• Coherence view - Hides your XP desktop and floats Windows windows alongside your OS X windows
• Windows apps appear in the OS X dock
• Parallels Transporter - allows easy migration of your existing XP setup from a PC into the Parallels environment
• Plug-and-play USB 2.0 support
• Use of Boot Camp partitions as the Parallels drive - this lets you use a single XP image either running virtually under Parallels, or natively if you reboot via Boot Camp
• Vista Compatability
• CD/DVD burning Drag-and-Drop support (discussed previously here)

For those running Parallels RC3 (build 3170) won't see much difference. Those still running the old Parallels public release (build 1970) will see amazing enhancements. As always, make sure you back up your full Parallels disk image, and your Mac just to be safe, before you upgrade.

Download release 3186 here

The basic issue is that this Global Sharing option, which allows easy drag-and-drop app launching between OS X and Windows, is given carte blanche access to your Mac hard drive. Worse yet, this option is enabled by default, at least in beta build 3150 which I am currently running. Users upgrading from a previous version, to get awesome features like Coherence Mode, booting from Boot Camp partitions, and full USB support, may be vulnerable without even realizing this feature was slipped in.

The basic problem boils down to privilege separation. Parallels runs with the full rights of your OS X user, so in theory an attack could be developed and spread via Windows vulnerabilities that could then drop malicious code into OS X. It could also delete files or alter security and other settings.

Allowing Windows, known to be so insecure, to have this sort of access rights to the host operating system is a major misstep by the Parallels team. So if you run Parallels betas, please make sure you disable this feature (Edit -> Virtual Machine -> Shared Folders then uncheck the "Enable global sharing for drag-and-drop" checkbox and save. You'll need to shut down the virtual machine to have access to change this setting.

"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine."

Now, I understand that Gates is pushing hard to convince folks to upgrade to Vista, but this is such a classic example of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) that Microsoft is famous for.

The interviewer should have followed up asking if Bill could cite one example of a Mac exploit allowing a machine takeover. And how can he claim that Windows isn't vulnerable to such attacks?