Most requested Parallels features

[Chas]

3D and USB

If you have to choose one:

My first thought was that if I were Parallels, 3D would be far and away priority one. 3D of course gets you the gamers. But aren't the most serious gamers going to stay with the PC anyways. Most of them are avid, hard-core modders, something the Mac platform does not lend itself to. No 3D in Parallels is one of the reasons I'm holding off getting a MacBook Pro. (I'm using it on the Mini.)

But I believe lack of USB 2.0 is more likely to hold back corporate/perfrofessional purchases of Parallels. IT reviewing/recommending/purchasing is mostly what I get paid for. Without USB 2.0, I can only recommend Parallels with reservation.

 

[Keith Clarke]

I voted for 3D graphics support but would also like a larger shared clipboard, with graphics capability - maybe this us the drag & drop feature?!?

In the various 3D graphics threads there are discussions sbout security risks of allowing the guest VM to access hardware directly but I'd be happy to have user choice in this.

 

[diamondsw]

The way snapshots work, is that changes are written to a different file, and reads are two stage: First look to see if the block has been modified, and if so, read from the snapshot file, and if not, read from the main image. this slows down both reads and writes, and may be a high price to pay for those who don't need it, so it has to be an option, and may not be needed by enough people to be worth implementing. You trade the time and space to make a copy (and the space need not stay on line) against the execution time increase and on line space for the modified blocks.

A late response, but you may be able to get what you want via disk images with shadow files. See http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-22694.html for example.

 

[rukiddin]

Default Numlock option???

I'm not sure if this has been posted anywhere, but I do a lot of number crunching on the PC applications and it's just aggravating that I can't select to have the numlock key on as default (or the "clear" key)

This isn't as big as some of the other requests, but I have to figure it would be easier to implement and almost all PC bios' support this ability.

Just my 2 cents.

Mike

 

[shaneblyth]

Firewire should be on the list.
Basically whatever hardware comes standard with every Mac should eventually be support in my opinion. Thats why I feel that it was a bit of an oversite to miss it off the voting list.

I see with the new Beta that alot of the items on the list have actually been addressed at least to one level.

My list is USB 2.0 full support, Firewire Support then Full 3D support
The new beta is awesome and if we could get those 3 elements working properly in the next 6-9 months that would be awesome and as a paying customer I would definitley be very happy to pay for an upgrade or even give a voluntery donation.
What we have already is amazing
You guys are the best..

 

[BladeRunner]

I would reword "Boot Camp Support" to read:

Support using any selected physical disk partition - internal or external - as a virtual system drive, including the one used to boot the virtual system.

That would be my first choice for the next addition.

 

[constant]

.
It seems that the two on top of the list, which are now available, were Parallels' top choices.

Hopefully the next two to be available, will be the customers' top choices.
.

 

[tgrogan]

Firewire should be on the list.
Basically whatever hardware comes standard with every Mac should eventually be support in my opinion. Thats why I feel that it was a bit of an oversite to miss it off the voting list.

To expand on your request, I think that every possible bit of hardware in the universe of windoze should be fully supported first - because there are 9 times more windoze users than there are mac users, and the majority should rule first and the lackies should follow as they get the droppings.

 

[tgrogan]

Support using any selected physical disk partition - internal or external - as a virtual system drive, including the one used to boot the virtual system..

And if you only understood the ramifications of your request. I'm sure that your only perspective is from the self-contained Mac world, so you have possibly never contemplated the requirements of your demand. It might even suprise you to note that this functionality doesn't really exist in a virtualization product except VMware and they rightfully so insist that it is not supported due to the very obvious fact that interaction with the host's disk drivers is problematic at best. No one has really done it for Linux where the disk I/O code is open to view by any vendor. Why do you suppose that a system even more closed than windoze could ever allow such interaction?

 

[Sean.winmac]

.
Snapshots are just not needed. Setup a cron job to copy the .pvs file as often as you like.
.

As I understand it, Snapshot, as it exists within VMWare, allows for a branch-off from a particular state in the VM, from which additional installs can take place.
Example
Core: base install of XP (this is where the Snapshot would branch)
Branch-1: office 2003
Branch-2: office 2007
branch-2: Word Perfect X3

Each branch shares the core, so effectively taking approximately 1/3 the space with the ability to [|]Snapshot[/|].

 

[dschneiter]

Specifying installation directory on Mac

Currently only the volume can be specified when installing Parallels Desktop on MacOS X. The application itself then gets installed into the "Applications" folder. It's not possible to choose another installation directory such as "My Applications".

Please add an option to also choose/select a directory.

 

[thenewbf]

Exposé + Coherence

Would it be possible to get Exposé more integrated with Coherence mode? What I mean is would it be possible to treat all the Windows apps as OS X apps, instead of treating them as part of the Parallels app when using Exposé? Would it also be possible to port over to the Parallels environment the Exposé and Dashboard shortcuts, such as F9 to F12, or Mighty Mouse buttons? It would be appreciated.

 

[airolson]

Two more cents for 3D here. You guys & gals have done an utterly fantastic job so far, but to be able to develop and test XNA code in Parallels would be a dream come true for me, not to mention being able to run other games.

Beta3 is wonderful by the way.

 

[apple85]

Well I voted for USB 2.0
But I'd also like 3D Graphics Support, iSight Support

 

[COKlondike]

As I understand it, Snapshot, as it exists within VMWare, allows for a branch-off from a particular state in the VM, from which additional installs can take place.
Example
Core: base install of XP (this is where the Snapshot would branch)
Branch-1: office 2003
Branch-2: office 2007
branch-2: Word Perfect X3

Each branch shares the core, so effectively taking approximately 1/3 the space with the ability to [|]Snapshot[/|].

At 30-40 GB per image, I can't copy it repeatedly. Snapshots take around 2GB each (much less than 1/3). As for performance questions - it's only an issue if you take a snapshot, and even then it's very small.

Snapshots are critical for non-gaming use. I currently use the competition on Windows to build demonstration environments for software packages. There's a core installation, with a seperate snapshot for each customer containing specific data/configuration for that demo. In addition, the snapshot allows me to revert the machine to a previous state, thus ensuring that I have consistent data for the demo. We also use VM's for training - a simple revert returns the machine to a known 'clean' state at the beginning of each class.

I'd love to get off Windows as the host to improve performance and stability, but without snapshots Parallels just won't work - and I do know that the competitor will have snapshots in their product. Maybe I'll just have to wait until summer when it's released, but I'd rather support a mac-friendly company.

Please Parallels - add snapshots!

 

[JimTomlinson]

What about dual monitor support?

The "Full Dual Monitor Support" thread has more posts than any other Wish List thread, and it didn't even make the poll? What's up with that? Is this a poll on what people want, or to just prioritize those features Paralllel's is willing to implement?

- Jim Tomlinson

 

[Hiohokaybye]

i'm hoping parallels support the 3d graphic and more video memory, i have wanted to play game on my mac sooo bad. And also i hope you can change the amount of the GHz.