Parallels Desktop beta: Faster graphics, CD/DVD burn and the marvelous Coherence Mode

In part to answer VMware's announcement of its Fusion Mac virtualization software public beta, and in part to doll itself up for Macworld Expo, Parallels released a beta version (actually, two betas in rapid succession) of its Desktop client virtualization solution for Intel Macs. I've been keeping up with the betas, and on those features that matter most to me, Parallels has made an exceptional showing in its pre-release.

You know that I've been using Parallels not only to virtualize Windows XP under OS X Tiger, but also using it to run Windows 2003 Server as a guest os OS X Tiger Server. I had written an entire post on the toughest part of the process, namely, the migration to Parallels Desktop of an existing Windows system. My recommendation was to use a copy of Parallels Workstation for Windows to create the virtual drive image, then copy that image to the Mac. Parallels is working to take the pain out of the physical-to-virtual migration process with a new module called Transporter.

Transporter, which will be bundled with Parallels Desktop, installs a remote agent on the Windows machine being migrated. The agent pipes the Windows systems' contents and settings into Parallels, which constructs a matching virtual machine on-the-fly. It functions like any agent-based enterprise backup utility you've used. If you like, you can bypass the network pipe by directing Transporter to build your new VM on removable media. Parallels also merged its existing migration technology into Transporter, allowing users to create new Parallels Desktop VMs by importing proprietary virtual disk images directly from VMware or Microsoft Virtual PC running on Windows. And of course, a VM image that works with Parallels Workstation for Windows functions identically when copied to a Mac and launched with Parallels Desktop.

One of my prime complaints with client virtualization is display performance. With the exception of MacBook and Mac mini, Mac systems incorporate graphics technology that would be a pricey upgrade for mainstream clients, especially notebooks. With all this speed, it's nerve-racking to me that even the impotent Windows XP GUI draws and refreshes so slowly in virtualization that I find it unusable except when I absolutely need it. Parallels seems to feel my pain. Among its claims for its beta releases is "improved graphic performance--up to 50 percent faster!" I can't speak to the speed-up quantitatively, but I really feel the difference. My guess is that Parallels is handling some buffered screen refreshes without waiting for the monitor to start drawing from the top of a new page. For example, when you're copying a set of files in Windows, a progress dialog can appear with an animation of sheets of paper being blown from one file folder to another. While I was testing the Parallels Desktop beta, the load on my system caused guest OS screen refreshes to fall behind. Desktop caught up by blasting the animated frames it had missed in rapid fire, disregarding the programmed pace of the animation. When the display caught up, the animation returned to its normal timing. This will do nothing to improve game play, but I expect that many desktop apps, especially those with transitions and coordinated moving graphics, will benefit.

Parallels Desktop now passes the old-school acid test of display performance: You can grab the title bar of a large window and shake it violently around the screen (with "show window contents while dragging") without seeing any tears or lagging in the image.