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Parallels virtual disk dance of pain
Sometimes virtualization can be aggravating. If you've found yourself with a Parallels virtual disk that turned out to be uncomfortably small for all your stuff, there's a way to expand your horizons -- increase the virtual drive size with the included Image Tool, then boot the virtual machine from a free GParted LiveCD image to bump up the Windows partition to the full size of the virtual disk. Easy as pie, right? Well, unfortunately not anymore: Parallels has (temporarily, we hope) removed Image Tool from the 3.0 distribution and the older version of the tool will not work with the current disk image format. The resizing procedure has been confusing for users (and possibly eaten the VHDs of a few unlucky souls), so until Parallels comes up with a more integrated resizing solution, it's off the table. You can get around the missing utility by making a new (larger) blank disk image, then using a tool like Acronis MigrateEasy within Parallels to move from old HD to new; still, it's a pain in the keister.Meanwhile, as I discovered when preparing to move my Boot Camp XP setup into a virtual machine, the otherwise excellent Parallels Transporter P2V (physical to virtual) conversion tool has a serious functional gap. Transporter, which is designed to help you create Parallels virtual machines from physical PCs or other virtual disk formats, works on just about any source machine except... you guessed it: a Boot Camp installation of Windows. Argh! I could capture the Boot Camp install as a restorable disk image with NetRestore or WinClone, but I really wanted to go virtual, as I am in the process of moving over to a new MacBook Pro (yay!) with a smaller internal drive (boo!). What to do, what to do?In this case, it was the competition that came to the rescue, in the form of VMware's free Converter tool. VMware Converter, which does the same basic P2V tricks as Parallels Transporter, works just fine with a Boot Camp setup, thank you very much, and neatly whisked my one-third-full 40 GB XP partition into a folderful of virtual disk chunks; with Converter you can also easily expand or contract your target disk size, which is another approach to the resizing problem above. From there I had what we refer to in Brooklyn as "lotsa optsh" -- continue on using the new virtual machine in VMware Fusion, or run back to Parallels Transporter to continue converting into a Parallels VM. In fact, to avoid installing a full VMware setup (I did fire up the new v4.1, just to kick the tires a little), there's a conversion method in Transporter that goes directly from the VMware virtual disk to a Parallels .hdd file, don't pass Go or collect $200. Transporter will even make the needed config changes to the resulting disk, open it up in a fresh virtual machine, and load the Parallels support tools and drivers for you, hands-free. Well, Parallels, I suppose I can forgive the Boot Camp transfer situation, but let's not go down this twisty disk-y road again, mmmkay?
Parallels using MacFUSE to access NTFS
As soon as Parallels 3.0 introduced the Explorer tool, letting you get inside your virtual drive images without running the installed virtual OS, I began to wonder: exactly how are they doing that? A few forum threads and a couple of serendipitous error screenshots later, I have an answer -- Parallels 3 includes a build of the MacFUSE project, Google's open source version of the Linux FUSE filesystem extension libraries. With MacFUSE (and the GUI version, MacFusion) you can quickly mount 'disks' that read from SSH, FTP, Spotlight queries, or even files stashed in the quirky gmailfs Gmail storage hack. Very nice to see the efforts of the Google coders making it into a high-profile commercial app.Here's the teensy little problem: Parallels is using version 0.3 of the MacFUSE libraries, and the current version is 0.4, so anyone who has installed the latest build of MacFUSE and tries to upgrade to Parallels 3 is going to run into the troubles. While the speed coders at SWsoft's offices are undoubtedly going to upgrade to the latest tools sooner rather than later, your best bet is to uninstall MacFUSE if you plan to use Parallels until the incompatibility is cleared up.Thanks Rich & Aron
Microsoft flip-flops again: now no Vista Home on Macs
