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.