There is a new build of Parallels Desktop available: Build #1966

Parallels Forum Announcement:

As part of our efforts to make Parallels Desktop for Mac even more stable and easier to use, we’re pre-releasing our next build for testing. This internal build publicly introduces several cool new enhancements and important bug fixes:

* Shared Networking. This feature automatically gets your virtual machines online whenever your Mac has internet connection – be it via a hotel, airport or cafe Wi-Fi connection, at home using a dial-up, DSL or cable modem, or on the road with a GSM broadband card. This feature eliminates the complicated Bridged mode set up or using Host-Only networking with Internet Sharing when bridged mode is not possible. Additionally, this feature lets Parallels Desktop go online in the networks with PEAP security model in use.

To enable Connection Sharing, start Parallels Desktop, load your VM configuration, click Network Adapter link and select “Connection Sharing” mode.

* OS installation assistant. This feature helps you install Windows XP or Vista with a single click. Just enter your activation key and name, click finish, and…that’s it. The install assistant will do the rest – it will even install Parallels Tools for you.

Please note, in Windows Vista you will still need to agree to new drivers installation.

* Fix for “Eternal Poofs of Death”. problem.

* Fix for random guest OS freezes problem.

* NumPad Enter key is Enter key again and is not AltGr anymore.

* And many other minor fixes

The build can be downloaded from here.

As usual, we’re extremely interested in your feedback about the new features and fixes introduced, so please let us know what you think.

If you ever start up Parallels Desktop on a Mac Pro (or any Mac), and get an error/warning saying that optimization is being turn off because hardward/virtualization technology is disabled in the firmware, have no fear.

Simply exit out of Parallels Desktop, put your Mac Pro (or any Mac) to sleep, wake it back up, start up Parallels Desktop, and you are good to go until you restart the Mac (which, hopefully, is not too often). At that point, putting it to sleep again, would fix this until the next restart.

I’ve seen this mentioned several times on various forums. Apparently it’s an error that only Apple can fix with some kind of firmware upgrade. I’m not sure why sleeping the Mac Pro fixes this, but it does.

A new build of Parallels Desktop for Mac OS X is available, targeted mainly to Mac Pro and iMac Core 2 Duo users.

From the Parallels Forums:

Build 1940 is ready to download from here.

Main fix of this build is better memory management for MacPro and iMac Core 2 Duo with more than 4GB RAM. Other minor fixes for customers reported problems introduced like Shared Folders and unicode characters.

Plus one more thing some advanced users might find useful – an initial possibility of Parallels Desktop operation scripting. Check the Parallels.app/Contents/Resources/PvsRemote command-line tool for details.

As usual, your feedback on this build is very much appreciated.

Download it directly