Parallels Desktop Beta 2 Released

Posted August 30th, 2007 by mike

Competition is heating up in the Mac virtualization software market with the release of Parallels latest beta. Build 5120 adds several new features and improves performance dramatically. I'm now running it on my 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro and I find it to be more responsive than the latest version of VMware, particularly when switching between windows in Coherence mode.

The new beta improves Coherence by putting each window in a separate layer, as VMware's Unity mode, rather than running all Windows applications in the same layer as older versions of Parallels Desktop do. Parallels Desktop will automatically boot into Coherence mode, unlike VMware, which requires switching manually. I find that switching between windows in Parallels is faster and more responsive than VMware, with the newly exposed window appearing instantly.

The full list of changes in build 5120 include:

Major enhancements to the look and feel of Windows programs in Coherence
Coherence support for Exposé and Transparent Windows
Support for overlapping several Windows and Mac windows in Coherence
Ability to silently boot into Coherence mode
Linux PC and virtual machine migration to your Mac using Transporter
Ability to change your VM’s disk format using the updated Parallels Image Tool
Ability to change Sound Devices ‘on the fly’
Windows iTunes can connect to your iPhone
Ability to use your Mac desktop and Documents/Pictures/Music folders as Desktop and My Documents/My Pictures/My Music in Windows
Ability to automatically map and access the Shared Folders using Windows drive
Significant improvements to CPU usage, overall performance, and memory management. Beta2 now has support for more than 4 GB of RAM for multiple virtual machines!