Parallels Desktop for Mac build 3150 RC2 is available for download
A new preview release of Parallels Desktop for Mac is now available. For more information, visit http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/beta_testing/. Changes in this version include:
- USB 2.0 support - “Plug and play” popular USB devices like external hard drives, printers, scanners and web cameras including iSight at full native speed.
- 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
- Coherence - The groundbreaking feature that lets you run Windows applications without seeing Windows just got better! Learn more about Coherence >>
- Better Boot Camp support - Using your Boot Camp partition in Parallels Desktop is now easier than ever. RC2’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
- For advanced users: configurating the layout of Boot Camp partitions by manual editing of Virtual Machine’s .pvs configuration file.
- IMPORTANT! It is not possible to suspend a Virtual Machine that is connected to Boot Camp as it could result in an unstable system.
- VERY IMPORTANT! Beta1 (build 3036) users must boot natively into Boot Camp and uninstall Parallels Tools for Boot Camp prior to running it in RC2 (build 3150).
- Transporter RC2 bundled - migrate your real Windows PC, or existing VMware or Virtual PC VMs to Parallels virtual machines! IMPORTANT: Previous Beta users MUST upgrade their Transporter package on their Windows source machine before using Transporter in RC2. Failing to do so may result in a system crash and loss of data
- Added keyboard remapping configuration
- New Look and Feel - completely redesigned windows and easier to follow dialogues to make Desktop for Mac more user-friendly than ever
- 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!
- Read/Write Boot Camp partition - use your Apple Boot Camp Partition as a virtual HDD for Parallels Desktop for Mac
- Virtual Machine Catalogue - now all of your virtual machines are available through a centralized VM catalogue which appears on each Parallels Desktop for Mac instance
- One-click Virtual Machine Aliases - automatically create a desktop shortcut for your virtual machine with the OS Installation Assistant, by dragging-and-dropping from title bar, or by pressing Command-Option keys combination. Clicking on Alias automatically starts the Virtual Machine
- Resizable Main Window - resize the Parallels Desktop for Mac main window as you do with any other Mac application
- Auto-Adjusting Screen Resolution - Windows auto-adjusts its screen resolution to the actual main window size
- Improved graphic performance - up to 50% faster!
- Connect/disconnect USB devices schema improved - no more annoying “wait 5-10 seconds” message on USB device connecting to Parallels Desktop for Mac!
- Up to 5 Virtual NICs - now each Virtual Machine can have up to five virtual network interfaces
- Enhanced Shared Networking Mode - run Cisco VPN and many other complex networking applications in conjunction with Connection Sharing Mode
- Lots of various fixes
You can download RC2 at http://download.parallels.com/RC/Parallels%20Desktop%203150%20Mac%20en.dmg
Tags: Intel





February 15th, 2007 at 4:27 am
I find Parallels Desktop indispensable when it comes to testing for both mac and windows and now have completely switched to mac development, running anything windows I need through parallels. It’s a great product!
BTW, if you wanna save some $$ when buying it you can get it from some place offering discount on it. The best I’ve found was http://www.lightsparkle.com/product_page.php?product_id=1640 which offers a 20% off the price.