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

1. Windows task bar visability is part of design. Without it you can't start new Windows application when in Coherence. Optionally you can switch it off or autoplace it - check Coherence tab in Parallels Tools Center.

2. "Isn't quite right resolution" is also part of design. Coherence working area is exluded DockBar and Mac menu.

3. As to artifacts of Windows desktop on fast windows moving - they are in this beta and work on it's improvement. One of workarounds - you could set in Windows blue wallpaper and artefacts become hardly visible.

 

Bit of a mixed bag so far:

1. Boot Camp Support - Does not boot properly, failing soon after Mup.sys (when booted into Safe Mode). This is with Vista, but it mirrors previous failures related to ACPI support that I have posted on before. Just noticed I need to install Parallels Tools first - this should not be necessary.
2. New Properties Page - Looks nice, but still cannot view and change properties and have them take effect on next boot. Instead, the user is completely locked out of properties until the VM is shut down.
3. Parallels Tools Stability - No longer crashes on installing the video driver - excellent.
4. Auto Resolution Changes - Mostly works, but I still see scrollbars appear from time to time - not sure under what circumstances yet.
5. Transparent AZXCV mapping - Hallelujah! I can't tell how many times I've flubbed that, especilly when copying between Windows and OS X.

ACPI support would make running Boot Camp partitions, restoring from other PC's, etc all much easier. When will we see this happen?

As for the interface, it's a mess. The entire paradigm seems awkward and forced into a "one window per instance of the application". That window is a single virtual machine. This leads to all sorts of awkwardness:

1. A window must always be open, or the program quits. This is absolutely inappropriate for a document-based application. Your "documents" are VM's. I should be able to open several, close them as I want, and not have any open, but leave the program open (if I want to check preferences, or the version number, etc).
2. VM's launch into their own instance of Parallels, which makes the memory settings in "Preferences" and "Properties" redundant. It's also confusing as to whether Preferences changes affect all copies of Parallels or not, and what happens if changes are made to two separate running copies - who "wins"?
3. VM Catalog is rooted to an existing VM, which makes it conceptually a child of that VM - this is the opposite of what should be conveyed. VM's come from the catalog, not the other way around.
4. Cannot launch the program without an "untitled instance" showing up to root the VM catalog to. Again, this should be a separate window.

Fundamentally, I should be able to open several virtual machines at once, in one copy of Parallels. I should be able to select "Open" and be presented with a list of known machines, with an "Other..." button to open ones that are not listed, and "Get more" button to download premade images from the internet, within Parallels. Known machines should be listed with their name and type, and if running, a screenshot of the current state. Opening one of these should then open the Virtual Machine in a separate window, all in the same instance.

As for properties, according to interface guidelines they should be a sheet on the VM window - I shouldn't have to hide what I'm looking at, but it should be directly connected to that VM. This is exactly what sheets are for. Properties should be changeable at any time, and the user should be notified as to which can take place immediately, and which will take place on the next boot.

This makes the interface much more straightforward, builds on established interface conventions both in the OS and several previous VM programs, and increases user flexibility by removing the modality of the application.

 

I run 2 VMs and it appears that each runs on a seperate core, so, at least to that degree, Parallels seems to do multi-processor (or else Activity monitor is misleading me on processor usage)

 

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

 

coherence stops my mouse from working-- the pointer icon slowly drifts to lower right of screen. deinstall & reinstall of parallels tools gives back control, but everytime i try coherence it loses mouse control.
using second monitor with MBP.

 

DOS box in Coherence is known issue. We are working on it. As for large characters I didn't understood the testcase - could you describe in more details please?

 

This is awesome! I love the coherence feature. I haven't tried boot camp yet since I haven't had a chance to reboot in Windows XP to install the tools.

It's too bad Parallels Transporter only works in Windows. I have several Linux VMWare images I'd like to be able to convert.

 

Andrew,
Installed the Parallel Tools for BootCamp and followed the instructions on setting up BootCamp with Parallels and still no joy.

Also getting "Unable to open disk image BootCamp" error message.

My BootCamp, btw, is a 20gig FAT32 running Windows XP Pro.

 

You can convert it using Parallels Transporter for Windows anyway.

 

Custom "Not Boot camp" Windows install support...?

I've got a Mac Pro and, rather than use the Boot Camp Assistant, I stuck a second drive in, formatted it as "MBR" [1] and custom partitioned it the way I normally do my multi-boot PCs:

* Partition for c:\windows,
* big NTFS data partition for data files
* smaller FAT partition for file exchange with other OSs

Q1: Am I right in assuming that this ain't gonna work with Build 3036?

Q2: Should I zap the disk back to GUID format and re-install XP using the standard Boot Camp assisstant, or is Parallels likely to support my sort of setup in the not-too-distant future?

Q3: Does Build 3036 work with XP installed on a second drive (if it is done using boot caQ3: mp?)

[1] I.e. make BC driver CD; take out the Mac Pro's original HD; stick in the new one, boot from the Windows CD; partition and install; install Boot Camo drivers CD; Re-instate original HD; Voila.

 

Parallels USB Support

The USB support excuses thing is getting old. It has not always been Parallels stance that it would be fixed on the next big release. I've been getting the "Next Release" improved support BS since the first beta. Every release I load the new version and guess what my Garmin GPS is still INOP.

It works 100% with VM Ware Fusion..We need USB 2 support.

 

OK, the Coherence feature is very clever. Masking off the Windows desktop and letting the Mac world show through and respond to clicks is ingenious, and works amazingly well.

It's got glitches (for instance, I just minimized my Windows Firefox window, and there's now a large floating chunk of Windows desktop that only just now (after about 30 seconds) went away.

Still, for a beta, this is amazing. Nice job!

 

I'm not sure why - but this Coherence feature looks really odd on my 24" iMac. The Windows Taskbar seems to be stretched and the fonts look really bad (both on the taskbar and any applications I run)..

This may sound a silly question - but have you tested this on a 24" iMac ? or is anyone else getting this problem ?

 

This is awesome. I had seamlessRDP and rdesktop but it was quirky at best. Thanks, parallels. $80 WELL spent.

 

Issue fixed.

Hi all,

I fixed my previous problem (not being able to run image from bootcamp).
After I converted my FAT32 to NTFS using "convert c: /fs:ntfs", I was able to load parallel's with bootcamp.

So, convert your FAT32 in order to fix it.

 

What's the difference between those 2 features????

 

So, your saying that I have to reboot in Boot Camp and turn my FAT32 partition into NTFS to get Parallels to recognize my copy of Windows? Can an admin confirm that the Boot Camp feature requires NTFS?

 

Wow - I just suspended a machine and love the new Suspend graphics !

 

YIKES! The NTFS reqt would be a bummer! The primary reason I chose FAT32 is the fact that OS X can read FAT32, unlike NTFS partiitons. I even setup Spotlight so it indices my FAT32 BootCamp partition...

Oh well... I guess with the latest Parallels it wouldn't be as bad, but still, I won't be able to do Spotlight searches if I have to convert to NTFS.

 

It seems that there are some problems with FAT32 Boot Camp. We will investigate this problem.