2) Display (should give you the first window)
3) Advanced tab (is the tab depicted in the first window).
4) click the button as shown in the first screenshot, below the colors. You should get to the second window now.
5) go through the tabs until you find one that looks like the one in the second screenshot. Turn the hardware acceleration slider all the way up.
6) Click OK in both windows. You may have to reboot.

 

[dhjdhj]

Thanks - that's a really cool feature.


D

This on a MBP, running Parallels with the START menu running down the left hand side, and "auto hidden". There are 2 "Windows" windows showing, plus Safari

HTH,

JJB

 

[sseligson]

a few questions

I just upgraded to a macbook pro.

I had a mcbook. right now i am not using boot camp but I am using Parallels.

I now want to use boot camp so I only need one installed version of windows.

Is the best thing to do, delete my parallels program and start from scratch using boot camp, the install the new build of paralels?

I can't salvage my existing parallels installation right?


if the above is correct, how do I uninstall the old parallels and windows?

If I recall the old version on parallels let me dynamically resize the size of the windows hard drive. If I do boot camp, does this feature not work and am I locked into the size I parition the drive to with boot camp?

Which should I use NTSC of FAT32? If NTSC, do I have compatibilty issues with files?

 

[diamondsw]

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.

Given the confusion in this very forum - where the build has been variously reported as 3060, 3080, and an assortment of other numbers - you would think the problem is self-evident. Heck, the correct number is in the thread title, and numerous people STILL get it wrong.

Anyway, back to more interesting reports, which largely boil down to:

• Bravo! Awesome! Excellent work!
• Using Boot Camp doesn't work for me at all (grayed out).
• Using Boot Camp with a wireless keyboard causes problems selecting hardware profiles.
• Using Boot Camp causes constant reactivations.
• Coherence is neat, but has some minor graphical bugs.
• If we use Boot Camp in Parallels, does it gain all of the features of Boot Camp? (No.)
• Vista doesn't work in Coherence.
• Vista doesn't work from former Boot Camp disks.

A separate "Boot Camp" thread with some FAQs up top would clear things up a lot.

 

[kperry7505]

Palm HotSync Doesn't work in new beta

Syncing my Treo 650 over USB works fine under the official release, but not with the new beta. I hit the sync button and hear the Windows "bu-deep" sound, so I know Windows is noticing the new USB device, but the Palm hotsync manager app never fires up.

Other than that, and having to set the color depth to use it on a large display, the new beta is working great for me. Coherence mode is a pretty jaw-dropping demo to show people.

I have exactly the same behavior. Palm HotSync worked in previous builds, but not 3036,

 

[matss]

Error installing Parallels tools for boot camp

I downloaded the parallels tools for boot camp and tried to install it but the installer stopped with an error message "error code 1 (or -1?)". Anyone seen this or know how to get passed it?

/Mats Soderstrom

 

[mark.burton]

Reactivation issue - where was the warning?

When I read about the new Boot Camp features, I went a head and bought my first copy of Parallels Desktop for Mac, downloaded the beta 3036 to my MacBook Pro and started reading the instructions for how to use it with my existing legitimate Win XP SP2 Bootcamp installation.

Having followed all the steps in full (including first installing the Boot Camp tools in Win XP), I created a new VM using my Bootcamp partition. As Win XP loaded, the reactivation note comes up :-(

I know this is a beta and I understand that it is our problem when things go wrong, but this is ridiculous. You make no mention of the this issue in any of the guides. You make no mention of it in the post at the top of this thread and you have so far completely ignored numerous requests from your customers to address this verbally or with an update.

Clearly this feature is unusable right now and since everyone who is trying this with a legitimate copy of Windows XP has this issue, I'm at a loss to why Parallels could not have had the same issue and hence reported on it clearly and up front.

Please can you address this question, many, many more before me have been asking for a response, which you are giving freely to others topics. This is a very serious issue and needs to be addressed. If we need to un-install and hold off, then fine, if there is a fix, great - please just let us know what is going on.

Many thanks
Mark

 

[ivc]

If you have problems with booting using the Boot Camp partition natively, try to set the Timeout in boot.ini to 5 (seconds) instead of -1. I found that if it's -1 the bootloader is confused and you can't use your keyboard to select Windows XP or Parallels Configuration.

Now I can use the Boot Camp partition using both Parallels and Boot Camp natively. You only need to make sure that you select Parallels Configuration before the timeout counts down when booting via Parallels.

 

[fairfact]

Problems with new 3036 Beta

I downloaded and installed the new Beta and all appeared to be going well until I attempted to launch the new updated version of Parallels. I quickly saw my "old" Win XP desktop, but as the screen "turned" to launch Win XP the image becomes a large inset that looks like a bunch of pink, grey and black horiz lines on a white background (like TV static). The inset is surrounded by a black border on all four sides of the screen. I cannot quit the program in the usual way...have to use a force quit which initially just sits there, but then does finally execute

I never got a chance to load the new Tools. All menu actions are 'dimmed' and inaccessible.

System: iMac 24 intel 2 Duo w 2 gig RAM (previously download the update for iMac 24 and Mac Pro...and all was OK until attenpting to update to Build 3036.

I hope I do not have to reload Win XP as I have also loaded a number of apps on the system.

Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[kperry7505]

Palm HotSync Now Broken

We are working on USB issues. One of the improvements (connect/disconnect) is already in this beta.

Andrew,
Do you think it's possible the new USB improvements have broken Desktop's prvious ability to successfully perform a Palm HotSync?

 

[mafoe]

Hi there, congrats to this great build! Really happy to work with that.

I would really like to see a feature to hide the Windows Start menu in Coherence Mode. I like this mode a lot!!!

I miss the Tools to install on a pc before You convert the pc or vmware image. Do I have to install something on the pc?