Parallels beta makes Coherence more coherent

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 28 August 2007 02:01

Business IT - Technology

A new beta of Parallels Desktop for Mac 3.0 provides tighter integration between Windows and the Mac OS X host. For example, the Mac OS X Desktop, Documents, Pictures and Music folders can be used as the Desktop, My Documents, My Pictures and My Music folders in Windows. There may be some circumstances where users prefer to maintain separate sets of folders in the two operating systems, but given that Parallel's existing Coherence mode allows for Mac and Windows programs to run alongside each other (instead of restricting Windows to a single virtual screen inside one Mac window), this could be much more convenient than the traditional shared folder.

On the subject of Coherence, improvements include allowing Windows applications to be minimised to the Dock, support for Exposé (an Apple technology that among other things reveals all open windows to allow selection  of any one of them with a mouse click), and the ability to silently boot into Coherence mode. The latter is a cosmetic point, but if you want to work in Coherence mode, why should you be forced to watch a Windows desktop appear?

Being able to change sound devices on the fly is one of those improvements that is a big deal for some users while others couldn't care less. If you need it, you'll be very pleased it's arrived. The ability to connect an iPhone to the Windows version of iTunes probably falls into the same camp.

On the administrative side, the beta allows Linux PC and virtual machine migration via the Transporter utility, and changes to a virtual machine's disk format via the enhanced Parallels Image Tool.

The company claims "significant improvements to CPU usage, overall performance, and memory management." The beta also supports more than 4G of RAM for multiple virtual machines.

When finalised, the update will be free to existing customers. Parallels Desktop for Mac currently costs $US79.99.