The latest beta of Parallels Desktop for Mac is out and it’s super cool. Check out this screencast of some of the new features in action. You can download the latest build here or from a mirror setup by uneasysilence.com (I used the mirror last night because the Parallels site was getting hammered!).
In case you’re interested, this was done on a MacBook Pro 2GHz core duo, system 10.4.8, 2GB of ram. I had about 8 or 9 other programs running in addition to Parallels plus I was recording the screencast at 1024 x 768, 30 fps. Also my Mac is running the UB of ShapeShifter with the theme “seven” which is why it looks different. And the utility in the menu bar that shows the CPU info and other stuff is Menu Meters.
Tags: parallels, virtualization
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54 Comments
I’ve got the new parallels but how can I do that?
Thanks for any help
There is a new button on the parallels bar around the VM window called, “coherence mode.” If you click it what happens basically is that the app goes full screen and the desktop becomes transparent so you can see pc apps side by side with your mac apps.
hmm, I did but when I click it nothing happens
Make sure you install the Parallels Tools in Windows as well.
You must install the latest Parallels Tools in Windows before it will work. Go up to the Action menu in Parallels and look for it there.
There you go – thanks Matt & Carlo.
Stupid question, I’m sure, but what is the software that shows the system info in the menu bar?
D’oh. Next time I’ll check versiontracker FIRST. Told you it was a stupid question…
MenuMeters 1.3
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17713
Yeah Menu Meters kicks butt!
OMG, this is just amazing…thank you, thank you, thank you
Nice vid, thanks for your time! (Now I’ve gotta go buy parallels)
Are you running 10.5 in this video?
You beat me to it dude. Nice clip. I’m very impressed with the latest Beta build of Parallels.
Did you come across the can’t auto-hide the start menu bug yet?
I’m running 10.4.8 with ShapeShifter to skin it.
I’m not sure what auto-hide bug that is. I set my taskbar to auto-hide and it seems to work fine so far.
Thanks for the nod Michael, if you need anything in the future, let me know – have bandwidth to spare
_dan
Your voice is annoying. Jesus Fuck.
Where did you find the “seven” theme?
Thanks Michael this is amazing, I’m subscribe now on your web site & add in my cell.
@Lsv, your comments are annoying as fuck.
Good job Michael. I for one really enjoyed it.
that’s great, thanks for the update, that’s why I’m waiting until after macworld to buy my new mac and Parallels. Parallels is almost perfect.
This rocks
Gabriele, I found the theme on interfacelift.com but it’s originally from here.
Link for the “Parallels Tools for Boot Camp.exe” is http://download.parallels.com/beta/Parallels-Tools-Bcp-1.0.3-Win.exe
Took me a while to hunt it down.
- Ken
Mike, its Ben from Parallels. Glad to hear that you like our stuff. We have more cool stuff coming in the next few weeks, so stay tuned!
Great info, thanks.
Can I install the beta over my existing Parallels installation without having to reinstall Win XP?
-John
Sure John, it just updates Parallels. Then, once you start up Windows you’ll have to install the new version of the Parallels tools.
I see your a nip/tuck fan…
too bad that this season is really sucking..
oh, and thanks for the screencast, now i must also buy parallels
thanks for the demo I have been trying to visual some of the features and you have done that for me.
hey there,
i bought parallels for mac a few weeks ago. now i installed the new beta, but i have to activate it. and my key is not working with the beta? am i doing something wrong?
hope somebody can help me.
jerry
Hi,
Please, what applet have you on the top bar?
The applet that show you the cpu,etc…
thx!!!
Sorry for my english
The “Apple key” is actually called the “Command key”; so Command-A, Command-C, rather than Apple-A, Apple-C.
Great Job Michael,
I’m glad you are doing well and i’m glad you got ‘Dugg’!
Lets talk some time.
TexasMEP
@Verdi: Awesome video; I think I’ll buy Parallels now! I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but Coherence mode and the ability to use a Boot Camp partition just made it worth it.
@cuc: MenuMeters shows system info in the menu bar: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17713
if you wanna get rid of the windows taskbar. just put it on auto-hide and drag it to windows top. so when it hides its slightly underneath the apple menu bar.
pretty cool
@Lsv: You’re a douche… congrats and leaving the most pointless reply i’ve ever fucking seen.
@Verdi: Everyting is great! Look forward to “tuning” in more often
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W W W O O W W W
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Nice vid! Hey, I wrote a little app that lets you launch windows apps from the apple dock. I think it kinda makes the two OSs seem more integrated – http://www.verysimple.com/blog/?p=67
You totally just shamed my Powerbook and G4! Maybe I’ll do a vlog comparing my website using my Powerbook next to my Thinkpad. Poor mans Parallel!
