Parallels Toolbox for Mac Adds New One-Click Shortcuts: Clipboard History, Sleep Timer, Energy Saver, and More

[MacRumors]

Parallels Toolbox for Mac has been updated to version 3.5 with a handful of new one-click shortcuts, including clipboard history, a sleep timer, an energy saver tool, and the ability to hide some menu bar icons.

From the press release:

New Tools in Parallels Toolbox 3.5 for Mac:

- Clipboard History: Captures what's copied to the Mac clipboard, including plain and formatted text. It also offers full text search, favorites and settings to collect content for up to 30 days. You can also pause the collection or exclude applications, allowing users to further customize the tool.

- Hide Menu Icons: Allows users to hide some icons from the Mac menu bar by creating two sets of menu-bar icons, visible and invisible. Less important icons only become visible when the user clicks the tool's control in the Mac menu bar. Hidden icons automatically hide when the user goes back to working with applications from the control menu.

- Energy Saver: Activates several settings, including hidden ones that reduce system-resources usage and increase battery life, saving up to eight percent in power consumption. It automatically detects your computer's state when it's running on battery and activates options for users to enable or disable.

- Sleep Timer: Allows you to set a timer for the computer to either go to sleep or shut down from the moment you press "Start," helping you save energy. Time options range from 15 minutes to six hours.

New Enhanced Versions of Existing Tools in Parallels Toolbox for Mac:

- Clean Drive: Users can now see files that will be deleted, with the ability to find them in Finder for improved transparency.

- Find Duplicates: Ability to mass-select multiple duplicates for better total-size representation and simplified sorting options.

Parallels Toolbox adds a dropdown menu to the macOS menu bar with a collection of tools and shortcuts that simplify common tasks to just a click or two, such as taking screenshots, resizing images, hiding the desktop, recording audio, switching resolutions, creating password-protected archives of files, and more.

Parallels Toolbox for Mac is priced at $19.99 per year for new users. The annual subscription includes free updates with new and enhanced tools as they become available over time, such as this version 3.5 update.

Note that while Parallels is best known for its virtualization software that allows for Windows and Linux to run within macOS, its Toolbox software can be used natively on any compatible Mac or Windows PC.

Article Link: Parallels Toolbox for Mac Adds New One-Click Shortcuts: Clipboard History, Sleep Timer, Energy Saver, and More

 

[keysofanxiety]

On the whole I've been pretty disappointed with Parallels Toolbox. There's an option for downloading YouTube videos (Download Video) but the download speed is insanely slow and the quality of the downloaded file is rubbish. Plus the Safari add-in just seems like a generic third-party app they've bought and bolted on rather than one designed by Parallels.

Also from what I understand the screen record just does sound from the internal mic rather than the system, so you'd need to use SoundFlower to make it useful otherwise you might as well just use QuickTime's screen recording.

 

[jgbr]

They should focus on the quality of the VM software rather than a tool box I know, I ensure isn’t installed

 

[thisisnotmyname]

I felt that the naming and install method was a bit sneaky on this. Last time I upgraded Parallels it installed Toolbox during the upgrade, I thought it was installing Parallels Tools (which is very much desired) but instead was this bloatware ToolBOX.

 

[jonnysods]

I wish it wasn't the yearly subscription model. So tired of them! It's a solid tool, but I don't want to repeatedly pay for it.

 

[larrylaffer]

I use youtube-dl for video downloads (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/). It works with tons of video sites, is constantly updates, has built-in transcoding, and one should always prefer free and open-source.

 

[macpeach55]

I find it useful, I use the capture area, lock screen, eject volumes regularly, & as I anyway have Parallels installed, the Toolbox comes free, so what the heck!

 

[Digital Dude]

Sounds promising and I sincerely hope that it works. I had high hopes for 'Parallels Pro' on my 2017 MacBook Pro, but in my particular case, it was a mistake. My MacBook Pro hasn't worked properly ever since; even after I removed the App. Perhaps I’ll reinstall it and give Parallels and another try.

 

[CyberBob859]

I find it useful, I use the capture area, lock screen, eject volumes regularly, & as I anyway have Parallels installed, the Toolbox comes free, so what the heck!

That's the way I feel about it. I don't know if I would pay for Toolbox, but because it came free with Parallels Virtualization software, I find the add-on useful.

 

[UnusedLoginID]

I am in the camp of those of us who find it disingenuous to call it “Parallels Toolbox” when you need “Parallels Tools” to run your VM. I too installed it by mistake thinking it was an update to the tools.
As to Parallels Access which I installed voluntarily, it had limited functionality and extremely slow. And it would never work with my Desktop even after I set it up to never sleep. Basically I could never access my files on the go as Parallels Access could not wake up the computer.
Anyway, all that to say that they should focus on Parallels Desktop and forget the rest. And stop prompting me to install these other tools.

 

[cfurlin]

Any price that ends with per year is a no sale for me unless it's a membership fee or property taxes.