Macworld: Running Vista Home on a Mac

Macworld has a hands on with Microsoft Windows Vista Home, loading it up under Parallels Desktop and Apple’s Boot Camp. They were able to install it under Parallels.

Excerpt:

If you care about running Windows on a Mac, you’ve undoubtedly heard that the end user license agreement (EULA) for Windows Vista Home Basic and Home Premium forbids you to use these versions of Microsoft’s latest operating system release with virtualization software—software that allows you to run operating systems other than the Mac OS in a windowed environment within the Mac OS. Such virtualization software includes the popular Parallels Desktop for Mac. What the reports on this matter don’t reveal is whether this is simply a legal restriction or also a technical one….
Cutting briefly to the chase, Vista Home Premium installed perfectly well. Once it was up and running I noticed that the Aero effect was nowhere to be seen—Parallels simply couldn’t emulate the kind of graphic card/power necessary to make it work. I then asked Vista to install the latest Vista updates—something I understood to be a problem for others who tried it.

Vista Home Premium running on a Mac via the latest Parallels Desktop beta

No problem. Vista downloaded the updates, installed them, I restarted, and everything continued to work.

Parallels Desktop – Build 3150 – Release Candidate 2

Parallels Desktop for Mac Build 3150, Release Candidate 2 is available for download from here (Parallels.com). This virtualization application for Mac OS X offers mainly fixes/updates regarding USB 2.0 devices, as well as a bunch of Coherence improvements

Release Notes/Information from Parallels.com
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.

Parallels Desktop – Build 3120 Release Candidate 1 (RC1)

Parallels Desktop Build 3120, Release Candidate 1 is now avaialble. It can be downloaded from Parallels.com. Besides several bug fixes and improvements concerning USB 2.0 devices, a big feature has been true ‘Drag and Drop’ functionality, with the Mac and Windows filesystems being able to see each other, to exchange documents.

Release Notes:
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 introduces a new feature and provides several very important fixes to the problems found in previous Betas:

* The widest list of fixes is USB ones! Web cameras should be working since this build. A number of other devices reported non-working by beta-testers in previous builds should work now as well. The known issues list is below:

* iSight doesn’t work yet. You will notice it sending data, but no picture available
* Several other web cameras won’t work with similar symptoms;
* Logitech web cameras are reported not to work with drivers pack versions 10.4 and 10.5;
* Connecting USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 devices to VM simultaneously will most probably lead to both of them not working;
* Some Palm devices will still not to work.

* 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!
* If, for some reason, you need to return to previous “Drag and Drop” implementation, just enter VM Configuration Editor, select Shared Folders and uncheck the “Enable Global Sharing for drag-and-drop” option.
* Stability fixes – lots of segmentation fault (Parallels Desktop window closes unexpectedly) conditions are now fixed – thanks to everyone for reporting those!
* The nasty bug with Suspend/Resume and invalid windows areas handling while in Coherence is now gone.
* And many other less evident fixes…

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

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.

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