Parallels Build 3120 RC1 Released

[Colonel]

Parallels has released a new build of it's virtualization software for Mac OS X, Build 3120. The new build includes many long awaited features such as USB 2.0 support and improved graphics performance. The Parallels forum gives us a good idea of what the new update contains.

• USB 2.0 support - “Plug and play” popular USB devices like external hard drives, printers, scanners and USB 2.0 web cameras, and use them at full native speed.
  
  
  NOTE! Current Build 3120 doesn’t support iSight and some other web cameras
  
  
   
  
  
• Full-feature virtual CD/DVD drive - Burn CDs and DVDs directly in virtual machines, and play any copy-protected CD or DVD just like you would on a real PC
  
  
   
  
  
• Coherence - The groundbreaking feature that lets you run Windows applications without seeing Windows just got better! Learn more about Coherence >>
  
  
   
  
  
• Better Boot Camp support - Using your Boot Camp partition in Parallels Desktop is now easier than ever. RC’s Boot Camp support includes:
  
  
  Full support for FAT32 and NTFS partitions
  
  
   
  
  
• Easy offline configuration. Simply tell Parallels Desktop that you want to create a virtual machine from a Boot Camp Partition and click start. No complicated set up required!
  
  
   
  
  
• No need to re-activate Windows each time you switch between Boot Camp and Parallels. Activate Windows only once inside Parallels and work in both environments
  
  
   
  
  
  IMPORTANT! It is not possible to suspend a Virtual Machine that is connected to Boot Camp as it could result in an unstable system.
  
  
   
  
  
  VERY IMPORTANT! Beta1 (build 3036) users must boot natively into Boot Camp and uninstall Parallels Tools for Boot Camp prior to running it in RC (build 3120).
  
  
   
  
  
• Transporter RC bundled - migrate your real Windows PC, or existing VMware or Virtual PC VMs to Parallels virtual machines! Learn more about Transporter RC >>
  
  
   
  
  
  IMPORTANT! Beta1 users MUST upgrade their Transporter package on their Windows source machine before using Transporter in RC. Failing to do so may result in a system crash and loss of data
  
  
  NEW! Added keyboard remapping configuration
  
  
   
  
  
• New Look and Feel - completely redesigned windows and easier to follow dialogues to make Desktop for Mac more user-friendly than ever
  
  
   
  
  
• True “Drag and Drop” functionality - a long awaited feature that lets you seamlessly drag and drop files and folders from Windows to Mac OS X and vice versa. Parallels Desktop now shares the entire Mac file structure between OS X and Windows - no more worrying about which copy of the file is the most recently updated!
  
  
   
  
  
• Read/Write Boot Camp partition - use your Apple Boot Camp Partition as a virtual HDD for Parallels Desktop for Mac
  
  
   
  
  
• Virtual Machine Catalogue - now all of your virtual machines are available through a centralized VM catalogue which appears on each Parallels Desktop for Mac instance
  
  
   
  
  
• One-click Virtual Machine Aliases - automatically create a desktop shortcut for your virtual machine with the OS Installation Assistant, by dragging-and-dropping from title bar, or by pressing Command-Option keys combination. Clicking on Alias automatically starts the Virtual Machine
  
  
   
  
  
• Resizable Main Window - resize the Parallels Desktop for Mac main window as you do with any other Mac application
  
  
   
  
  
• Auto-Adjusting Screen Resolution - Windows auto-adjusts its screen resolution to the actual main window size
  
  
   
  
  
• Improved graphic performance - up to 50% faster!
  
  
   
  
  
• Connect/disconnect USB devices schema improved - no more annoying “wait 5-10 seconds” message on USB device connecting to Parallels Desktop for Mac!
  
  
   
  
  
• Up to 5 Virtual NICs - now each Virtual Machine can have up to five virtual network interfaces
  
  
   
  
  
• Enhanced Shared Networking Mode - run Cisco VPN and many other complex networking applications in conjunction with Connection Sharing Mode
  
  
   
  
  
• Lots of various fixes

  
  

You can download the build from Parallel's download page.

 

Please make sure to tell us what you think.

[Elrithranduil]

Iam working with it now and it keeps getting better :pirate2: each time the version is a whole lot faster and there are just a few weeks between the releases. I however cant check it out with a boot camp partition but as soon as I buy a real mac I will... this piece of software is just mindblowing

[tomozj]

I'm not upgrading till i get support for DirectX 9

 

-tj

[Kaspers]

I'm not upgrading till i get support for DirectX 9

 

-tj

 

lmfao

[Takuro]

So what are some of the basic improvements in this specific build? That initial list includes a lot of extraneous things that have been changed in previous builds (eg: coherence isn't anything new.)

[alicheusz]

Read Parallels forum this build has serious memory leak http://forums.parallels.com/thread7585.html

[xtraa]

If you get this alert, restart. After that it will work

 

 

One of the best things for me is that you don't have to press alt+ctrl+something

to switch between windows and osx mouse anymore.

 

And, it is fast

Edited January 13, 2007 by xtraa

[sev7en]

Great news thanks! I just bought 3 weeks ago a private license key: this software deserves it!

[Lostgame]

No matter what, without fail, I get a BSOD on my Boot Camp install.

[jgrimes80]

The mouse is still an issue for me... anytime I adjust the Window, go from or to either Coherence or Full Screen... my mouse drifts to the lower right

[GBK.Xscape]

i tried their beta 3036 and it screwed up my whole install and caused the dreaded BSOD. i will never try a beta again from them.

