[MacTUG] New beta of Parallels has some very useful features.

[Glenn Anderson]

It seem this product just gets better and better.

 From their web forum, here are their new features.

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.

Here’s 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.

* Coherency. 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. :) We’re 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 beta at parallels.com  
mailbox.

Best regards,
Tim and Parallels Team
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/mactug/attachments/20061202/c4ad3984/attachment.html