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Parallels preps major update to Windows virtualization software - Page 3

post #81 of 99
12/3/06 at 2:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steiner

I stopped using PCs 11 years ago, and never looked back since.

Nowerdays I don't need them for work or play. Basically never had need but now that I got a new MBP and the prospects of running Parallels makes it appealing just for the fun of it and to see what we can do with it.

How affected does windows get by viruses through Parallels? Is it as bad as on normal PS systems?

YES.
I can't help feeling a bit concerned when Mac users who have never had to deal with viruses install Windows under Parallels or Boot Camp and continue to be as lax in their Windows environment...
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post #82 of 99
12/4/06 at 12:30am
Apologies for cross-posting but I know a few members from different threads were interested in this.

First off the block: Fujitsu reveals realtime hardware-encoding of H.264. Woot.
http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/p...061130-01.html

Max res though is 1440 x 1080 , with 1920 x 1080 planned. 90nm LSI (large-scale integrated circuit).
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post #83 of 99
12/4/06 at 12:38am
Above info thanks to hardmac.com who also recommends the x264 codec for H.264 encoding via quicktime, claims faster, better, more options, etc. Should be for OSX, Universal Binary, AFAIK. Link here: https://developer.berlios.de/projects/x264qtcodec/
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post #84 of 99
12/4/06 at 7:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kupan787

Ya, getting the graphics card away from the OS might be impossible. Everything is abstracted now-a-days, so that direct hardware access is pretty hard without some kind of ugly hacks (if not impossible). I just took an Operating Systems class last semester, and we talked about this some what.

I wish I could find that post by Programmer from a year or so ago. What he said made a lot of sense, and he said it was very feasible to do. All I can remember was his suggestion involved a quasi-driver in Windows that pumped graphics calls to OS X...or something like that (I am probably not doing any justice to his post).

There are a lot of guys who responded to this. It's a big guestion.

I don't think it's as easy as some might think though.

The guys at SoftWindows, VPC, and, yes, MS, are very smart, knowledgable programmers. The guys at Parallels are certainly at least as good.

So far, none of those actually WORKING on the problem have figured out a solution. That should tell us something. It's interesting to see some whole, and partial, solutions proposed here, but I would think that if they could work, they would have been implimented long ago.

If Apple can figure out a way, in 10.5, to allow third party software to run around their own solutions for the purpose of allowing Parallels, or others to fix this problem, hopefully they will do it, unless they feel it will cause other problems.
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post #85 of 99
12/4/06 at 1:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross

...The guys at SoftWindows, VPC, and, yes, MS, are very smart, knowledgable programmers. The guys at Parallels are certainly at least as good...

At this stage for [MacOSX -- WinXP2/WinVista] Parallels is on the cutting edge.

1. Coherence no less than a stunning and groundbreaking, albeit Mac-UI-fracking-up, technology. We'd never have imagined this 5, or even 2 years ago. Images:







2. At least for non-3D graphics, 2D windows, web browsing, etc, Parallels has upped the "snappiness" of Windows virtualised interface. 3D of course is an issue particularly full simulation of DirectX9.0c (not DirectX10 at this stage) as Aero works best on DirectX9.0c with 128mb VRAM, AFAIK.

3. Yes, I think Parallels is working hard on "2D snappiness" but they've *definitely* got some of their best people working on the 3D stuff. Coherence demonstrates that Parallels can "subsume" (hide) the virtualised OS workings and draw separate Windows screens to a Mac desktop -- (or re-simulate the Mac desktop within the Parallels application). 3D calls has been discussed extensively but the path of least resistance seems to be a thorough knowledge of DirectX9.0c and soon DirectX10 and translating that into OpenGL -- so that MacOSX basically has just has a queue of OpenGL calls (Core Image, Quartz Extreme, etc, whatever...) to draw out windows, 3D stuff, etc.

4. It is conceivable that within 2 years we can see a recent Direct9.0c or (DirectX10 on the latest MacPro) PC game running in windowed mode alongside other Windows windows and MacOSX windows. And full support of snazzy 3D transitions of both Windows windows and MacOSX stuff while the PC game is running in a window or fullscreen, whatever.

5. Maybe in 3 years or less GPUs will allow openGL and DirectX "multithreading" or something but for now as discussed this is not possible so MacOSX OpenGL, (Quartz Extreme, etc...) is the "gateway" through which all 3D drawing has to occur.

6. I've been sketchy on details and there certainly might be some mistakes (the 3D question has been intensely debated here), but just trying to grab a whollistic view of things, inspired by what I see with Coherence on Parallels Desktop.

7. Windows2000 windows alongside MacOSX is totally fugly though, I have to say. I have some analogies in mind but nothing that would do justice to how aesthetically upsetting it is.
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post #86 of 99
12/4/06 at 2:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunilraman

At this stage for [MacOSX -- WinXP2/WinVista] Parallels is on the cutting edge.

1. Coherence no less than a stunning and groundbreaking, albeit Mac-UI-fracking-up, technology. We'd never have imagined this 5, or even 2 years ago. Images:

Didn't VirtualPC allow Windows software go into the dock and such?

The XP version would look decent if they switched it to the "Silver" theme.
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post #87 of 99
12/5/06 at 9:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunilraman

At this stage for [MacOSX -- WinXP2/WinVista] Parallels is on the cutting edge.

1. Coherence no less than a stunning and groundbreaking, albeit Mac-UI-fracking-up, technology. We'd never have imagined this 5, or even 2 years ago. Images:







2. At least for non-3D graphics, 2D windows, web browsing, etc, Parallels has upped the "snappiness" of Windows virtualised interface. 3D of course is an issue particularly full simulation of DirectX9.0c (not DirectX10 at this stage) as Aero works best on DirectX9.0c with 128mb VRAM, AFAIK.

