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May 31, 2007

windows

Exciting features for Parallels Desktop 3.0

Posted May. 31, ’07, 2:42 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen
Category | Windows

parallels30.jpg

Parallels today announced new and thrilling capabilities for the next big version of Parallels Desktop. Version 3.0 of the virtualization software should be available in the next few weeks, for an upgrade cost of $49.99 for existing users ($10 less if you pay before next Thursday).

So what does the extra 50 bucks get you? The biggest and most anticipated feature is without a doubt 3D graphics acceleration with support for both OpenGL and DirectX. 3D games will be finally compatible with Parallels, pretty much eliminating the need to keep a Boot Camp partition for serious gaming. We’ll need to wait and see how well it actually works, but it looks very exciting.

Continuing the trend of integrating Windows and Mac OS X, 3.0 also adds “SmartSelect”: this will allow you to open files from either OS with apps on either OS. Basically, you could open a Word file from your Mac with the Windows version of Word, or open a JPEG from your Windows virtual machine with Preview. Combined with Coherence mode, this further blurs the line between OSes, for better or worse. Speaking of Coherence, that will see some refinement as well.

Parallels Desktop will still cost $79.99 for a full license, and the website shows additional new features of version 3.0.


6 Comments

Corey McLaughlin said:

Is it me or does this program not see both processors on my MacBook Pro and only see's 16mb of video RAM?

May 31, 2007 3:35 PM
Michael Schuermann said:

Interestingly, the blurb below the 3D Gaming snapshot says "Vista Aero coming soon". To me this means that the 3D still can't handle DirectX 9 level graphics, which means that a whole bunch of the games of the last couple years will not work at all in Parallels... or at least won't work all that well....

May 31, 2007 4:59 PM
Ponderer said:

Considering that the Parallels blog stated that they played Quake 4 all day under 3.0 (and I believe that's solidly DirectX 9), it sounds like they have at least that level of functionality going.

May 31, 2007 9:15 PM
Jim Pick said:

Damn. I just bought my license 5 weeks ago, and they want me to pay for an upgrade?

May 31, 2007 9:30 PM
Kelmon said:

Ordered. The offline access to files stored under Windows sounds damned useful and the ability to set file types to be opened by applications running on another OS sounds like a boon since I always use TextMate to open text files (good bye Windows Notepad!).

With respect to the 3D graphics performance, this will be interesting to see but given that the website is showing a screenshot from Quake 4 (not sure why since an OS X version is available) I think it is safe to say that DirectX 9 is supported. The lack of Windows Vista Aero support is odd but I'd rather hack my leg off than try Vista again under Parallels so I'm not bothered. I'm more interested to see how well games run under Parallels at this moment since I only use Boot Camp to play Dawn of War at the moment.

May 31, 2007 11:12 PM
aj said:

Will I be able to use iSight with MSN? It's the only reason I use BootCamp.

June 1, 2007 4:40 AM

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