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February 28, 2007

windows

Parallels finally gets Boot Camp support right

Posted Feb. 28, ’07, 5:23 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Windows

Parallels Desktop Huzzah! I was skeptical when I saw that the latest version of Parallels Desktop reached final status. Every beta version “supporting Boot Camp” up until this point has been a thorough failure for me. First it didn’t play nice with Boot Camp on its own disk (in a Mac Pro). Then it would just sit there maxing out the processor.

I was beginning to feel foolish having already paid for a license. I set up a virtual machine for use with my Boot Camp partition (that had already been trashed by an earlier beta as far as I could tell). Parallels got all the way to the user login screen and I couldn’t move the pointer. I got a tad upset. I was gearing up for a nasty-gram. I decided to try the keyboard before I did and luckily, it worked. It allowed me to finish the Parallels tools install.

Once that finished, it restarted the VM and to my pleasant surprise, the mouse returned. Everything is now working perfectly. I’m now really happy I spent the money. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by the quality of betas by other developers, but it’s a new experience having to wait for final releases to get an actually usable version. The only test left is to make sure booting into my Boot Camp partition still works. I’m fully expecting it to work now, but if it doesn’t, you can bring the cheese. I’ll supply the whine.


3 Comments

stefan said:

Do you know nothing about software development?, beta builds are buggy due to them not being final builds duh!

February 28, 2007 1:04 PM
Jason Author Profile Page said:

Welcome, Daring Fireball readers!

I think Derik's point is that during the betas, this feature was claimed to have been added, but he never got it to work. Not that betas don't have bugs, but that this was one beta "feature" that he never got to work, which made him worried about if it would ever work in the final version. But it does -- so whatever happened on the road from beta to GM, they squashed Derik's bug.

Note the "perhaps I'm spoiled" section in the post's final paragraph.

February 28, 2007 1:53 PM
Ed Wrenbeck said:

I started using a MacBook Pro about a month ago with the Parallels beta. About the only strangeness I have experienced using my BootCamp partition is that sometimes I have to try and start the Windows VM twice before it will start. Other than that, its been working perfectly. About the only real issue I have is that Parallels creates a single gigantic screen to the Windows OS when running on Multiple monitors. So, when one monitor has a higher vertical resolution than the other it acts a little whacky. (I'm talking about using Coherence mode here) Other than that issue, which I expect is probably not fixed in the gold release, Parallels has been terrific in beta form. Maybe some of the very early betas really screwed your windows paritiion, it might have been in your best interest to format and re-install.

BTW - I have Parallels running all day every day with the BootCamp partition since some of the tools I use at work are Win only. I really have a lot of hours logged with the beta.

February 28, 2007 1:59 PM

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