Brief Hands-On Report--Parallels Desktop for Mac 3.0 (Build 4124) is Out

Parallels released Desktop for Mac 3.0 (Build 4124) and it is available for download from the Parallels Web site. What you get is a trial copy but it can be converted to a full version (activated) by entering your registration key obtained from Parallels.

We downloaded version 3.0, uninstalled version 2.5, installed version 3.0 and restarted. Then we entered the registration key obtained from Parallels by paying $39.95 for the upgrade during the discount period, all without a problem.

We opened our virtual machines running Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate and XP SP2. Both OS's popped dialog boxes indicating that new hardware had been found and asked to install drivers and both popped competing dialog boxes for updating Parallels Tools. Vista also popped a dialog box for Windows Live Care. We dismissed the hardware and Live Care dialog boxes and installed Parallels Tools. Vista, of course, took a very long time, asking for okays to install each new driver and taking a long time to restart. XP installed Parallels Tools very fast and also restarted very quickly.

We used both virtual machines for a short period of time and ran across no issues. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]