Parallels Desktop for Mac – Build 3106 Beta 3

There is a major update to Parallels Desktop for Mac – Build 3106, Beta 3. Keep in mind the “Beta” is there for a reason – probably not wise to use this in a production environment. It can be downloaded from www.parallels.com/products/desktop/beta_testing/. This beta includes Coherence improvements, display fixes, and a new Parallels Transporter beta (which allows you to migrate existing Windows machines, VMWare, or VirtualPC images to Parallels Desktop for Mac.

Please heed the notice at the bottom of the release notes concerning upgrading.

Release Notes:
This beta does not introduce any new functionality, but provides several very important fixes to the problems found in previous Betas:

* Coherence now handles “round” windows like Windows Media Player or Winamp correctly.
* Fullscreen and Coherence mode on secondary monitor fixed.
* Guest pixel size calculation was fixed – applications like MS Access or MS PowerPoint should handle graphs correctly.
* Guest Linux screen resolutions in 24 bit mode fixed.
* Possiblity to switch off Command+ZXCV mapping or swap Control and Command keys introduced (the feature was requested by a number of beta-testers)
* Several USB 2.0 fixes – more bulk devices to work since now. The work on web cameras and other isochronous devices is still in progress.
* And many others…

* VERY IMPORTANT! Beta1 (build 3036) users must boot natively into Boot Camp and uninstall Parallels Tools for Boot Camp prior to running it in Beta3 (build 3106).

NEW! Transporter Beta3 bundled – migrate your real Windows PC, or existing VMware or Virtual PC VMs to Parallels virtual machines! Learn more about Transporter Beta3 >>

* IMPORTANT! Beta1 users MUST upgrade their Transporter package on their Windows source machine before using Transporter in Beta3. Failing to do so may result in a system crash and loss of data

# NEW! Added keyboard remapping configuration

VMware Fusion Beta Program is Now Live

The VMWare Fusion beta program is now live. You can sign up for a beta key at VMWare.com/products/beta/fusion/. It is currently free.

You can read more about it at one of the official VMWare Blogs – “A Holiday Gift for Mac Users”. Quote:

It’s a great time of year – everything is decorated and looks pretty, people are in a festive mood, there’s a lot of great parties and everyone is exchanging gifts. Talking about giving gifts, we have a holiday gift for the Mac community – the public beta for our new desktop product for Mac, codenamed Fusion, is now available. It is free but the beta requires a serial key, which you will get as part of the download process.

We announced (press release, my blog) in August at WWDC that we are developing a desktop product for Mac. We demoed an early version of the product during WWDC at the Four Seasons Hotel to a few hundred attendees who left the Moscone Center and walked 4 blocks to see the demo. That was just the beginning! 70,000 customers pre-registered for the beta. We released a “friends and family” version in October to a select few customers to get early feedback. One incident sticks out in my mind when we visited a customer who was part of the friends and family program. As soon as we sat down and before we could do any introductions, out came a credit card across the table and his voice boomed, “I’d like to buy it now!” Well, we’re not quite ready to take orders just yet but we are ready to receive feedback from the larger Mac community. That would be a great gift you can give us…

Parallels Desktop for Mac – Build 3094 Beta 2

A new beta of Parallels Desktop for Mac – Beta 2, Build 3094 has been released and can be downloaded here. This is a major release – it adds USB 2.0 support for plug and play devices (except for isochonous devices), full feature virtual CD/DVD drive – you can now burn CDs/DVDs within the virtual machines, as well as play CDs and DVDs with copy-protection on them. Improvements to Coherence have also been made.

Release Notes:
* 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

Note: Tools for Boot Camp are not needed anymore. If you have them installed, please deinstall prior to first boot via Parallels Desktop.

SerialParallels 1.0

SerialParallels 1.0 has been released – this is a new utility to address an area of Parallels that needed it – using serial ports. It’s a free, open-source application, and can be downloaded here.

Description from the website:

Parallels only supports serial ports as sockets on the host OS. SerialParallels connects to such a socket and binds it to a real serial port. To use it, add a serial port as a server socket on the virtual machine. Start the virtual machine then run SerialParallels. Set its socket type to client and select the file to match that in Parallels. Set the serial device and associated settings then hit the enable button.

Parallels Transporter Beta

Parallels has released a new utility for Parallels Desktop for Mac, bundled with Parallels Desktop Build 3036, called Parallels Transporter. Parallels Transporter allows you to convert/migrate Windows PCs, VMWare or Virtual PC Virtual Machine/Images to Parallels Virtual Machines. This is the ultimate tool for migrating, as you can install the Parallels Transporter Agent (link at bottom) on your Windows PC, and it will create an image of your PC that can then be run inside of Parallels Desktop for Mac. This is bundled with the above Build 3036.

Release Notes:
1. Usage models.

* Migrate remote Windows PC over network directly to VM on your Mac/PC
1) Install Parallels Transporter Agent on your Windows PC you would like to migrate
2) Run Parallels Transporter on your Mac/PC
3) Migrate using few easy steps of Wizard

* Migrate Windows PC locally or to any removable media and move the resulted VM to Mac/PC
1) Install both Parallels Transporter and Parallels Transporter Agent on your Windows PC you would like to migrate
2) Run Parallels Transporter on that Windows PC
3) Migrate using few easy steps of Wizard
4) Deliver the resulting virtual machine to Mac/PC using any removable media

* Converting VMware Workstation/Server or Microsoft Virtual PC VMs to Parallels Desktop/Workstation-compatible format and move resulting Virtual Machine to Mac/PC
1) Install Parallels Transporter on your Windows PC
2) Run Parallels Transporter
3) Convert VM using few easy steps of Wizard
4) Deliver the resulting virtual machine to Mac/PC using any removable media

2. Supported OSes.

Parallels Transporter Agent is the provider which allows online migration of Windows PC (Guest OSes):
* Windows 2000
* Windows XP
* Windows 2003

Parallels Transporter is the application which finally creates Parallels virtual machines (host OSes):
* Windows 2000
* Windows XP
* Windows 2003
* Windows Vista (experimental support)
* Mac OS X

Download Link: Removed (broken, April 2007)

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