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Newest Parallels build has some interesting new features

prostuff1

prostuff1

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 29, 2005
1,482
18
Don't step into the kawoosh...
I don't own the software yet as I have no intel mac to run it on but I thought i would give the heads up to people who might.

Two new features that caught my eye were:

* Read/Write BootCamp partition. Since this build, an Apple Boot Camp partition with Windows XP installed could be used as a virtual HDD for Parallels Desktop for Mac.

* Boot from BootCamp partition. Another long awaited feature that lets you boot your 32-bit Windows XP residing on Boot Camp partition directly in Parallels Desktop for Mac.
IMPORTANT! You need to boot in your Windows XP natively through Boot Camp and install Parallels Tools for Boot Camp package in it before your first boot in Parallels Desktop for Mac.
NOTE! It is not possible to suspend Virtual Machine connected to Boot Camp for integrity reasons.

The second one is particularly interesting because it makes it sound like you no longer have to install XP twice if you are running bootcamp and parallels. Definitely a great feature to have!!
 
prostuff1 said:
I don't own the software yet as I have no intel mac to run it on but I thought i would give the heads up to people who might.

Two new features that caught my eye were:
<snip>
Click to expand...
Sounds interesting!

Looks like the Parallels folks are continuing to improve their software. A far cry from Microsoft and VPC improvements.
 
Wow! It's really slick. I had just registered mine yesterday. I had two Linux systems built before I downloaded this, and now I can resize the windows, etc. I'm in the middle on installing a Win2K right now. I already have XP on another computer, so I'm not messing with that. I just want to see how well in does with 2K for now.

The interface has been overhauled and much more usable now. Lots of other things also. I still haven't explored all the new options, but they have a killer product in their hands. Two thumbs up so far! :D :D (well, two smilies)
 
prostuff1 said:
I don't own the software yet as I have no intel mac to run it on but I thought i would give the heads up to people who might.

Two new features that caught my eye were:

* Read/Write BootCamp partition. Since this build, an Apple Boot Camp partition with Windows XP installed could be used as a virtual HDD for Parallels Desktop for Mac.
Click to expand...

Can you explain this one to me? Is the point that it affords you the ability to keep microsoft related material in a partitioned "virtual HDD"? just a shot in the dark.
 
Another thread on this. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/257053/

Aniej: The ability to read/write the Boot Camp partition means that you can use Parallels to write to the NTFS volume in your Mac, and use that as "regular" storage space, which is read only from OS X without parallels.

Until now, Parallels has lived in a Virtual HDD that is stored in a file on a Mac acessible drive...

Any news if this also allows for read/write access to external NTFS drives (USB or FW)?

B
 
I posted a screenshot of Parallels running in "coherence" mode in the thread linked above for anyone that hasn't seen what it looks like or wants to see a "real world" example. It's really cool
 
Aniej said:
Can you explain this one to me? Is the point that it affords you the ability to keep microsoft related material in a partitioned "virtual HDD"? just a shot in the dark.
Click to expand...

Simply put, Parallels creates a file where you choose, and when you install Windows, it appears as an NTFS partition to Windows (after you format it). The leap of faith here is that you are not creating a partition on the Mac, just a file that looks like a hard drive to Windows. The shot in the dark was on target.

Another thing (as SJ would say), say you want a 60 GB drive. Well you tell it that, but you can have Parallels create a full 60 GB file, or you can tell it to use an expanding file. The expanding file grows as it needs to. And there's nothing from stopping you from creating another virtual disk later.

Did that over-explain things??? :D
 
no no, the answer was quite good. I actually tend to prefer the over-explanation on here. Sometimes when we know something really well we describe it in terms you would use when discussing it with a person of similar knowledge. Thanks for throwing some answers out there.:)
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but would it be ideal to have Windows on its own partition if you get some wicked virus than having windows on a virtual hd through a folder?
 
Woodcrest64 said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but would it be ideal to have Windows on its own partition if you get some wicked virus than having windows on a virtual hd through a folder?
Click to expand...

I've never used virtual machines *that* much over the years, but it's always been my understanding that just having the VM as a file is fine as far as viruses and such. I've always heard people talk about liking VMs because when things go haywire you just trash the file and install a new one and you're good to go.
 
elbirth said:
I've never used virtual machines *that* much over the years, but it's always been my understanding that just having the VM as a file is fine as far as viruses and such. I've always heard people talk about liking VMs because when things go haywire you just trash the file and install a new one and you're good to go.
Click to expand...
To further illuminate the point, virtual machines make it a trivial matter to backup your Windows environment. You simply make a standard MacOS X copy of your virtual machine file according to a schedule of your choosing. If and when your Windows environment is corrupted, you simply replace it with the most recent clean copy and continue about your business.
 
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