We've seen our fair share of flip-flopping in the past, and Microsoft is yet again adding its name to the frowned upon list by retracting previous intentions to allow Windows Vista Home and Home Premium operating systems to run under virtualization. After reportedly stating that it would "change the EULA after listening to customer feedback on the issue," it appears that the suits in Redmond have thought better of said decision. Now, the firm has "reassessed the Windows virtualization policy and decided that maintaining the original policy announced last Fall" would be best. Ben Rudolph, Parallels director of corporate communications, noted that he was "obviously disappointed" in Microsoft's change of heart, but if the two-faced Mac users out there can persuade Google to take their side, we're sure this little spat could be cleared up in no time.[Image courtesy of ElliottBack]
David Pogue blogs mini-review of Parallels 3
David Pogue, the NY Times' answer to Walt Mossberg (as distinct from "This WSJ writer, nicknamed Uncle Walt, hosted two technology legends at a 2007 conference" -- that's the Jeopardy answer to Walt Mossberg) hasn't reviewed Parallels 3.0 yet, at least not in print. On his blog, however, Pogue has given the new version an enthusiastic thumbs up.Pogue uses Dragon NaturallySpeaking on Windows to do a large chunk of his writing (Mac voice-rec tools like TrueVoice or iListen, though available, did not measure up to his needs) which has meant either lugging two laptops around or, more recently, Boot Camp. Up until now the USB audio support in Parallels hasn't worked well enough for speech recognition to go smoothly. With the 3.0 release and an XP virtual machine (Vista was still too resource-intensive), Pogue is now running the voice-rec app completely flawlessly and happily.Pogue's post ends with a reminder of how the platform equation is changing; he writes, "Whether you're a Mac person or a Windows person, the point is that you can now run 100 percent of the world's computer software on a single machine, faster and more easily than ever." It's no longer a matter of justifying answers to "Why would you buy a Mac?" but simply responding "Why wouldn't you buy a computer that can run all your applications, whichever platform you need?"
Parallels 3.0 brings 3D PC games inside Mac OS X
With Apple's transition to Intel hardware came the promise of playing PC games on your Mac. Some months later, with the introduction of Boot Camp, that promise became a reality. And now, with the launch of Parallels 3.0, you don't even need to leave Mac OS X and boot into Windows to play your Windows games. The popular virtualization app has just released version 3.0 (has it been that long already?) and the killer new feature is: 3D graphics (with OpenGL and DirectX -- XP now, Vista later) support. Parallels 3.0 currently retails for $80 ($50 if you're upgrading), or you can register and receive a 15-day trial key. Peep Quake 4 played inside Mac OS after the break.[Via TUAW]
Parallels Desktop 3 officially released
After teasing us by announcing a release candidate for beta testers (and a sale that is now over) and posting videos of Quake 4 - a very resource-intensive game - running impressively well in Parallels, this powerful new v3.0 of the leading virtualization suite for Mac OS X has been released. Offering significant new features like we already mentioned, such as the highly-anticipated 3D acceleration (XP for now, Vista to come) and SmartSelect for specifying files types to open in apps across virtualized OSes, this could easily be called the most significant release of Parallels since the advent of Coherence Mode. Parallels Desktop 3.0 sells for $79.99 and is ready for download now, with 15-day trial keys are available to those who already used trial keys for previous versions.
Found Footage: Quake 4 running in Parallels 3.0
Last Friday Ben Rudolph, Parallel's Director of Corporate Communications, posted some screenshots of Halflife 2 running in Parallels 3.0 on his MacBook Pro. Parallels, for those who might not know, is virtualization software that lets you run a variety of OSes within OS X including Windows. Pictures sure are pretty, but the proof is in the video (a great man once said that), and so Ben has posted a video of Quake 4 running on a Mac in Parallels (I am going to assume he used his MacBook Pro for this as well, but he never mentions it so it could be running on a Mac Pro). As we reported, support for 3D acceleration is one of the big ticket items in Parallels Desktop for the Mac 3.0 (no known shipping date as of yet).
