Parallels today released Parallels Desktop for Mac beta 2 which features:
• USB 2.0 support – “Plug and play” popular USB devices like external hard drives, printers, and scanners, and use them at full native speed.
– Current Build 3094 doesn’t support isochronous devices such as web cameras, microphones, etc.
• 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
• Improved Coherence mode – The groundbreaking feature that lets you run Windows applications without seeing Windows just got better! Now you can:
– Place Windows applications on your Mac desktop or in your application dock. Just click to launch them directly from OS X!
– Use Command+tab to cycle through Windows and Mac applications simultaneously, and “hide and show” Windows applications just like you would with Mac applications
– View the Windows Command Console in Coherence mode
– Use Coherence in Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP and Windows Vista!
• Better Boot Camp support – Using your Boot Camp partition in Parallels Desktop is now easier than ever. Beta2’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
More info and download link here.
The single greatest piece of software development anywhere in the last several years. The crew at Parallels deserves an immense amount of praise for the work they’ve done.
The single greatest software development outside of Cupertino.
The single greatest software developmen….for allowing use of the single worst, irony
The single greatest person ever… me.
“The single greatest software development…for allowing use of the single worst, irony”
– Close! Windows = Single worst OS, we’re not using parallels to use Windows, but to use Windows related software. And there is a *big* difference.
This good, this fast?
This has Apple’s fingerprints all over it.
How many software engineers at the Parallels Campus are directly on Apple’s payroll?
WOW WOW WOW. Great work being done by these guys. Each one a stainless steel nail in the coffin…
(Still glad I don’t have need for it though
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Parallels has been an absolute nightmare for my friends using it — it does NOT print properly to any USB 2.0 printers that are plugged into it. Parallels is real crap.
MacBill… this version apparently corrects that problem. Tell your friends.
For me, Parallels is a blessing. Luckily I’ve not had to print from it, so I haven’t even noticed that problem.
Doesn’t “Parallels” sound like an Apple name. Like Rosetta, Bonjour, sherlock, etc. This could very well be part of Leopard. Although I would have to bet against such an assertion. Whether Apple has anything to do with Parallels directly or not, it is a great piece of software. And what a fast development cycle these guys have. Wow.
Criticism:
In Beta 1 after installing Parallels tools for Boot Camp windows would boot is recovery mode. (This may be fixed in Beta 2.)
The graphical transition between Windows full screen and the OS window is terrible. They made a valiant attempt with the animation, but the screen glitches and goes black and it takes a while for the resolution to adjust.
Creating a virtual machine through Boot Camp didn’t work because Parallels said the HD was inaccessible. (May be fixed in Beta 2).
Rob, I second your observation. A truely amazing product, and for the price – an incredible value. Gamers may still need to use BootCamp (and some high-end video pros), but for “the rest of us” – the Intel Mac + Parallels is a one-machine-does-it-all solution that can’t be beat.
MacBill…. I use it to print to USB printers alot, and also the people where I’ve installed it on their iMacs. Specific machines?
great stuff !
they are so fast, amazing.
Just installed this new beta. Wow… fantastic. Very cool to see the Windows apps I need running outside the Window desktop window. Don’t know how they do it, but it is superb.
This sounds like a solid update, but I’m still waiting for the promised ability to run 3D Windows games at full speed without having to boot into Windows.
i doubt that will ever be posible.
but you never know with these guys, they are doing miracles.
Sweet. This will turn even more heads.
The only downside of using Parallels is that you have to buy the Windows OS 🙁
I would really prefer something that avoids that, since I’m loathed to pay any money to M$ if I can help it!
i agree that this is the greatest programming i have seen in years, apple included, this reminds me of eric ringewald and co who wrote multifinder in 1986
i just installed it, works well, i love the new feature that adds running applications, and open directorys to your dock.
and, like mac apps, u can keep them there, even when parallels is not running.
there are still a few details to improve, but most of these are easier to implement than what they already achieved.
MacBill=dipshit.
‘Nuff said.
Just installed and it works except for one major problem.
It appears that running parallels with my Boot Camp partition as the VM has killed me XP validation and it seems I need to get a new product key. I am the only person this is happening to?
A real pain in the a**
It’s early in the process, but the M$ hegemony is slowly ending, I believe. It’s not that they’re disappearing, but too many people want there to be alternatives to Windows– at least OSes that run in parallel. As chip speeds increase, running emulation or virtualization layers becomes far more user friendly. At some point, it won’t matter what OS you have. The real issue will be how well the software performs for the end user, I think.
As all of you readers live your lives, have kids and grandkids, M$ will ultimately become your grandma’s OS.
“Well sonny… at one time, we had to click right AND left– just to get a menu to pop up! Now that was struggle you young kids just don’t appreciate! And don’t get me started about the viruses! Oh, and my corns. Can you put some liniment on my corns…?”
MDN “either”– rhymes with “teether” as in “Stop biting.”
I must concur with the others. Parallels is one of the best applications I’ve ever used, on Mac or Windows. Their team deserves a great deal of praise for the work that they’ve done to date. This software was a pipe dream for many Macintosh users for over a decade prior to the Intel switch. Now it’s a reality thanks to these talented folks. Kudos to them for making seemingly impossible tasks possible.
I recommend everyone I know with an Intel Mac to purchase Parallels and support the terrific work that they do. Nobody has been disappointed yet. Truly, just an amazing product.
–mAc
Just yesterday I was running two instances on Winblows in Parallels on my machine – truly incredible, cutting/pasting/working full speed between them and OSX. Parallels rocks!
apple pie: either ee-ther or eye-ther are both proper pronunciations! ctrl-apple-d, more…pretty cool how easy OSX makes that.
What is the need for any Mac user to run Windows OS? None.
Dear MacBill,
It has come to my attention that you/your friends have struggled using printers in Parallels. Might I suggest that it isn’t the program, but rather the user that is having the error? I’ve used Parallels on 3 separate machines with 3 different printers, all USB 2.0, and all different brands. All of them functioned 100% and properly used their proper print utilities. I’ve noticed that others have posted similiar results. So before you go attacking a wonderfully engineered piece of software, check the printer manual under ‘id10t’ errors.
Sincerely,
Not Clueless User