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

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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
 
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German licence key will not work with this beta?

I purchased Parallels (German) for Mac today, because I wanted to test and present the new features of this version of Parallels (I am a consultant). And I've got this beta of the next Parallels today too. But after installing this beta version Parallels ask me for my activation key. After typing it parallels sais: "The activation key cannot be used with the current version of the Parallels Desktop!"

What is the problem? Where can I get a key for this beta?

www.uhlhorn-agentur.de
 
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Finally got it working.

Really interesting to me. I have a copy of Windows XP Professional sp2 (Quite customized) that I have been using for months. I tried to install Parallels Bootcamp Tools and run the new Parallels 3036 but got only good the BSOD (STOP ERROR). Bootcamp tools DID install and I have the proper boot menus. I tried and tried with no luck to get Windows to boot correctly.. The best I could do is boot in SAFE MODE.

I finally deleted that Bootcamp partition and started over. This time, I used Windows XP Professional SP2 (Student). I'm assuming this is like corporate since activation is not required. It works like a dream! No activation problems, no bootup issues, no anything!

I still can't figure out why my ond installation wouldn't work, but my fresh install works like a dream. I know this doesn't help most people, but it does confirm to me that some Windows installations are different or are missing something. ;)
 
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is there any way to get parallels to recognize a dedicated hard disk with windows installed on it but no boot camp? i have a separate hard disk installed that I can boot windows with, but would like to be able to run parallels from that as well, but the wizard looks like it looks for a specific boot camp partition or signature so that option is greyed out. can this be done? or consider it a feature request.

thanks.
 
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TRN said:
Really interesting to me. I have a copy of Windows XP Professional sp2 (Quite customized) that I have been using for months. I tried to install Parallels Bootcamp Tools and run the new Parallels 3036 but got only good the BSOD (STOP ERROR). Bootcamp tools DID install and I have the proper boot menus. I tried and tried with no luck to get Windows to boot correctly.. The best I could do is boot in SAFE MODE.

I finally deleted that Bootcamp partition and started over. This time, I used Windows XP Professional SP2 (Student). I'm assuming this is like corporate since activation is not required. It works like a dream! No activation problems, no bootup issues, no anything!

I still can't figure out why my ond installation wouldn't work, but my fresh install works like a dream. I know this doesn't help most people, but it does confirm to me that some Windows installations are different or are missing something. ;)
Click to expand...

It's probably not a good idea to mention illegal copies of XP on the forum. Glad it works for you too. I had similar luck w/ a volume license key as well. Once all the kinks get worked, this is gonna be great.
 
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is /dev/disk0s3 really that hard?

I've been waiting many months for the ability to boot parallels vms from hard drive partitions, and now I found that it's limited to specifically bootcamp'd partitions. :(
It won't even recognize my current xp bootcamp'd parttion because I have a 3rd partition on the hard drive (4th really, counting the efi partition).

I guess my question is:
Is it _really_ _that_ hard to get from where you are now with the hard drive partition booting to just being able to specify '/dev/disk0s3' or some such in the vm config? Why must you guys always force these silly pointless limitations? I can understand you're trying to cater for a fairly un-tech savvy crowd migrating from a braindead OS, but is that really any excuse to be lax on your implementation? Surely manually specifying a partition somewhere under some advanced config option wouldn't hinder the experience for those who need a bouncing ball to follow, and would be practically 0 new lines of code (I assume you access the bootcamp partition using the standard devices already? I would hope you do anyway..)

Everytime I get excited by some progress with your product, I'm instantly dismayed once I see how the progress has been implemented. This update is no different. :confused:

So close too.. and yet still so frustrated.

-Edit-

Don't get me wrong, I've watched parallels come a long way and I'm sure it was alot of hard work and I can see much potential for it. I just really hope you don't fall into these stupid mindsets regarding the interface that end up needlessly crippling the product like sooo many almost-greats have.
 
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I have not read every message in this thread to see if this has been reported, so if it has, forgive the repeat. It appears that when booting XP SP2 from your bootcamp partition, the Apple Keyboard manager will cause windows to use a lot of CPU. Using XP's task manager to kill the kbdmgr.exe process stopped the problem for me. Thought I would toss this out there in case someone else has issues with high cpu utilization when booting from their bootcamp partition.
 
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Coherence problems

The product is coming along. The coherence feature will be great once it works properly.

Few issues:

- In beta form, it is choppy and flickers the windows desktop in the background -- hope this gets fixed soon.

- I use a free windows theme modiying program called FlyakiteOSX to make it look likeOSX, but the windows box/menu on the outside comes accross with an ugly blue seam

- I cannot get the Win Start meu to disappear when enabling the coherence feature. Autohide works better, but leaves a thin segment of the task bar on the bottom.

- would like to see a way to launch Win programs from the running paralles vm from the OSX dock window

Keep working at it folks, and you will have a nice product.
 