Parallels 3.0 handles 3D gaming, adds SmartSelect integration tool
The folks over at Parallels aren't messing around with these updates, as just about four months after unveiling release candidate 2, the harmony-inducing software is just about ready to hit the big three-o. At long last, the new iteration will purportedly support 3D graphics acceleration, giving Mac users the ability to play OpenGL / DirectX-based games in Windows without having to reboot, and it sounds like you'll be seeing improved shared folder performance as well. Moreover, the SmartSelect integration tool allows you to "open up any file from Windows or Mac OS X using an application from either operating system," which should work nicely alongside Coherence, and the Snapshots feature helps you to store Parallels' virtual machine state so you can roll back when needed and "control levels of integration and isolation using the VM Sentry." Apparently, the software isn't quite ready to hit the masses just yet, but early birds can latch onto the $39.99 upgrade price if you act quickly, while customers who bought in after May 1st will be blessed with the upgrade gratis.[Via Macworld]
Parallels 3.0 RC announced
If Windows is the new Classic, then Parallels Desktop for Mac is the Classic Enabler of the new millennium; there's no easier way to get XP running on your Intel Mac, should you wish to do something as antithetical to the Macintosh way as that. Virtualization heavyweight VMware has been sneaking up, though, releasing early betas including preliminary 3D support. Now Team Orange is leaping back to the front of the pack with a release candidate announcement for version 3.0 and upgrade pricing ($40 before June 7, $50 after that).New features in v3 of PD include: SmartSelect -- set your preferred application handlers cross-platform. Want to open URLs in IE7, mailto: links in Mail.app, or .xls files in Excel 2007? You can now. 3D acceleration -- DirectX and OpenGL support will allow 3D gamers to play Windows games at some modicum of acceptable speed Snapshot -- back up or roll back your virtual machine Parallels Explorer -- copy files into or out of your virtual disk images or your Boot Camp partition Enhanced Boot Camp support, better USB, better printer sharing, shiny Coherence 2.0 So far the RC is not downloadable outside the beta program, but I imagine as soon as it is, we'll all overload Parallels' servers like we usually do.Thanks to everyone who sent this in
PC World 100 Best of 2007 honors Parallels, Tiger
When a leading computer publication has a revolving-door editor-in-chief hiring policy, it can make other weird editorial decisions look sane and prudent by comparison. Exhibit A: the annual PC World "100 Best" feature, which presents the 100 best products of 2007... online in May, and in print for July. Not even half the year has gone by, but the farsighted crew at PCW has already figured out the best of the bunch! Might as well take the rest of the year off, then...The real reasons that the 100 Best comes out mid-year (covering the end of 2006 and the start of 2007) are detailed in a post from once-and-current big kahuna Harry McCracken. It comes down to legacy scheduling of the product awards around the June date of the no-longer-extant PC Expo trade show. That's a relief; I was worried that we were changing the calendar again.Anyway, more to the point: the list is top-heavy with some big Mac products, including TUAW darling Parallels Desktop at #6 (the top-ranked application on any desktop platform, not counting #1 Google Apps Premier Edition), Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger at #9 and AppleTV at #11. The Intel Core 2 Duo processor that powers new Macs is a top pick at #2. Noticeably absent from the top 100 was the latest hotness from Redmond, which may correlate with PC World's comment on the Tiger ranking: "Name a good Vista feature that goes beyond what's in Tiger. Yeah, we can't either." Brrrrr.
TUAW Desktops of the Week for 4/30 - 5/5/07
This week I found it impossible to choose just one image from our TUAW Desktops Flickr group, so I chose four - two desktops and two honorable mentions. The first, simply titled My Current Desktop (how about some more unique names for these desktops, eh?), is from Flickr user tj scenes and is quite the melding of OSes, interesting wallpaper, minimal icon design and unique choices in applications. What you're looking at is not yet another ShapeShifter theme, no - it's Parallels running in Coherence mode with a black Windows XP theme and the Windows taskbar stifling Mac OS X's menubar. You're also looking at the custom icon set Amora, ClearDock and - believe it or not - Winamp, the good ol' media player for Windows that could. It's quite an interesting setup, though tj scenes neglected to mention one thing: what wallpaper he's using, and where he got it (ok fine that's technically two things). Next up is Mac OS X Desktop in a Mosaic from Flickr user blumensath, a desktop that is interesting primarily due to the way it was created. Blumensath used MacOSaiX, a mosaic generating app, and plugged in Flickr pictures tagged with "osx" to create a cool mosaic of... well, Mac OS X. These next two images from t_szuba receive honorable mention for their minimal setup and shout out to the old school days of Apple. They're both running Panic's Stattoo and Sophia Teutschler's CoverSutra, and both feature custom app icons for the left-aligned Dock and Unsanity's ShapeShifter. While t_szuba mentions the wallpaper designers for both desktops, no link was provided (yet). If you'd like to see your unique, functional or otherwise interesting desktop featured in our TUAW Desktops of the Week series, check out past featured desktops as well as the original post for the rules and to get an idea of what we're looking for. Then, upload your desktop screenshot to our TUAW Desktops Flickr group. We'll feature one or more desktops each weekend, giving credit to the desktop owner, wallpaper creator and any apps featured in the screenshot (if available). Keep those desktops rolling in!
