Parallels boosts speed, features in Desktop 6 for Mac

Stephen Withers
Friday, 17 September 2010 08:34

Business IT - Technology

The latest version of Parallels Desktop 6 delivers increased performance and additional features to the virtual machine software for Mac OS X. One of those new features is remote access from an iPad.

Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac, the latest version of Parallels virtual machine software for Mac OS X, delivers "the best performance and stability on the market," vice president of marketing and business development John Eng told iTWire. He said the software is 40% faster than its predecessor in normal operation and around twice as fast as VMware Fusion. This has been achieved in part by taking full advantage of the Mac's 64-bit capabilities.

New functionality includes support for 5.1 audio (if 5.1 hardware is connected and working, it becomes available to Windows without requiring additional drivers). Improvements to DirectX support allow the use of a wider variety of games.

Manageability and security have been addressed by extending Parental Control to Windows, providing for the encryption of virtual machines, and making VMs Time Machine friendly by ensuring they are ready when Time Machine runs and by only backing up snapshots (incremental changes) rather than the complete VM file every time.

Desktop 6 also includes Kaspersky Internet Security 2011, Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Mac, Acronis True Image Home 2010, and Acronis Disk Director 2011 Home. A 90-day subscription is provided for the Kaspersky products.

There's also a free iPad/iPhone/iPod touch app available from the App Store to remotely access VMs running on Desktop 6. The idea is that the app is simpler to set up than a general-purpose VNC (or similar) client, with Parallels providing a proxy so you don't need to worry about IP addresses.

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