Release: VMware Fusion 3.1 Beta Now Available

djlaube — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:10:49 +0000

VMware Fusion 3.1 Beta was released. It does list a lot of stability updates and bug fixes, however the feedback on the Fusion beta forums are not that great. If you update, leave a comment on how things work for you!

From the VMware Fusion Blog:
The VMware Fusion 3.1 Beta is now available at http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/fusion.

This beta software includes 10+ new and improved features including:

More Powerful Graphics Performance for Games & 3D Apps: OpenGL 2.1 support for Windows Vista and Windows 7, DirectX 9.0 SM3 performance improvements, Windows Aero performance improvements, better OpenGL compatibility for modeling apps
Improved USB Support: USB “EasyConnect” makes it simple to assign a USB device to a virtual machine or your Mac and then remembers preferred settings for each USB device
Support for larger virtual machines: 8-way SMP support added, maximum virtual hard disk size increased from 950 GB to 2 TB
Improved Boot Camp Support: Improved disk performance for your Boot Camp VMs, better handling of disk configuration changes to avoid duplicate entries, option to avoid authentication dialogs when using a Boot Camp virtual machine
PC Migration Improvements: Migration status displayed on PC, now avoids port conflicts, guest account issues on Mac OS X now resolved
User Experience Improvement Program: VMware uses information obtained through the User Experience Improvement Program to improve the quality, reliability, and performance of our products and to plan our future development and testing. Participation in the program is voluntary and you can opt out at any time.
Many Additional UI Improvements and Various Fixes: See the VMware Fusion 3.1 Beta Release Notes for more information.

Filed under: VMware

Release: Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac Build 9344

djlaube — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:06:28 +0000

Parallels Desktop was updated back on the 10th, but I just noticed it, so here’s the release notes on what’s been updated and what’s new.

http://kb.parallels.com/8139

Summary

Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac build 9344 includes changes that improve performance and enhance compatibility. This update is highly recommended for all users of Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac.

Obtaining the Update

Updates for Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac are available via:
- Parallels Desktop in-product updater
- Parallels Website

To install the update, do one of the following:
- Choose Check for Updates from the Help menu.
- Choose the update you want to install and click Install.
- Download the update build from the Parallels Website and install it manually.

When you first start your virtual machine after installing the update, please update Parallels Tools in it.

Additional Information

This update includes the following new features and enhancements:

Guest Operating Systems
- Google Chrome OS support.

Performance
- Improved performance of WDDM driver.
- Improved performance of virtual machines with Mac OS X Server v10.6.3 and v10.6.2 guest operating systems installed.
- Compatibility issues with Parallels Internet Security installed in virtual machines running on Nehalem-based iMac and Mac Pro were fixed.
- In a clean installation of Windows XP, My Computer opens without delay.
- Waking Mac OS from sleep doesn’t affect the Coherence performance.
- Improved virtual hard disk caching mode.
- Spotlight indexing enabled in Mac OS can no longer influence Boot Camp virtual machines booting speed.
- Other performance improvements.

Integration
- MacLook fixes and improvements.
- Enhanced appearance of the menu in Crystal mode.
- Correct handling of text copied from Mac OS and pasted to a non-Unicode application in the virtual machine.
- Mac OS Desktop Aliases for Windows applications work properly.
- USB Flash devices and CD/DVD network drives can be opened in virtual machines by double-clicking their icons.
- Shared Windows applications are opened correctly when the virtual machine is suspended or paused.
- Improved support for Windows Live Mail.
- Improved handling of shared folders used by OneNote 2007, ProShow, and Marvin Sketch.

Graphics
- Improved support for OpenGL in Linux virtual machines.
- Improved graphical performance of RealFlow in Ubuntu virtual machines.
- Artifacts like transparent 3D games windows in Ubuntu virtual machines were fixed.
- Improved graphics in Perforce client.
- Switching view modes while working in Autodesk Inventor does not cause graphical artifacts like black screen.
- White areas of the screen no longer appear in the Tin Soldiers Julius Caesar game.
- Problems with video in Internet Explorer 8 when Aero is enabled in Windows 7 were resolved.
- Other graphics improvements.

Network
- Enhanced compatibility with Cisco VPN.
- FTP upload speed increased.

Filed under: Apple

VMware Flings

danbrinkmann — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:30:45 +0000

lol…no really. Free tools…aka Flings from VMware Labs.

“Fling is defined as "a brief casual relationship" as referenced on this site. The "flings" are skunkworks and ideas by VMware engineers that are not yet part of product offering.”

http://labs.vmware.com/flings

Filed under: VMware

HP Virtual Connect Flex 10

danbrinkmann — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:21:28 +0000

Great comprehensive article on HP Virtual Connect Flex 10…video and all!

http://virtualisedreality.com/2010/03/07/vcflex10-vsphere/

Filed under: HP

Brian Madden responds to Citrix report on ICA

danbrinkmann — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:19:22 +0000

Wow, I liked the article and loved the comments even more, especially “appdetective”.

http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/brianmadden/archive/2010/03/08/citrix-releases-report-on-ica-versus-pc-over-ip-vmware-cries-foul-both-are-half-right-here-s-my-full-analysis.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blog%2Fbrianmadden+%28Brian+Madden%27s+Blog%29

Filed under: Citrix, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop

The Mobile Hypervisor

danbrinkmann — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:17:39 +0000

Wow, great article…it really makes you think. IT orgs spend so much time and money securing company data and all of our phones are the perfect place to pick off all sorts of confidential data….yikes!

http://www.simonbramfitt.com/2010/03/the-mobile-hypervisors-killer-app-has-arrived-and-its-not-what-you-think.html

Filed under: Uncategorized

How to configure HDX Mediastream for Flash on XenApp 5

danbrinkmann — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:15:57 +0000

This article describes how to deploy and configure HDX MediaStream for Flash.

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX124190

Filed under: Citrix, XenApp

How To Avoid the Windows MBR Disk 2TB Limit by Using GPT Type Disks

djlaube — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:19:13 +0000

If you want to use a disk larger than 2TB within Windows, it might look like you can’t use all of the space. This is due to the type of initialization performed on the disk. This lesson will show you how to initialize the disk with the "GPT" type of disk (rather than the default MBR type) so you can use disks larger than 2TB.

The 2TB Size Disk Limit Problem

Our screenshot shows you that when adding a very large disk to Windows, it looks like you can only use 2TB of that disk.

The GPT Solution

In order to use the full size, right click on the disk (1) and choose "Convert to GPT Disk" (2).

Now you have all of the space available to format (in our example, 10TB).

Creating the Partition

Now you just create the partition just like any other disk by right clicking on the unallocated space and choose "New Partition".

Notice the note when creating the new partition (circled in red on the screenshot).

Ready to Use

Once you go through the rest of the New Partition wizard and choose to format it, the disk will be available as shown.

Filed under: Windows

Getting disk offset information with Powershell

danbrinkmann — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:35:33 +0000

Disk partition alignment is important, let Lewan tell you why. Powershell rocks!

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jonathan_kehayias/archive/2010/03/01/getting-partition-offset-information-with-powershell.aspx

Filed under: Uncategorized

How to disable Speedscreen on XenDesktop

danbrinkmann — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:41:55 +0000

http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2010/03/04/How+to+disable+SpeedScreen+Multimedia+Acceleration+on+XenDesktop

Filed under: Citrix, XenDesktop