New Parallels Desktop beta enables better USB, performance, integration
Parallels must have been missing their beta days, as they have already announced a new beta version of their Desktop software at WWDC today that brings quite a few much-requests updates. Parallels Desktop, in case you haven't been following the Mac web the last few months, is virtualization software which enables users to run Windows and other OSes inside of Mac OS X on Intel Macs.
At the top of the list of updates is much-improved USB performance and broader device support, including Windows Mobile 5 devices. Fleshing out the list is "substantially" improved Mac OS X performance while running a virtual machine (which is a different OS, like Windows. We've explained virtual machines before in our Parallels Desktop How To), improved graphic performance, complete keyboard support including the Eject key and shift key mapping for non-English layouts, Unicode path support, improved shared folder performance and, of course, minor bug fixes.
This is, or will be, a free update for paid users once it goes official. For now, users can download the beta the Parallels Desktop update page.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Thomas said 6:18PM on 8-08-2006
Hopefully I can finally install ubuntu 6.06 with the beta. For some reason, I just can't get it to install with the official version.
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Chai said 6:18PM on 8-08-2006
I don't understand. Why virtualization works only on Intel Macs? And what requirements does it meet to run games?
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Mr Lizard said 6:29PM on 8-08-2006
Chai,
Virtualization does not work on the older power-pc based macs as Windows needs 'intel' style chips to run (these chips are known as X-86 chips).
There used to be (and still exists) a number of apps that allow windows to be run on power-pc based macs, but they must 'emulate' an X-86 chip. This takes up a lot of processing power, and windows runs very slowly under this type of setup.
In answer to your question about games, well, performance in this area is questionable. Certain high-end games that require 3d acceleration will not run. This is because the software cannot allow the guest operating system, i.e. Windows, to use the mac's built in graphics card. For the simple reason, the mac OS is already using it!
Therefore, Parallels must virtualize a graphics card. Essentially, the graphics are powered by software only, and therefore do not afford the power required by today's demanding games.
Performance for everything else however, is very good. I use it on my MacBook, with a 2ghz chip and 2gb ram, and it runs brilliantly, I notice no slow down whatsoever.
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Mr Lizard said 6:31PM on 8-08-2006
On a seperate note, I wish Parallels would allow the guest OS access to the bluetooth module. At present, I can't see that it allows this.
Hopefully in the next release...
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Twist said 7:41PM on 8-08-2006
My biggest feature wish is to be able to boot Windows in Parallels Desktop from the same partition as I use to boot it natively.
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Daniel Brauer said 7:48PM on 8-08-2006
This release is super awesome. It works with the USB device that it didn't work with before, and the drawing speed seems almost instantaneous. I'm really happy I bought this.
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jdw said 8:34PM on 8-08-2006
Have to concur with you, Daniel. This release is incredible so far. Parallels has done its homework. It was good before, but I would have to rate the beta as "great."
I cannot say enough about the creature comforts and overall improvements.
It's aggressive SW that is priced right. Kudos, Parallels dev team.
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cavemonkey50 said 9:45PM on 8-08-2006
Does the new version make this tweak obsolete: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060622090404212
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Trevor Carpenter said 10:27PM on 8-08-2006
I just want to know if I can take advantage of all of the features with my Garmin Legend C?
I am sick of borrowing my dad's piece of crap Toshiba laptop just to update my maps!
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John Laur said 10:35PM on 8-08-2006
Parallels wont be an ideal solution until they support raw partitions as virtual disks. When this happens, you will be able to boot your Boot Camp windows partition both natively and within parallels. People keep going on and on about how it won't work because the virtual hardware differs from the physical hardware, blah blah ...
See windows has this thing called Hardware Profiles that is designed to allow a laptop to be booted in a docking station or a removable hard drive to be carried between computers -- that sort of thing. The setup would be a bit cumbersome, but it would be possible to support a dual boot physical/virtual windows install using this mechanism. But until parallels supports partition -> virtual disk mappings it won't even be possible to try!
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Mark D. said 11:24PM on 8-08-2006
Mr Lizard:
I noticed you mention the issues with 3d acceleration. I know VMWare (of course, on windows, emulating xp/2000) suports 3d accel, at least at the time I tried it it was a beta feature, a 9500 pro running at gf3 speeds in the emulated machine. My hope is that Parallels might be able to achieve this as well, as even slight assistence would greatly improve redraw, though I haven't had a chance to try this beta.
I thought I had heard of rumors that VPC would have 3d accel as well, though I'm new to macs as of the MBP (at least as a full-time machine) so I'm not sure what ever came of this (and I know the windows version of VPC never had 3d accel.)
I would hope the move to x86 would make the use of 3d accel easier, though the video card itself is, of course, flashed with a mac rom so this could be the reason it's not more common or easy to achieve.
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mike said 3:01AM on 8-09-2006
combine this with Spaces = sweeeeet...
the only problem..
video games blow .. so who needs windows
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Alex said 8:48AM on 8-09-2006
You mean that I just paid $80 bucks for the live version and I could have downloaded the new beta for FREE? That kind of sucks!
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scstsut said 1:29PM on 8-10-2006
I don't think that we'll need Parallels of VMware for to long. I think that we'll be running windows apps on the Mac without windows soon.
Apple Cider
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one1step1 said 6:37PM on 8-12-2006
It still doesn't work with my Sandisk Cruzer Micro with U3 support. It doesn't even recognize it at all. I bought the drive, because I was hoping it could be a solution for going back and forth between Parallels and Bootcamp.
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mightyman said 12:57PM on 8-16-2006
I'm excited for the windows mobile 5 support. My mac is being shipped. I've been a windows man for a long time and I'm now making the switch. I have been asking for awhile if the mac can sync to windows mobile, but haven't gotten any optimistic answers. Now that this will support it, I'm psyched!
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Tharris said 8:36PM on 8-17-2006
Trevor - Yes, you should be able to use your Garmin GPS / Mapsource. I've been using Parallels with Windows XP and my Garmin GPSMap60CSx with great success (at least as much as is possible with the rather quirky MapSource).
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