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

 

[petteri]

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 ?

I'm getting the exact same problem. Graphics get very distorted. My windows firewall also gave me a warning about the Parallels program running.

Also, switching to full screen mode corrupts the graphics. I also tried to change the resolution down and then back up to try and correct it. This led to a BSD and a reboot of Windows.

 

[Sonderpa]

Wow, I'm very impressed.

I absolutely love Coherency.

Wish:
I would like the Virtual Machines Catalogue keep in alphabetical order.

Problems:
After I installed build 3036 and started a VM, the whole system hang. I had to reboot. Then everything worked fine. The only problem was that the started VM was giving the message that it was in in use by another virtual machine.
In build 1970 there is an unlock button. I'm missing this button in build 3036.

If I click open to open another VM while the current VM isn't running, the new VM is still opened in a new window. Is this intended to work this way?

Build 3036 is a major step forward, that I like very much!

 

[stinger]

I had the original msg that tychop had, but I actually already have NTFS and I still get same msg.
So I don't entirely believe it's only a FAT32 problem.

 

[macguyincali]

First word about this new version: Great! Good work guys, very impressive.

But here's my problem:



I have the exact same problem. My situation is the following: I'm using Parallels Desktop for Mac with one Windows Home Ed. ( KEY 1). The purpose of this system is to get some programs working which don't run under Mac OS X. It's working fine. On the other hand I've Boot Camp installed with another Windows Home Ed. (KEY 2). The purpose of this partition is gaming. I've bought two Windows Licenses & CD's with different keys of course, so very legal at all, since the VM and the native partition are "two" PC's on my MacBook Pro.
Now I'm being asked for re-activation (i understand this technically since the 3rd VM under Parallels is a "new" PC with "new" hardware. But is there a way to avoid this reactivation by Windows? I mean i got already two legal copies and i don't want to buy a third one. I know mainly it's up to Microsoft with this problem and not to the Parallels team but is there any chance to get through this?

Thx in advance and keep the good work up guys!

Well, I was forced to reactivate in both BootCamp and Parallels. I had no problem reactivating online in BootCamp, but in Parallels it told me I exceeded my licenses. I personally do not consider the BootCamp / Parallels usage to be two usages, especially since it is techically the same OS and I have the same setting, apps, etc. I called the phone number and simply told them that my computer said I had a hardware problem and I now have to reactivate. I also told them I am running XP on only one computer, which is absolutely true. The XP license I have was for Virtual PC, which I no longer use (and have deleted off my computer). They gave me a new license on the spot.

 

[chozobee]

Installed build 3036, Parallels no longer working?

After installing the new beta build, when I start up Parallels i'm greeted with a translucent "?" on top of my doc icon when trying to start up the application. Nothing else happens after that, and the updated dock icon is persistent until I restart my macbook. I'm assuming the application does nothing because Parallels is not listed in the "force quit" list.

The image seems to be fine, as i'm still able to resize/defrag it. Is there any way to get it up and running again?

Thanks!

 

[jcbeckman]

That's your Dock icon for the version that got replaced. Notice the name of the program is slightly different now. Just start it form the Parallels folder in Applications and then save that icon on the Dock. You can trash the old one.

 

[MikeBasinger]

I no longer can you Shared Networking on my Windows XP VM. It worked fine before the update.

Mike

 

[Andrew @ Parallels]

Mike,

Please try to reboot Mac OS X. It should solve inability to use Shared Networking.

 

[Kroc]

I've discovered that if you start disk compacting in Parallels Tools Centre, when it switches to the Host compacting stage, and you're using coherence, things break very much.

Edit: Compaction started from the VM is broken, coherence or not, so watch out. Just kill the machine, restart it and delete the huge file left on the root of C:

 

[KBrack]

Transparent Command Key Mapping

I have been using Trade-Keys to remap the cmd/cntl keys in Parallels (and on "real" Windows machines.) I had to turn this off because the new Transparent Command Key mapping that is in the new version.

However, there's no support for Cmd-S to save. Anyway to add the S key in the auto mapping or to turn this off so it doesn't conflict with Trade-Keys?

This update is very cool! Thanks for all the hard work!

 

[mcg]

Coeherence is a very clever and impressive feature! Great work! However, I do have two small nitpicks.

--- I have my dock on the left-hand side; and when I engage Coherence mode,my Windows start menu only extends to the right-end edge of the dock. If I auto-hide the Dock, it extends to the full width of the screen. I would like the ability for Coherence to IGNORE the state of the Dock and extend all the way anyway.

--- If I'm auto-hiding the WIndows taskbar, then it will not un-hide unless a Windows application is in focus. So if I'm typing this in Safari, for example, I first have to click on a Windows app, and *then* move the mouse down to the taskbar. Or, I can go down to the taskbar itself and click on it---which brings the Windows application in focus. If possible, the taskbar should still autodetect my mouse hover without a click---and it shouldn't bring up the Windows application when I access the menu.

--- Conversely, if I un-hide the taskbar, and then click on Safari (say), the taskbar does not hide again. It would be great if it could.

I hope it is clear that these suggestions are just tweaks on a feature that is already working quite well for me. Thanks!

 

[manfredell]

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.

I experienced a LOT of blue screens when switching back from Coherence mode to the OS window mode! This one is a bit buggy still....

 

[sriggins]

I have the activation issue also.

This would really ruin the idea of running off the bootcamp partition if its going to burn my activation keys every time I switch my environments.

 

[Erich]

I have the activation issue also.

This would really ruin the idea of running off the bootcamp partition if its going to burn my activation keys every time I switch my environments.

I'm having the same problem. I've called Microsoft to fix it once, and now it looks like I'll have to do so again. This is a show-stopping bug.

 

[ilkevinli]

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:

Anyone know whats wrong ??

 

[chimz]

I'm having the same problem. I've called Microsoft to fix it once, and now it looks like I'll have to do so again. This is a show-stopping bug.

I've got the same issue, had to activate when I booted in Parallels, and now I have to activate in Boot Camp. Fortunately, Boot Camp gave me 3 days, but I still have to activate it. I've got a legit license.

 

[hussainahm]

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:

Anyone know whats wrong ??

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.

 

[alexishinds]

Transparent Command Key mapping on MBP?

Hello,

Love the new beta.

How do I enable the transparent key mapping? I don't see any options in the Parallels preferences or in the Parallels tools and it doesn't seem to be working on my C2D MPB.

Also, can we *please please please* have an option to enable cmd-tab switching? Esp. now with Coherence I think it's more necessary. Right now I have to take my hands of the keyboard every time I want to switch to a Mac app, and well, it's driving me bonkers.

Thanks

--Alexis

 

[jedimacfan]

Re: Vista problem

I had Windows Vista shutdown when I installed the latest BETA of Parallels. Now I cannot get Vista to boot normally or in safe mode. Has anyone been able to get a fix on this? I really don't want to have to try and reinstall Vista again.

Thanks.

MacBook 2 GHz Core 2 Duo 2 GB RAM
Parallels build 3036

 

[retrospek]

Just a warning to people that you will have to activate your copies of WinXP again if you are using Bootcamp.

I've just removed all of the Bootcamp Tools from my WinXP installation and it still needed me to activate again !