New Parallels Desktop Beta with Lower CPU Usage

[brkirch]

I just found that there is a new Parallels Desktop beta build. One of my first observations was the ridiculously low CPU usage when idle (less than 8%, and less than the idle CPU usage I get in VMWare Fusion). Of course, as always, with a new build of Parallels comes new features...

Download it here

What's New in Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac Beta (Build
5120)
Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac Beta includes the following new features and feature improvements:
• Coherence 3.0

o Minimize windows to Mac Dock support
o Coherence performance improvement​

• Virtualization Engine

o General virtual machine performance optimization
o Significant CPU usage improvement
o Memory management improvement: support for more than 4GB of RAM for multiple virtual machines
o Maximum memory size available for a virtual machine increased from 1.5GB to 2GB​

• Shared User Profile - Use your Mac Desktop and Documents/Pictures/Music folders as Desktop and My Documents/My Pictures/My Music in Windows
NOTE: Parallels Desktop doesn’t automatically synchronize your Windows profile folders to Mac folders during initial Shared Profile assignment. To access your previous Windows desktop you can use folders “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\” and “C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>\Desktop\”. To access other previous folders you can use folder
“C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>\<User Name>’s Documents\”.
• Map Shared Folders to Windows drives letters - Automatically map and access your Shared Folders using Windows drive letters
• Parallels Mounter - Double-click Parallels virtual disks and mount them to Mac Desktop to access Windows files and folders using Finder (even if the virtual machine is not running)
• Change Sound Device on the fly - Change input and output sound devices connected to virtual machine on the fly via menu or status bar icon
• Keyboard passthrough support when assistive devices are on - Keyboard passthrough mode when assistive devices support is enabled in Universal Access preferences

Bugfixes and improvements in Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac
Beta (Build 5120)
The most important fixes and improvements include:
• Primary OS support

o Leopard (only build 9a499) may become unusable after installing Parallels
Desktop - fixed​

• Stability and resources usage

o Kernel Panics on Mac Mini when VT-x is disabled - fixed
o Memory allocation errors - fixed
o Running 3D applications may freeze iMac with ATI Radeon 2600 graphic card - fixed
o Fatal error E064.07.010 on virtual machine startup - fixed
o Memory leak in llipd - fixed​

• Coherence

o Transparent windows display incorrectly - fixed
o Incorrect Z-order - fixed
o Windows moving speed - improved
o Double-clicking the Windows application icon in Dock doesn't bring its window
to foreground - fixed
o Issues during windows moving - fixed
o Tooltips slowness - fixed
o Cascade and Tile Windows work with artifacts and windows falls - fixed​

• Parallels Tools Center

o CPU usage - optimized
o Parallels Tools Center in Windows 95 can't be started due to a missing symbol - fixed​

• Applications sharing and SmartSelect

o Incorrect Shared Web Applications state after build upgrade - fixed
o Can't edit SmartSelect options for paused virtual machine - fixed
o Other SmartSelect improvements​

• Video and 3D

o OpenGL performance - improved
o Parallels Desktop window resizing issues - fixed​

Known issues in Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac Beta (Build
5120)
• Stability and resources usage

o In some rare cases, fatal error E054.01.002 may occur on virtual machine startup​

• Coherence

o Windows desktop may show up when transparent windows are used
o Transparent windows may be displayed incorrectly
o Small artefacts in Expose may appear
o In some cases, selected applications may refuse to move to foreground
o Automatically bring to front for Windows applications works wrong
o Problems with VirtueDesktops
o Leopard Spaces are not fully supported​

• Parallels Tools

o Mouse scroll works wrong in Acrobat 8
o Parallels Tools Center may use 100% CPU after drag-and-drop operation​

• Disks and folders sharing

o Error may occur during Windows disk mounting to Finder​

• Snapshots

o Segmentation fault may occur while reverting to specific snapshot​

• Parallels Explorer&Mounter

o Some problems during drag-and-drop operations still may occur
o Incorrect disk size may be showed​

 

[in-ten-city]

any improved support in terms of running off boot camp partition without screwing up your activation?

 

[brkirch]

any improved support in terms of running off boot camp partition without screwing up your activation?

AFAIK all the activation problems with Parallels have been fixed for a long time now. You do still have to activate twice, but I think that will always be necessary because of the way activation works in XP/Vista. The main problem with Boot Camp support in Parallels has been the possibility of system files getting misplaced/corrupted if you don't shut down properly, although I wasn't even able to reproduce that problem when I tried to with the last beta so I don't know that even that is an issue anymore. You should however uninstall VMWare Tools if you have them installed before you try using Parallels with a Boot Camp partition though, otherwise there is a good chance you will have problems.