Parallels Workstation 6

[MS Bob 11]

Another commercial but great alternative to VMware Workstation, Oracle VirtualBox and Windows Virtual PC.

Parallels Workstation 6 is a major upgrade to Parallels' award-winning software for running multiple guest operating systems on a physical computer.

What's New

This version of Parallels Workstation 6 includes the following new features and enhancements:

Performance:

- Improved overall performance and stability.

- 64-bit virtual machine process improves performance of virtual machines, especially those with more than 1

GB of memory.

- Virtual CPU now supports NX bit (No eXecute), which allows enabling Data Execution Prevention (DEP)

in Windows.

- Controlled Native Execution (CNE): virtualization without hardware assisted support.

- Intel AES-NI support for virtual machines running on physical computers with Intel Core i5 and i7

processors.

- Intel VT-x2 (VPIDs, EPT and FlexPriority) support for better virtual machine performance.

- KVM Paravirtualization ensures improved performance of paravirtualized Linux guest OSs.

- Access to virtual machines and their applications from anywhere in the world using Parallels Mobile for

iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

- Reduced CPU usage.

- Improved disk I/O performance ? up to 35% faster Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP virtual

machines.

- Faster Windows startup and shutdown.

- Improved performance of operations with snapshots.

- Faster resuming of paused and suspended virtual machines.

- Better performance of Linux virtual machines.

- Increased Windows guest OS boot speed.

- Better support for virtual machines with large amounts of memory.

- Run virtual machines in the background without Parallels Workstation interface.

- Start a virtual machine automatically on host and application start.

- Snapshots/suspended state can now be compressed to save disk space.

- Manage virtual machines remotely using Parallels Management Console.

Virtual Devices:

- Virtual SATA interface support for hard disk drives of newly created virtual machines.

- Virtual SATA interface support for CD/DVD drives of virtual machines.

- Support for the Intel Pro/1000 (e1000) network interface for faster network performance and compatibility.

- Virtual USB mouse for smooth transition between the host and guest operating systems even when Parallels

Tools are not installed.

- Faster input and navigation operations due to the new virtual USB keyboard technology.

- Improved handling of keyboard modifiers and system shortcuts when working in the host and guest

operating systems.

- Increased USB speed.

- Improved USB compatibility.

- Automatic compression: virtual HDD size is automatically reduced when unused space grows.

- Support for IPv6, the next-generation version of the Internet Protocol.

User Interface:

- Improved user interface with a new look and feel. - Improved performance of the Coherence view mode.

- Redesigned, simplified Virtual Machine Configuration dialog.

- Automatic SmartGuard snapshots taken after a timeout.

- Parallels Image Tool now integrated into the main application?s Virtual Machine Configuration dialog.

- Import of third-party virtual machines now accessible from the main application?s File > Open menu.

- Parallels Transporter now accessible through the Import Virtual Machines option on the Welcome screen or

the File > Import menu.

- The Num Lock key was added to the Send Keys menu.

Integration:

- The virtual machine screen scales when its window is resized even if Parallels Tools are not installed or

inactive.

- "Formatted text" and "Shared Clipboard" options can now be disabled via the Virtual Machine

Configuration dialog.

- In the Full Screen view mode, active screen corners now display the actions assigned to them.

- Improved Drag & Drop performance for Windows guest OSs.

- Improved Shared Profile performance.

- Copy & Paste formatted text between Windows and Linux guest OSs.

- Copy & Paste pictures between Windows and Linux guest OSs.

- Drag & Drop images between the host and guest OS applications.

- Share guest OS applications with the host OS: open host OS documents in guest OS applications.

- Virtual machines pause automatically when no guest OS applications are running.

- Significantly improved performance of Shared Folders.

- Shared Clipboard for Linux guest OSs.

For Switchers:

- Import Virtual Box 3.1.2 and 3.1.4 virtual machines.

- Faster and smoother import of VMware, Virtual PC, and VirtualBox virtual machines.

Continue at source: http://download.para...Workstation.pdf

Website: http://www.parallels...ts/workstation/