Parallels Workstation Beta 5 Released

[RujusMacBook]

Enjoy and changes are listed below:
Site (http://www.parallels.com/)
Full list of changes in beta 5:

* Introduced USB support. Connect your favorite USB devices directly to a virtual machine!
* Introduced shared folders. Share files between Mac OS X and any Windows XP or Windows 2003 guest virtual machine!
* Support for dynamic screen resolutions. When a guest OS is selected, a list of available screen resolutions is dynamically populated with primary OS resolutions.
* Fixed keyboard mapping problems
* Fixed mouse pointer lag problem
* Better sound support
* Fixed problems with sleeping/waking up the primary OS when a VM is running
* Introduced the ability to resize a guest when switching to fullscreen mode
Added optional "transition cube" animation for transitioning to and from fullscreen mode
* Fixed several kernel panics
* Added default network adapter for bridged mode
* Sound lag fixed

[AEMV]

Awesome!

When is the Full Verison expected to come out??

[displaced]

Parallel's forums have been down all afternoon, so I thought I'd swing by here!

Anyone had any luck with b5, USB devices and Shared Folders?

No matter what USB device I connect, I get a message saying another process is using the device and I should wait 5-10 seconds and retry. I'm trying to get a PDA's sync cradle recognised by the guest OS (Win2k).

Right-clicking the USB icon on the status bar, the PDA Sync Cradle shows up briefly in the list of USB devices, but clicking it gives the above error, and after a couple attempts, it disappears from the list.

Secondly, I've had no luck with the Shared Folders either. I'm trying to make a Firewire external drive appear in the guest OS. I'm trying to set up a shared folder to the drive's mount-point (e.g. /Volumes/FirewireDisk). The drive isn't showing up in My Computer, either as a normal drive or as a mapped drive.

Anyone tried this sort of thing themselves?

Cheers,
Chris

[AEMV]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1707966062247092813&q=parallels&pl=true

that is insane!!!

[Manatee]

I think they said the only USB devices that would work now are USB key drives. They said other devices might work.

I haven't installed B5 yet. I was somewhat concerned over new problems that were described by established posters. (I tend to discount the squawks of first time posters over there. ;) )

[displaced]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1707966062247092813&q=parallels&pl=true

that is insane!!!


Woah.

Is it wrong that I just giggled like a schoolgirl?

:D

[displaced]

I think they said the only USB devices that would work now are USB key drives. They said other devices might work.

I haven't installed B5 yet. I was somewhat concerned over new problems that were described by established posters. (I tend to discount the squawks of first time posters over there. ;) )

Ahhh.... so the Parallel's forums are alive then? I'm still getting the 'unavailable' message at the moment.

I'll do my Visual Studio install in Boot Camp then for the time being. I'm a Windows Mobile dev by trade, and like the idea of doing it in Parallels within OS X... XP for the coding, OS X for everything else. Don't want to give up the 'woah!' effect of doing my presentations using Keynote.

[FrostyFire]

Woah.

Is it wrong that I just giggled like a schoolgirl?

:D
LOL.

Definitely digg worthy :D

http://digg.com/software/Video:_This_is_how_fast_OS_switching_is_supposed_t o_be

[FrostyFire]

My USB Microsoft wireless notebook mouse seems to be working during the XP setup so far.

[displaced]

I've got a feeling that mice (or, indeed any HID-class USB device) is a special-case for Parallels. Even a Wireless mouse will most likely appear as a standard USB-HID device (which is why it works in Windows Setup before any drivers load).

I think I remember my USB mouse working fine in previous Parallels betas, because Workstation hooks into the host OS for input-class USB devices.

It's the lower-level interaction required for guest-OS driver access to other USB classes which I was hoping to see in B5.

Ah well.. I guess I'll find out more once I manage to get into the Parallels forums.

[Manatee]

Ahhh.... so the Parallel's forums are alive then? I'm still getting the 'unavailable' message at the moment.

I'll do my Visual Studio install in Boot Camp then for the time being. I'm a Windows Mobile dev by trade, and like the idea of doing it in Parallels within OS X... XP for the coding, OS X for everything else. Don't want to give up the 'woah!' effect of doing my presentations using Keynote.
I got the info before Parallels went off the air. They had two sticky posts at the top of the forum -- one saying that the USB support was actually quite limited for now, and another detailing how to make shared host directories work. I didn't note all the details, because I figured I'd read it again when I got home and installed beta 5. Oh well. I hope they're trying to get more bandwidth over there because it went crazy this morning when they posted Beta 5.

I too am a Windows developer -- .NET intranet and extranet apps, mostly. I love my PowerBooks and MacBook Pro, though. Things are really getting good! :)

[displaced]

I got the info before Parallels went off the air. They had two sticky posts at the top of the forum -- one saying that the USB support was actually quite limited for now, and another detailing how to make shared host directories work. I didn't note all the details, because I figured I'd read it again when I got home and installed beta 5. Oh well. I hope they're trying to get more bandwidth over there because it went crazy this morning when they posted Beta 5.

I too am a Windows developer -- .NET intranet and extranet apps, mostly. I love my PowerBooks and MacBook Pro, though. Things are really getting good! :)

I managed to view those posts via the Parallels Weblog http://parallelsvirtualization.blogspot.com/

Guess it's just a case of wait & see how things develop, but the Parallels team seem to be doing a great job.

I'd imagine there's a fair few people out there in a similar position to us: needing Windows to earn the £££ (or $$$, etc), but personally preferring Apple hardware and/or software. I'm not a fan of platform-warfare, but at the moment it certainly is a fun time to be an Apple and OS X user. Wouldn't swap this little MBP for the world right now :)

[RujusMacBook]

Secondly, I've had no luck with the Shared Folders either. I'm trying to make a Firewire external drive appear in the guest OS. I'm trying to set up a shared folder to the drive's mount-point (e.g. /Volumes/FirewireDisk). The drive isn't showing up in My Computer, either as a normal drive or as a mapped drive.

From Parallels Site: (http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/shared_folders/)
Shared Folders in beta5
Shared folders are folders in your MacOS X file system that are visible to the guest OS also. These folders are used for exchanging files between the primary OS and virtual machine or between several virtual machines.

To make shared folders available for your guest OS, the following steps are necessary:
1. Set up the Shared Folder for your VM. To do so power off the VM, then click Edit->Shared Folders.
2. Select the Enabled option. Click OK in the Configuration Editor, then click Save to save the Virtual Machine configuration.
3. Power on the guest OS. Сapture input in the Virtual Machine.
4. After logging on to the guest OS, right-click on “My Computer”, click “Explorer”.
5. Expand “My Network Places” in the left tab.
6. Expand “Entire Network” in the left Tab.
7. Eureka! You see “Parallels Shared Folders”.

Please note that it is not recommended to share any system files (such as Applications) with your guest OS.

For now, there are three known issues about the Shared Folders:
* Shared Folders feature is not available for Windows 2000 guests.
* It is not possible to create subfolders in Shared Folder from inside guest OS.
* It is not possible to clear “read-only” attribute for the file in a Shared Folder from inside guest OS.

[jriff]

I too am a Windows developer -- .NET intranet and extranet apps, mostly. I love my PowerBooks and MacBook Pro, though. Things are really getting good! :)

I've sent you a PM - just want some info on .NET development on the Mac.