Good stuff.
Could you post some info on how you made the screencast (what software you used to capture the screen, what you used to edit the video and add the text at the beginning and end)?
Slightly off-topic: The screencast looks great, and I’ve been wondering how to do these so that quality is good and size relatively low. What program and settings in that program did you use for such a good screencast? I use SnapzPro, but the number of options for output formats is so enormous, I haven’t experimented enough with it to find out the ideal ones.
Hey everyone, my daughter has been in the hospital getting her appendix out (it happened this morning). Anyway, let my try to catch up real quick here.
The screencast was made with SnapzProX. It’s a fairly involved process that I’ll get around to documenting one day over at Freevlog. But quickly, it was recorded using the motion jpeg compressor. Then I bring those videos into Final Cut Pro where I’ve created sequence settings using jpeg compression (it doesn’t have mjpeg for some reason). I drop the video into sequences ranging from 640×480 (that’s what I used here) to 800×600 to 1024×768. I didn’t really edit this video at all except to put a title at the beginning which is just done with the generic text generator. The end title is tiff that I use all the time (done in Photoshop).
The then whole this is compressed for the web using h.264 dual pass. In this case it was done at about 700kps (I forget exactly). The cool thing about screencasts is that you can get away with really low bit rates for such big sizes. Agian, this is something that I’ll eventually document over at Freevlog.
Other notes…
Like I said in the post, I’m running 10.4.8 and ShapeShifter with the “seven” theme. I found it at Interfacelift.
Now for the assholes:
Yes, my voice annoys me too but what the fuck should I do about it? At least I don’t hide anonymously behind a keyboard like you dorks.
And of course I know that the “Apple” key is also know as the “Command” key. But look at your keyboards, don’t you see an apple on that key too? You do don’t you. That’s how you knew what I was talking about. So quit complaining and let’s see you do better.
Its simply amazing how Wincrap looks much better when on a Mac.
Now when you get sick of showing off that garbage, trash it like i did
Verdi: Thanks for the info on the screencast process and I hope your daughter gets better.
Recorded using motion JPEG in Snapz Pro?
Sorry to hear about your daughter and hope she’s well! Coincidentally, our 2-year-old went cyanotic (turned blue) briefly after I posted my earlier comment…he’s fine (febrile seizure, not uncommon, no other problems), home, and asleep. But life can change so quickly.
Hope your daughter gets well soon. It’s keyhole surgery these days so it should be very soon. Great video, great commentary. Parallels should be paying you!
Thanks a lot for the informative vid, it’s highly appreciated. I dowloaded parallels a while ago, installed xp/office all in under a couple hours and it’s working flawlessly. Thanks and hope your daughter is doing better.
Dude,
What everyone else said about the noxious “annoying voice” comment. I mean, after one hears Gilbert Gottfried, isn’t the bar now fairly high?
Second, LOVE the “Coherency” mode, with an amusing anecdote — eons ago, before Virtual PC was sold to Microsoft, I paid a visit to the original developers of VPC, Connectix. One of the coders was someone I had worked with at a place called “SuperMac” — he pulled me into his office and demonstrated something he had coded up for VPC “over the weekend”.
In almost every possible way it was “coherency” mode — only the Windows OS was Windows 95, and the Mac OS was (gah!) 7.something. I thought it was just as cool then, only it’s been eternally annoying that it took nearly a decade for that kind of feature to see the light of day.
(And what IS this weird synchronicity about? My 18 month old daughter wound up in the ER yesterday as well — sudden cuticle infection of her left middle finger that sprang up over-night. Once we were assured that she was going to be fine, the joke has become that she flipped off the wrong cat.
I hope your girl is feeling better!)
i bought parallels for mac a few weeks ago. now i installed the new beta, but i have to activate it. and my key is not working with the beta? am i doing something wrong?
Can anyone help,
Ivan
Damn! Nothing like family drama. Hang in there dude! Congrats on the new gig.
Great and very helpful video. Thanks Michael Verdi!
I installed the beta and then it asked me for the Window XP registration number as if it started from scratch.
I uninstalled the beta and went back to the previous version.
Thanks for the vid. Keep them coming.
Verdi I just installed the Beta over my existing Parallels installation. It works great. Thanks for the “heads up” on this one.
John
PLEASE HELP!!! Cannot download the file:
http://download.parallels.com/beta/Parallels-Tools-Bcp-1.0.3-Win.exe
Will not download… Can anyone help?
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