Filed under: Software
Parallels beta updated for better Leopard compatibility
The release build of Parallels Desktop 3 still isn't quite Leopard-happy, but that's not cause for abject despair: the second beta since 10.5 came out was released on Saturday, with enhanced support for Leopard, improved migration tools for Boot Camp partitions into Parallels disk images, and more.You can download the 88 MB file of build 5570 from Parallels, but the usual warnings apply: back up your virtual machines before running with the wolves.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Agi said 11:23PM on 1-24-2008
Hi, I would appreciate if someone could help a neophyte. I'm currently running Tiger with Parallels 2.5 and pretty happy with it. Have my virtual PC installed (Windows XP) with half a dozen programs, all working fine (including Tivo To Go, after a bit of fiddling). I'm thinking of upgrading to Leopard and Parallels 3.0 (latest rebuild), but I wonder -- would this mean reinstalling Windows XP and all my programs and files? I'm hesitant to do this since things are working pretty well now, my computer skills are minimal, and I've been reading some horror stories about the Leopard/Parallels 3 combo not working or being hard to get up and running. I'd appreciate any advice from more knowledgeable folks. Thanks
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petieg said 10:20AM on 11-28-2007
still has that annoying Windows-like "steal focus" -- i have it setup full screen in a Leopard 'space' and it switches to that Space during startup several times -- interrupting whatever i'm doing... I'm used to just starting up a windows PC and simply waiting (minutes) for it to be useable -- but, 'Hey!' i'm on a mac and i have other things to do beside sit and watch my parallels XP machine boot up! :)
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zeke said 12:46PM on 11-26-2007
strange... I'm running parallels v2.0 in leopard and it's been running flawlessly!! Exactly what I need it to do, some windows printing, and some dumb IE only sites, works great for me!!!
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Christian said 1:20PM on 11-26-2007
Parallels still isn't working with Leopard? Parallels is giving the VMware team a lot of free advertising by virtue of the fact that VMware Fusion did work, and has worked, flawlessly on Leopard. Parallels has really taken a beating since VMware showed up on the scene. Hooray for competition.
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tim said 1:35PM on 11-26-2007
my parallels installation was completely unusable after installing leopard. luckily, i only used it to test in IE, so i didnt lose anything, just time and a possible phone call to their activation department.
im sure if it had been important for me i could have found a way to salvage it before just messing it up more
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gazerbeam said 1:41PM on 11-26-2007
just installed parallels 3 (not the beta) on my leopard machine this weekend. put xp pro on it, and it's fine. I do have some complaints (the blank icons in the dock when running in coherence mode, the fact that parallels fails to release my mac-mounted external drive when I stop the VM). overall, however, the program works as advertised and it's a very slick way to run windows-only programs on my mac.
here are a few of my concerns with the recent beta, which I emailed to the Parallels folks and I'll report back here when I get a reply:
1. the site states "When available, this update will be FREE to existing Parallels Desktop 3.0 customers."
what does "when available"? mean? does that mean when it's no longer in beta?
2. will the "official" upgrade (i.e. non-beta) happen in the Mac software update application, or will a website-based download be required?
3. if I download the beta and get a key now, will I need to reinstall my existing VM or guest OS?
4. and if I've installed the beta and it's running fine, what happens when the non-beta comes out?
I couldn't find explanations for any of this on their site; it seems like the beta page there is just for people who don't already use the software.
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Janet said 3:05PM on 11-26-2007
After I installed Leopard, Parallels didn't work at all for me. I bought it about a year ago because I need to use Windows for work that I do from home. They wanted me to pay $50 just to upgrade. That's not giving past customers much consideration or instilling loyalty. I installed Fusion instead and am very happy with it so far.
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Fritz Laurel said 5:01PM on 11-26-2007
@1 Zeke -- did you do anything special to get it to run? Did you do a fresh install of everything (Leopard & Parallels) or just install Leopard over Tiger? Are you running a PPC or Intel machine?
Thanks!
FL
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gazerbeam said 1:53AM on 11-27-2007
update: existing install stopped working today; errors and whatnot. I did some research and found that it all pointed to leopard (and duh, the beta specifically points to "new leopard compatibility"). so I got the beta and the key, and used its own uninstaller to uninstall my current version of parallels. installed the beta, activated it, and poof, it's all there. my existing VM and OS are intact, and it's MUCH improved. it's faster, more stable, it updates parallels tools automatically to the latest version, and I can browse my windows "hard drive" from the mounted image on my mac desktop. I'll keep banging on it, but my initial reaction is that this is a great improvement.
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gazerbeam said 1:55AM on 11-27-2007
one more neat thing: with parallels running, I unmounted the external drive from my mac. it released just fine, and parallels never even let out so much as a hiccup. when I open windows explorer in parallels now, right after unmounting the external from my mac, it still shows the drive, but clicking on it shows a blank explorer screen. no problem there, and no error messages at all. neat.
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