Parallels Technology Network launches VM library
One of the advantages of a mature virtualization platform (I'm looking at you, VMware) is an extensive library of prepackaged, load-and-go virtual machine appliances. Want to try out a vTiger CRM deployment, a MediaWiki server, an open-source Zimbra webmail setup or a professional-grade VPN gateway? All are available from VMware's extensive Virtual Appliance Marketplace, and all should work OK with the current VMware beta for Mac.You'd expect the new hotness in virtualization to come up with a similar offering, and you'd be expecting right: this week Parallels announced the Parallels Technology Network, a support forum for VM-appliance developers and a clearinghouse for packaged apps. The selection of appliances is dramatically smaller than VMware's for now, but if you feel like being adventurous you could try converting a VMware appliance [pdf] for Parallels use. Some of the Parallels packages are coming from the new VM packaging service JumpBox, which looks to be both user- and Mac-friendly (check out the CEO's MacBook in the demo video).If you've ever been curious about building a wiki, running a mail server, or any of these crazy back-office activities, VM appliances are a wonderful way to get started.[via Ars Technica Infinite Loop]
VM2Go - manage Parallels machines, run them from an iPod and more
One of the signs that you've 'made it' as a 3rd party (besides, of course, having great sales) is when other 3rd parties develop tools and apps that work with your app. In this vein, VM2Go from BriteMac (which we covered when it was in beta) is apparently the first 3rd party utility that allows you to manage your Parallels virtual machines, move them to an iPod, USB thumb drive or external hard drive and even run them from these devices. Various other tricks up VM2Go's sleeve include backing up VMs to DVD and a clean deletion of VMs and any associated desktop aliases that point to them. VM2Go offers a trial download that runs 20 times, though we can't figure out a purchase price as of this writing since their eSellerate store is currently down.
Guide for installing Vista in Boot Camp
As reluctant as we might be to admit it, we have our reasons for tinkering with Windows Vista behind closed TUAW office doors. Parallels has pretty decent support for it (3D hardware is still a work in progress), though we've been having to search across the vast interwebs for some help on how to get Micrsoft's latest... 'achievement' to play nice with Apple's Boot Camp. Fortunately, someone we only know as Nja247 has posted this walkthrough at a Geocities page that guides Mac users through every step in getting a 32-bit version of Windows Vista running on a Mac. The walkthrough delves into nearly every essential step, including stripping the necessary drivers off the CD that Boot Camp creates because Apple's auto-installer for Windows breaks in Vista.Don't get the wrong idea though: we still agree with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology in saying no to Vista. Per our duties as card-carrying Mac users and bloggers, however, we still need to tinker with a few things to make sure we're staying on top of what Redmond is up to. Kinda like Ze Frank says: we're testing Vista, so you don't have to.
