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

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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

 

[edwardb]

The link to the Parallels Tools for Boot Camp.exe is broken. I can't run my boot camp partition in parallels without it! HELP!

 

[GPWeller]

OS Installation Assistant

I uninstalled my previous version and installed this as I got errors when trying to do an upgrade install. Now EVERY TIME I open Parallels it apparently doesn't see any of my original .pvs files and the OS Installation Assistant pops up- If I cancel out of it, Parallels closes. I'm stuck with either going through the wizard to create a new .pvs file EVERY time, or launching my .pvs files directly (which is ugly). Anyone else expeirence this problem/have a fix?

Matt

I realize that this is an old thread, but I am now having the same problem, with the newest version of Parallels, 3188. Any solutions?

 

[r3ptile]

Broken Link

Does anybody know what you have to download in order to install the Parallels Tools for Bootcamp? The link is broken, yes, and I don't suppose you have to install Parallels Workstation for Win?

 

[hagen]

New versions do not "need" the tools

Does anybody know what you have to download in order to install the Parallels Tools for Bootcamp? The link is broken, yes, and I don't suppose you have to install Parallels Workstation for Win?

When you run newer versions, you do not need the seperate tools for parallels desktop for mac. Create the virtual drive on the mac side, point to boot camp as per the instructions, start the virtual drive. Windows (boot camp) will start. Be patient and wait. After it's started, wait a bit more and paralells will automatically start an install wizard to put the tools in place.

If you go back to boot camp at a later date, Some more tools will be installed again. If I remember correctly.

 

[bhanks]

upgrade

I use parallels with XP and I have coherence with the last whaterver it was, service pack or something. I don't use XP except for a couple of things, mostly for a database I need for work. Why should I upgrade to 3.0?

 

[tacit_one]

I use parallels with XP and I have coherence with the last whaterver it was, service pack or something. I don't use XP except for a couple of things, mostly for a database I need for work. Why should I upgrade to 3.0?

You know, noone here says that you should.
The most notable (to me) changes in the versions are: snapshots, deeper coherence integration (cross-os application association, etc.) and 3d acceleration (both OGL/D3D - even if not the latest versions yet). As long as you're not interested in these features i see no reason for you to upgrade...