On Friday, Parallels released version 8.0.18608 of its Parallels Desktop virtualization software. The new update, a 336.7 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:
– Install Windows 8.1 Preview using Express installation.
– Work with Ubuntu 13.04 in Coherence view mode.
– Resolves an issue with the Contact Card opening too slowly in Microsoft Outlook 2013.
– Resolves an issue with visual artifacts in Microsoft Outlook 2013.
– Smoother mouse scrolling in guest operating systems.
– Improved 3D graphics performance: playing World of Tanks, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and other games in a virtual machine became more stable.
– Resolves an issue with reverted colors on guest OS screenshots.
Parallels Desktop 8 retails for US$79.99 and requires a 64-bit Intel-based processor, Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later, 2GB of RAM (4GB recommended to run Windows 7), at least 700 MB of space available on the boot volume for Parallels Desktop installation and 15 GB of available disk space for Windows.
If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, let us know in the comments.