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

 

[[email protected]]

Parallels Desktop for Mac Beta Build 3036. When attempting to launch RealFlight G3.5 Flight Simulator, I get the following dialog and the application will not launch.
"Your video card is not able to render 3D images. If you have a 3D card make sure you have the latest drivers."
This aplication runs without problem when run under BootCamp. Any idea what the problem might be?

 

[asondica]

Andrew (or anyone on the team),

I suppose my question was missed, so here it goes again.

Sure, no USB2 support, i guess.. but will you bring a fix to this Logitech webcam issue? it works fine on USB1.1 on my pc notebook. And what about the iSight, if i use bootcamp with the embedded driver?

 

[Paul Linden]

I haven't installed this yet, but it looks like an excellent upgrade.

I don't want to be too critical of a great product, but ... not everyone uses Parallels with Windows. When are we Linux geeks going to get all this for our Linux VMs? Can we at least have Parallels Tools for Linux?

 

[bcohen44]

So given the issue Mike51 found, if you have a Mac Pro, will this beta 3036 code work?

 

[Andrew @ Parallels]

When I try to boot into my Boot Camp Windows XP Pro partition via Parallels, I get the Windows Product Activation dialog box. Windows does not respond to either my mouse or keyboard and I am stuck at this point, without Windows proceeding to complete booting.

- Anyone else with this problem?
- Will alternate booting from Parallels versus Boot Camp on the same partition trigger the Windows Product Activation dialog?
- Any alternate way to get the keyboard recognized as to proceed?

Thanks!

Try to reboot once again in Parallels to activate mouse. And don't forget to install Parallels Tools on Boot Camp.

 

[nick083]

Move Windows Taskbar

Hello bioengineer,

In order to move Windows takbar:
1) Right click on it.
2) Uncheck the "Lock Taskbar" if it's checked
3) Drag taskbar to the right, left or top part of the screen.
4) right click on it again
5) Check the "Lock Taskbar" option

Hope this helps.

Nick

Wow I am impressed! The drag and drop feature works great with XP and coherency has just eliminated the need for WINE type solutions in my opinion. I have not tried the Boot Camp solution because I have Vista installed. Any idea how soon the Boot Camp solution will be available for Vista ?
One other question. In coherence mode is it possible to move the Windows task bar? ie attach it to the menu bar or place it along the side of the desktop?

 

[miker51]

So given the issue Mike51 found, if you have a Mac Pro, will this beta 3036 code work?

It seems to work as long as you turn off the automatic memory allocation feature (under preferences in Parallels).

However, I have found another problem. This one involved Parallels tools in Vista (the RTM version of Vista). Once the tools are installed, when you reboot the VM, it will not run. Just gets stuck trying to load Vista.

Apparently the tools aren't fully Vista compatible yet.

Confirmed this with a pre-existing VM, and also a newly-created one.

 

[Andrew @ Parallels]

I see this is a very ambitious update, but I see no support for USB 2.0 yet. When is this going to be addressed? Without USB 2.0, it not going to be as viable. The other thing is Parallels is not supporting or should I say, using all the processors available. I would like to see full multi-processor support. Just a suggestion. Mick

I agree that USB 2.0 is important, but why do you need multiprocessor support in VM? Parallels Desktop is tuned to run best on dual core Macs - one core is fully utilized by Windows and second core by Mac OS X. Optimal performance for both systems.

 

[cnick]

I have installed the required software package in my bootcamp XP, but I still get the "Unable to open disk image Boot Camp!" message.
My bootcamp contains a fresh XPSP2 32GB FAT32 install.

Is there something else I need to check?

I am getting the same message as well. Could it be the FAT32 install?

 

[tychop]

I've just uninstalled Parallels Tools for Boot Camp & then reinstalled it on XP again.
But still I cannot boot my bootcamp via parallel's. I know it's still beta, but I've done everything as the help file suggests.
My Bootcamp XP was installed via the Bootcamp assistant.