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So what are the chances that the display problems we are seeing in Access and other programs will be fixed in the next beta release? It's getting really hard to work with Parallels until this gets fixed.

Andrew @ Parallels said:
We are working on all reported bugs and will deliver new beta with fixes. Stay tuned.
Click to expand...
 
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Impressed so far, one DnD suggestion

Just updated to the new beta, and no problems so far. Very impressive - the Coherence feature (despite a bit of video choppiness in this beta) is great, and drag-and-drop between OS is a long-awaited addition.

It would be nice if the drag-and-drop could pick up the local context of the target - when I have Coherence turned on (not sure if this is also true without), and I drag something from Mac to Win XP, the drop event is just at the main window level of the target app. So, for example, if I want to drop a file into a specific folder in a Windows explorer window, I have to make sure the folder is open first. If the folder is just displayed in a list, there's no way to drag over it and highlight it as the target. Seems that Parallels itself is taking the drag event, and then just passing it along to the target Windows app at the top level once the drop is started.

I'm not sure why, but I'm immune to the display issues people have been reporting (except for the slight choppiness when using Coherence). I'm using a MacBook Pro, if that helps diagnose it.
 
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Can someone please post the .pvs for a working bootcamp type vm?
I'd like to see if I can manually get it to boot my bootcamp partition which it seems to not recognize for some reason. Thanks
 
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[email protected] said:
Hi,

When i install Ubuntu server on 6.10 (from an external ipod) then right after installation i got the error while booting:

"Unknown interrupt or fault at EIP ...."

Whyen trying to install 6.06 i get the same error right after booting from the .iso image !

Did not get that error in the last version.
Click to expand...
I've the same problem with Ubuntu 6.10 & 6.0.1 and also with CentOS 4.4. All OK with OpenSUSE 10.2 and Debian testing.
 
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I'm running Win 2000 under the beta build but I had to bump the memory allocation up to 748 meg in order to run MS Messenger 9. It booted and ran just fine at 512. This is on a 2.33 GHz iMac with 2 GB memory
 
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Y´z Shadow

xolox said:
- I use a free windows theme modiying program called FlyakiteOSX to make it look likeOSX, but the windows box/menu on the outside comes accross with an ugly blue seam
Click to expand...

This problem comes from "Y´z Shadow", which produces a shadow around the windows (like on Mac OS X) and using the windows background! Stop this program and remove it from autostart!
Not a problem of Parallels!
 
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Hi, HolyJaw here. The download link for parallels tools (so I can run using boot camp partition) doesn't work in the first post. The download won't initiate and the server stops responding.

Some people will tell me to run the VM through Parallels and select "Download Parallels Tools" but I can't. I can't start the VM. I'm running boot camp.

A download link that works would be dandy, thanks.
 
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mac crash on startup menu (choose OSX or XP/Bootcamp)

I walked my brother through installing Bootcamp (over the phone... long call), then parallels on bootcamp and parallels.

It's working but for 1 main problem - the menu that comes up on bootup, when he holds down "option", hangs. Sometimes he can choose quick enough and it loads up (after which it's fine).

Anyone experiencing this? Any fix? (even a way of choosing between XP and OSX without using the menu would be helpful. Can I hold down a certain key to automatically use the bootcamp partition?

Other issues are more minor - like parallels complains at not finding the Mac video card on each startup. I've asked him to email me the errors he gets in general use, I'll put them here.

Nice work parallels guys.

ps. I haven't turned on coherence yet. I decided not to tell him it's there, and turn it on when I next see him. Sounds excellent.
 
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Bootcamp/XP Profile Selection screen, dead keyboard MacBookPro

As has been mentioned in posts......
361 563 580 582 631 679, I have found that after using my XP bootcamp partition in Parallels, if I try and use XP through bootcamp, the first profile selection screen comes up but you cant select a profile as the keyboard no longer works at this point.. that includes capslock key.

The solution of plugging in a USB keyboard to press Enter does work for me. The solution of holding down the alt key til this point does not.

I did some tests, and the problem only occurs for me after I have installed the Parallel Tools in the Virtual Running copy of Bootcamp. It's fine until that point so it does seem to be a problem with something parallels its changing.

Obviously this is a critical problem until fixed, as you/I cant boot xp through bootcamp without an external keyboard to hand. The keyboard works fine after this point.

Apart from this its great. My father has bought a macbook but is anxious about having to use his windows apps at 'work'. I'd prefer to see him using Parallels for all his windows needs so he discovers how much nicer the mac apps are that are analogues of what he already has. Bootcamp will mean he can take the machine into work and hopefully avoid the 'its a mac, its not compatible' stuff he's been facing already by booting straight into windows in that location.

Great stuff parallels, looking forward to seeing this one fixed. the rest has been great for me.
 
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