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

I'd love to either see a thread from Parallels telling us what they are working on and their progress. Or perhaps an occasional update with the builds. Considering we went from build 1970 to build 3036, it is obvious they are trying a number of changes to the code. I'd settle for somewhat more frequent releases which may or may not fix one or two issues. I wasn't a fan of build 1970 and I do like the feature set in build 3036. I just cannot justify $80 for what is currently build 3036. There really isn't much feedback here (or it gets buried in these 36 page threads), so a sticky from the team which we cannot reply to would be greatly appreciated. Something just letting us know where things stand.

 

Nope, you're wrong.

Nothing is broken.
It's Microsoft.

They use an algorithm which will make you re-activate your windows if 60+% of your hardware was changed. Most laptop profiles don't change 60+% of the hardware. They just add to the existing hardware.
In Parallels however, ALL your hardware has changed (from the OS's point of view). Hence the re-activation.

You can 'solve' it by getting your hands on a corporate edition which don't do activation. When you do, you can use a tool called KeyUpdateTool.exe from microsoft to enter your own key. Is this legal? I think not. Do I find it an acceptable fix for the time being? Yes.

 

We will extend trial keys until end of beta - don't worry. You only have to request other key once current one expired.

 

After a full day's use...

So for anyone who might be interested in the actual user-experience of this update, I worked all day yesterday using XP pro in Coherence mode.

Software Running
- Firefox 2
- Adobe Photoshop CS2
- Macromedia Flash 8
- IE 6
- Trillian basic
- Windows Explorer

I realize the last 2 might not be so important from a performance issue, but just figured i'd give a full picture.

- coherence is very nice... though there are some bugs that you will notice in the case of connection menus in trillian that weren't visible when they were off the actual trillian window (basically, anything overlayed onto the desktop normally won't show in coherence.

- dreamweaver performed well with few (if any) noticeable performance downgrades from my windows machine (acer ferrari 4005)

- adobe photoshop was noticeably slower when zooming in/out of images... sorta 'stuck' for a second, and the program as a whole seemed to struggle slightly, though not enough to make it unuseable. sorta like running it on a slightly slower machine--annoying, but given that i get to run in coherency instead of bootcamp is totally worth the trade off.

- parallels/xp doesn't seem to remember my preferences for things, though i haven't activated yet, but i dont think that is the problem:
1. every time i boot up, it reminds me to click on the start menu
2. it doesn't remember where i like my windows in trillian
3. photoshop doesn't remember my units preferences and toolbar windows
4. FF sizes itself correctly, but IE always opens in a small window that i have to resize

- i went through a brief connectivity issue (later that night and into this morning) where i either couldn't get fully connected (limited) or not connected at all... toggled the network adapter under devices, restarted parallels a few times and that seemed to fix it (for now). i also traced some of the performance to having bitrocket open and downloading on the OSX side of things...

- the ctrl / alt / apple-key set up is awkward and confusing... sometimes in parallels, it treats the apple key like the windows key, other times (like copy/paste), it works like the apple key. this really needs to be addressed or at least configurable as the alt key on the mac keyboard is sort of in an awkward place--i'd rather just be able to add its functionality to the apple key while in windows... so i can do apple+tab in XP and have it work like alt+tab instead of opening up the windows menu.

- if the system gets overloaded or locked up (i managed to do it in Photoshop 2 times), parallels will quit. Not a huge deal considering its beta and kinks still need to be worked out, but something worth mentioning.


I think thats all. Hope at least one person maybe found this useful.

 

At least for me, 3036 I've seen near no bugs - but I'm not using the BootCamp stuff yet. I am simply using Coherence and all the normal stuff. USB works great, Coherence works great on my MBP17 and so on I've had one weird crash since it was released, but other than that none.

 

We are working on all reported bugs and will deliver new beta with fixes. Stay tuned.

 

Builds.

I'd just like to point out that I've been using Parallels since the initial beta. I think the Parallels team does a great job of releasing updated Beta builds to the public in a timely manner. Generally they release every couple weeks. Hang in there I'm certain a new build isn't far off.

Kudos to the dev and test teams at Parallels. I for one work for a large software company and can attest to the amount of work that goes into releasing a product.

 

We have no doubt that you guys are Parallels is a great app and I look forward to this new version working with bootcamp the way you guys plan.

 

I have downloaded the new beta but when I installed it, it asked me to enter the Windows XP activation codes. The threads I have seen on this topic talk about the activation codes being requested when switching from Bootcamp.

On my set-up, the activation codes were requested during installation of the 3036 beta software. Why?

 

My bigest problem after a few days use

I have been using Beta 3036 for a few days now running WinXP-Home installed from a full retail version CD.