How did you guys get it to work? Or are you all running on VM images?

Is there pherhaps a Log file on my intel iMac which I can send to parallels?

 

[PetraHonig]

With Coherence you can run Windows applications directly on top of Mac desktop and achieve really full integration between OSes.

Hi,

the coherence mode is nice but I have very ugly large characters. Is there any chance to smoothen the fonts.

Also the DOS box, e.g. cmd command does not work in coherence mode. E.g. the window does not appear if started in coherence mode. Switching to windows mode and than back to coherence displays the DOS box but moving it around destroys parts of it.

 

[BEIGE]

I'm also getting the Unable to open disk image Boot Camp error. installed the tools first in Windows XP SP2 / Fat32 on a MBP.

 

[derek]

Love Coherence... Idea for an better implementation

I love coherence and how my experience is totally integrated... almost.

I think that a huge step would be to do the following...

on an initial switch to coherence, a helper tool would pop up that asks if you would like to copy all of your pc desktop documents to your mac desktop. This would be pretty easy to do given the new drag and drop capabilities.

The next step in the helper would be to re-map the pc desktop to read the mac desktop... then whether you are in Windows or OSX, writing to the desktop writes to the same place.

AWESOME development work guys!

 

[BlueSkyISdotCOM]

Parallels Desktop for Mac Beta Build 3036. When attempting to launch RealFlight G3.5 Flight Simulator, I get the following dialog and the application will not launch.
"Your video card is not able to render 3D images. If you have a 3D card make sure you have the latest drivers."
This aplication runs without problem when run under BootCamp. Any idea what the problem might be?

Direct video card access is not supported in any virtualization software. You'll need to run BootCamp for 3D since BootCamp is not virtualization software.

 

[derek]

If the dos box is kept on top of an existing Windows window, it remains whole. If dragged anywhere outside of another window, the portion not over the window disappears.

 

[nick083]

Hello BillInSoBe,

Probably you have CD autorun feature disabled in Windows. In order to start installation manually do the following:

1) Click on "Install Parallels Tools"
2) Wait 5 seconds
3) Open Windows Explorer
4) Go to CD-ROM drive (typically D
5) Run "PrlTools.exe" installation

Hope this helps.

Nick

I can't get Parallels tools installed. WinXP Pro. I got a message telling me to upgrade my Parallels tools, but I select "Install Parallels Tools" and the computer just sits there.

Uninstalled Parallel Tools from Controll Panel.
Reboot
Attempt to select "Install Parallels Tools".
Computer just sits there.

How else can I install the new Parallels tools??

Thanx!

 

[mckingsley]

I have the same problem with the windows activation thing. I did for sure install the parelles for boot camp stuff first and in boot camp. Then I came back to mac, created a virtual machine for parallels and got the message with each boot. The first time I booted I had the mouse problem, but then I did a force shutdown and the next boot everything is fine, and I also installed the parelles tools.

any ideas.

 

[moo083]

BootCamp Error

I am, like tychop, having a problem trying to run my Boot Camp partition in Parallels. I installed the tools in Boot Camp, and then restarted and installed this version of Parallels and told it I was using Boot Camp when creating a new VM. When trying to boot the drive in Parallels, it said "Unable to open disk image Boot Camp!"

Any ideas on how to fix this? Or do I need to wait for an official version?

 

[derek]

Drag and Drop

When I try to drag a document from Notes onto the desktop it LOOKS like it wants to work, i.e. the mac + sign comes up but the file doesnt get copied anywhere, either in windows or to the mac desktop.

 

[skelley]

better dual head experience ?

I run a iMac with an additional monitor. I have so that the VM is full screen on the second monitor.

Now with Coherence I can put my Mac and Windows apps on the second monitor (which is nice). But I cannot put Windows apps onto the primary display. Anyway to make that happen ?

Thanks !