[powrslave]

I streamed music from shoutcast stream to my Axim thru usb in vista...

worked great!

[nekton]

My email to the Parallels developers and their reply. DO NOT install these beta versions on a production machine or you may be very sorry.

 

 

Their Reply

Hello XXXX,

 

There is indeed a known bug in current available beta (and RC1) versions

of Parallels Desktop which causes memory leak if you have "Show live

screen shot in Dock" option disabled in "Parallels Desktop" menu -

"Preferences" - "Appearance". It's quite possible that the memory leak

has lead your Mac to hang and because of the subsequent hard-reboot the

boot sectors were damaged.

Let me apologize for such situation happened and any inconvenience it

may have caused you, the version you are using is still considered

pre-release and the bugs are not unexpected. We are already working on

fixing this bug.

 

Best regards,

Robert Owet

 

__________________________

My email

 

Comments: Possible severe bug.

Two days ago, I installed the latest Parallels beta 3 on an intel iMac

and yesterday I did the final Windows serial number activation.

All seemed fine and last night I left the machine running an avi to

mov encoding. This morning, the machine was frozen solid and when

I tried to restart, it wouldn't. Disk Warrior 4 shows bad boot

blocks and couldn't fix it. I then tried various UNIX tools to see

what happened to the MBR but nothing I could do will make the disk

bootable again. All the data files are still on the old disk and I

can access them but nothing I can do makes it boot the Mac.

Luckily, I had a pre-Parallels clone to get going from again on the external Firewire amd I guess I will be formatting the internal drive and starting over.

Is this just a coincidence or did Parallels/Windows do a naughty to

the MBR?

[GBK.Xscape]

its not like i lost anything really, i could still access te drive to get off any files i needed but was an inconvenience for me to reinstall and much other things.

[powrslave]

The memory leak was discussed in the forums with the work around.

[errandwolfe]

I have not found the memory leak a major issue. I can run for a solid 8 hours and be fine. Just keep an eye on things in Activity Monitor. Now I have found in my system that right about when Parallels crosses the 3 Gb line of Virtual Memory usage is when you start having stability issues. Now that may just be my system or it may not. But if you can reboot your Windows/Linux session every 4 hours or so you shouldn't have much of an issue.

[kramer2k]

The mouse is still an issue for me... anytime I adjust the Window, go from or to either Coherence or Full Screen... my mouse drifts to the lower right

 

Same problem here too!

 

They can't seem to get rid of that problem!

[OSXtasy]

Unfortunately, Suse 10.0 retail video resolution is still broken with these newer versions though. As soon as I go back to build 1970, suse works great. I dont know what the problem is, but I hope they get it fixed.

[quixos]

this is the best version ever. i've mapped my pictures folder to a "network drive" in windows and can now

finally organize my pictures easily using Picasa in Coherence.

[Mr Malicious]

Looks like things are finally coming together with Parallels ,only thing I see is that I can't use it to boot my xp install from a second hard drive.

[Mr.Sticky]

Hey guys,

I'm on Parallels Build 3094 and looking at updating, however this memory leak thing scares me. I dont intend to reboot my VM too often. What is this about a workaround? I took a look at the parallels forum thread but it's huge. Any chance you can post it here?

Cheers!

IAN

[EtherealRemnant]

Yo guys. 3150 RC2 is out.

 

"...Additional details and download information is available on this page: http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/beta_testing/

 

PLEASE REMEMBER: this is a Release Candidate software. While this build gives you the rough understanding of the final set of features to be available in Final Release later on, it is still a “Candidate” and thus is still not recommended for production use. Do backup your virtual machines before trying them with this build.

 

This build provides several very important fixes to the problems found in previous Betas and Release candidate:

 

* The widest list of fixes are USB ones. Web cameras including iSight should work fine since now. Many other devices reported by beta-testers should work as well.

 

* Another wide list of fixes and improvements are Boot Camp fixes.

 

* Since RC2 it is possible to utilize Boot Camp partition installed not on the same disk as Mac OS X is.

* Many BSOD conditions are fixed.

* For advanced users it is now possible to edit Boot Camp partitions configurations via VM’s .pvs configuration file (check this thread for details http://forum.parallels.com/post42129-1.html).

 

* Several Coherence improvements:

 

* Windows' Start menu is now shown if one clicks Parallels Desktop icon in Dock if user has his "Show Windows Taskbar" option set to off

* VM now remembers if it was last shut down in Coherence mode and starts in it next time

* Clicking on Windows application on Mac now starts VM in Coherence mode with selected application.

 

* Stability fixes – lots of segmentation fault (Parallels Desktop window closes unexpectedly) conditions are now fixed;

 

* The nasty memory leak found in live screenshot in dock feature is now fixed.

 

* And many other fixes…

 

Several important known issues:

 

* Mouse pointer may disappear during Parallels Tools upgrade. To have it reappear, right-click your mouse or uncapture and capture again the keyboard input

* Parallels Tools setup does not autostart in Windows NT guest OS. You should manually start the tools installation process.

* Windows 98 does not restart if the process is initiated within guest OS. You should manually restart it.

* Aggressive connecting/disconnecting of multiple USB devices may result in guest BSOD or segmentation fault.

* Some USB devices don’t work yet."

 

Seems like I will be installing this to see what's up.

 

If "Clicking on Windows application on Mac now starts VM in Coherence mode with selected application." is true... I think I just wet myself. Totally true integration into OS X!