3. Yes, I think Parallels is working hard on "2D snappiness" but they've *definitely* got some of their best people working on the 3D stuff. Coherence demonstrates that Parallels can "subsume" (hide) the virtualised OS workings and draw separate Windows screens to a Mac desktop -- (or re-simulate the Mac desktop within the Parallels application). 3D calls has been discussed extensively but the path of least resistance seems to be a thorough knowledge of DirectX9.0c and soon DirectX10 and translating that into OpenGL -- so that MacOSX basically has just has a queue of OpenGL calls (Core Image, Quartz Extreme, etc, whatever...) to draw out windows, 3D stuff, etc.

4. It is conceivable that within 2 years we can see a recent Direct9.0c or (DirectX10 on the latest MacPro) PC game running in windowed mode alongside other Windows windows and MacOSX windows. And full support of snazzy 3D transitions of both Windows windows and MacOSX stuff while the PC game is running in a window or fullscreen, whatever.

5. Maybe in 3 years or less GPUs will allow openGL and DirectX "multithreading" or something but for now as discussed this is not possible so MacOSX OpenGL, (Quartz Extreme, etc...) is the "gateway" through which all 3D drawing has to occur.

6. I've been sketchy on details and there certainly might be some mistakes (the 3D question has been intensely debated here), but just trying to grab a whollistic view of things, inspired by what I see with Coherence on Parallels Desktop.

7. Windows2000 windows alongside MacOSX is totally fugly though, I have to say. I have some analogies in mind but nothing that would do justice to how aesthetically upsetting it is.

That's a lot of "perhaps", and "maybe's".

Parallels can up the performance with better programming. No doubt of that. With the swamp of PPC to Intel conversion out of the way, much performance benefits results. It makes their job easier all around, as most of their time isn't spend attempting to rewrite ppc to Intel conversions for greater efficiency. They can spend more time on graphics enhancement.

But, that doesn't mean that they can eliminate problems that are possibly intractable. And Jeff is right, a great deal of this has been done sucessfully before, about 20 years before!

Some of it (Coherence) wasn't possible, as Apple couldn't have a Boot Camp program with a PPC chip. so Parallels'taking advantage of that for their own use is not such a big breakthrough, as no one was ever able to try it before. It simply became something "to do" on their list, after more important matters had been taken care of.

2D "snappiness" is not such a big deal. It's the 3D functions that are. And that has managed to elude everyone, with no guarantee that they can do it either.
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post #88 of 99
12/5/06 at 11:04pm
Can anyone tell me if this version available for downloading from their site, is fully functional without any limitations?
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post #89 of 99
12/5/06 at 11:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cool11

Can anyone tell me if this version available for downloading from their site, is fully functional without any limitations?


All you had to do was to type parallels into the Google box, and you would have seen this at the top.

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/

Look to the left side where it says overview. Near the bottom of the column you will see Download Free Trial. Yes, it's fully functional.

Have fun!
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post #90 of 99
12/6/06 at 1:19am
melgross thank you. Is there any time limitation? What does it mean 'free trial' for parallels' product?
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post #91 of 99
12/6/06 at 4:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by cool11

melgross thank you. Is there any time limitation? What does it mean 'free trial' for parallels' product?

I think you get to use it for thirty days before you are asked to buy.
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post #92 of 99
12/6/06 at 8:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by cool11

melgross thank you. Is there any time limitation? What does it mean 'free trial' for parallels' product?

On the download page it says that the free trial activation key is good for 15 days.

http://www.parallels.com/en/download/desktop/
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post #93 of 99
12/9/06 at 7:28am
Can you please tell me if I can use peripherals like scanners,printers etc using windows inside parallels?
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post #94 of 99
12/9/06 at 10:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cool11

Can you please tell me if I can use peripherals like scanners,printers etc using windows inside parallels?

For printers you should have a look at:
http://forum.parallels.com/thread2549.html

"...........If you look under Mac Help, there's a topic on Sharing your printer with Windows users. This is where they recommend using the installing the Bonjour Printer Wizard in Windows - I tried it and it worked beautifully. (Note: Bonjour uses the Generic/Postscript printer driver - apparently this is part of the key to getting the printer to work, as opposed to installing your own printer driver.) The help file also gives an alternative method of printer sharing using SMB/CFIS (I have no idea what that is), which also indicates that you need to use the Postscript printer driver to get the printer to work with Windows.

You can download Bonjour for Windows at http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...indows103.html

Apparently this is not a problem with the Parallels software itself, but a standard Mac/Windows printer sharing thing (since Mac Help addresses it).................."
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post #95 of 99
12/9/06 at 10:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cool11

Can you please tell me if I can use peripherals like scanners,printers etc using windows inside parallels?

It's a bit hit-and-miss at this stage, though for printers at least the Shared Printer approach described above should work.
I guess that's what the download trial is for. Good luck. 8) Let us know how things go.
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post #96 of 99
12/9/06 at 10:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cool11

Can you please tell me if I can use peripherals like scanners,printers etc using windows inside parallels?

If your scanners and printers are supported in Mac OS X, do you really need to use them through Windows-in-Parallels? ... Just wondering ...
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post #97 of 99
12/10/06 at 4:29am
My printer -canon pixma 4000-has mac os x driver, but my scanner is quite old (hp) and has no mac os x driver. So I hoped there is a solution through parallels.
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post #98 of 99
12/21/06 at 2:49pm
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/29555

How come this version is available on version tracker and macfix it website but no mention on parallels.com website. Has anyone else seen this? Is this beta version or final production version?
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post #99 of 99
12/21/06 at 5:47pm
Did you try clicking the Developer's Site link on the VersionTracker product page?
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