My biggest problem - other than the fact that I can't boot from my external hard drive occures when I try to copy large numbers of files.

I have a WinXP-Pro hard drive removed from one of my systems and mounted in an external USB enclosure.

I created a Parallels VM system and defined a 20GB main disk for it. Using my existing Parallels WinXP-Home system with the WinXP-Pro virtual disk defined as a second hard drive I tried to copy the files from my WinXP-Pro physical drive to the virtual disk for my new WinXP-Pro system. Never mind wheather that would ever boot or not.

The problem I encountered was that when I started my file manager copying the "c:/windows" directory from the physical to the virtual drives the system became unresponsive for long periods of time.

I could see the Parallels icons for the second drive and the network adapter flashing. The system was clearly working, it just could not start or stop programs etc... Given the flashing icons I saw, I suspect that a Parallels message Queue was being swamped. Anyway, back when I was a developer, that's where I would have started looking.

I hope there is some way to correct this problem. I don't think it would be unreasonable to expect to see other users to try copying from one disk to another.

My system has a 3.0Ghz Pent-4 with HTT & SSE3 + 2.0GB ram and is running OS X 10.4.8 + latest security updates.

Thanks for listening.

 

based on parallels' track record, i don't think anyone doubted that.

don

 

I'd just like to take a time out and say.. Damn Parallels is great.
Its rare to see a product that not only does what it says it will (at a reasonable price point) but is also responsive to the needs of its customers. Thanks guys!

 

Bsod: Kmode_exception_not_handled

Driver problems, BSOD: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
First, thank you! I'm as happy as can be with a beta. I really hated having to restart-and-switch with Boot Camp "direct." But I am hoping you'll have new Parallel drivers soon. Not only are my mouse and keyboard intermittent, the latest one to go was the CD/DVD drive. Of course, XP Pro SP2 crashes, or plain BSODs, every time, so I have to restart, but still, better! Being able to go back and forth between OS X and Windows is invaluable. Since installing the Parallels access to Boot Camp I've also been able to remove my other Parallels Windows installation giving my HD much needed space.
I liked the suggestion that you have a sticky telling us what we can expect, and when, in terms of improvements, fixes, new drivers, etc. How about it?
MvS

 

Tested the beta on my 15" MBP (maxed out) and when I try to start my VM with windows 2000 Parallels crashes late in the boot. Not possible at all to run the w2k vm. My Ubuntu 6.10 vm works fine...

Is there a new build in the works maybe?

/Mikael

 

Installation documentation...

Hello,
Is there any installation documentation for this yet?

Regards.

 

Launch error

Having used 3036 for a few days, twice have I encountered this error. When I launch PD, a window popped up and told me my Virtual Machine was being used by another instance of PD (which of course there wasn't). The first time I quitted PD and launched again, and the problem was solved. The second time I did the same but to no avail. I had to create a new VM using the old HDD file. Fortunately it works.

 

Killer App

The first and most important step was taken when Apple announced its move to Intel, and Boot Camp made it possible to buy a Mac if you were a gamer or a developer...but Coherence is simply the logical conclusion of running Windows and OS X on the same box. Congrats to the Parallels team.

Does anyone know if Apple has commented on Coherence, or if they will be including their own version of it in their next OS release? It's difficult to imagine a better implementation of Windows on a Mac than having the taskbar sitting next to the Dock with full access to all programs.

 

Apple has stated several times that they have no intention of including Virtualization technology in the next release of Mac OSX. They are happy with the offerings by Bootcamp and Parallels.

Having said this... just because they aren't going to implement "Virtualization" such as Parallels or VMware doesn't necessary mean they won't include some Windows API implementation. You have to keep in mind that WINE is alive and well. There was an open source project called Darwine, which was a Intel Mac version of WINE. I believe similar (if not the same) technology is used for CrossOver for Mac.

You don't need a Virtual Machine to run Windows Applications running on the Mac when you could implement the Windows API and run all of the same applications without the additional overhead.

I'm more then happy with Parallels offering and will continue to run and support it until such as time that you can run any application directly on the Mac platform.

 

Another Potential Coherence Issue

I am not certain if this has been mentioned or not. With Coherence running - I open say MS Word/Excel or what ever program. Instead of opening the file I want in XP, I access the file/s by-way of the Parallels Share Folder. The file/s refuse to open and Parallels locks-up. If I due the samething without Coherence running - everything works fine.

I look forward to a more stable beta; however, overall this is a very nice update.

 

I can't get this to work at all for boot camp load. I've installed the tools on the boot camp partition (another drive) and this is what I get when I load up my VM:

"Boot from hard drive... Error loading operating system."

And that's it. No furthur explanation.