The Power of Mac or a Pointless Use of Parallels
Okay, I'll admit right up front that this is completely pointless, but nonetheless it's a nice demonstration of the power of OS X (with Parallels). Jaanus over at Skype realized they have released clients for four platforms: OS X, Windows, Linux, and Windows Mobile. He started wondering if it would be possible to run all four at the same time. Turns out, thanks to Parallels, it is. He set up two Parallels virtual machines (one for Windows and one for Linux), then within the Windows VM he ran the Windows Mobile emulator. He had a little trouble with the WM version, but eventually even got that working. Behold the Power of Mac! Also, check out his screenshot on Flickr for full notes.[Via Download Squad]
Parallels Desktop comes out of beta, update available
It's taken its time cutting its teeth in beta and release candidate versions, but it looks like Parallels has finally grown up, emerging today in its "final version" -- that is, until the inevitable round of non-beta updates begin. Those that have been dealing with the various betas won't find too many surprises in this new version, however, with familiar features like Coherence's seamless application integration and Vista support making an appearance in presumably more stable states. Current Parallels users don't have much to lose with the update though, as its available as a free download for anyone that's already paid their dues. Everyone else can either try out a free 15-day trial or fork over the $80 for the full version. In either case, be prepared to wait in line -- last we checked, Parallels' site was having having some serious trouble coping with the demand.[Via Infinite Loop]
Parallels Desktop for Mac Release Candidate 3
The Parallels team today issued Release Candidate 3 of Parallels Desktop, their virtualization software that we've mentioned once or twice. While their announcement blog post only touts two major new features (the ability to seamlessly upgrade a WinXP VM to Vista & a more secure file sharing process between OSes), the beta testing page has quite a bit more to say. A lot of features have been enhanced in RC3, such as better Boot Camp support, ever-enhanced USB support and a new Transporter bundle, but one hidden gem is of particular interest: Parallels Desktop is now ready for the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. To be clear: this doesn't mean you can virtualize Leopard in Parallels Desktop - you can run Parallels Desktop on a Leopard machine. Head on over to the beta page for all the details and to grab a copy of the new release.
Parallels Desktop for Mac beta build hits Release Candidate 2
It's a sign of the times that only a few days after the consumer release of Windows Vista we're able to talk about a new version of Parallels Desktop that, amongst other new features, improves the experience of running Microsoft's OS on a Mac. This latest beta build (3150, up from the previously released 3036) adds some pretty essential features like full USB 2.0 support, full support for CD and DVD burning within virtual machines, support for conversion of VMware and Virtual PC virtual hard disks to Parallels, true drag and drop functionality, and a new look and feel that meshes more effectively with OS X. On top of these changes, Parallels has improved the Coherence mode (which allows you to run Windows within OS X without switching desktops) so that you can use the dock icon as a start menu, and the use of a Boot Camp partition as a virtual machine. That's a whole lot of improvements for a beta upgrade -- which will currently only accept U.S. serial numbers: live anywhere else and you have to slum it with the 30 day free trial -- although one demographic still won't be happy. Full support for DirectX still hasn't been implemented, so any gamers hoping to ditch that gaming PC (or merely an annoying reboot) will have to continue waiting for the release that does. For all the people out there who like to get things done with their computer, the 40MB download is free, so what are you waiting for?[Thanks, Chuwy]
Vista EULA forbids virtualization
TUAW reader Rae pointed us to this post on the Parallels Virtualization blog, which confirms details of the end user license agreement that came to light last Autumn. Microsoft's EULA specifically forbids using Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium with virtualization technologies. This means that if you want to run Vista on Parallels, and want to keep within the terms of the EULA, you'll need to buy either the Business or Ultimate versions, whose EULAs allow for virtualized use. After public outcry, Microsoft did change the EULA at least once before to allow users to deinstall their version from one computer and reinstall it on another. Hopefully, a similar grass roots movement will encourage Microsoft to rethink their stance on virtualization for their lower-end Vista releases.
Vista on the Mac
Wired Magazine's blog has a post about why Mac users may want to run Vista. Mac machines, it says, are great for running Vista, particularly with its demanding specifications. The author is a bit Wincentric, so take that into account while reading about how Vista makes OS X look "dated". But think about it. We have Boot Camp and we have Parallels, so why put off upgrading to Vista? Being Mac users, it's far less of a risk because we can always retreat back to OS X to get the real work done if the new OS has problems. Virtual machines make it simple to try out different configurations and compartmentalize your work life--as if you owned many different computers at once. Sure, Apple's commercials may visualize "PC" as going to the hospital for major surgery to get his Vista upgrade, but for Mac users, it's as simple as adding a new virtual machine in Parallels.
