SWsoft, makers of the Parallels Desktop for Mac product, announced today that the Leopard Update that's been in beta testing for the last few weeks is now officially live. This latest build works seamlessly with both Tiger and Leopard operating systems, and it resolves those issues found in Parallels when Leopard first went live. Like other Parallels minor product updates, this one is also 100% free to all 3.0 customers and the updates will also be delivered via Parallels' auto-update feature.

The company also made a second announcement today, announcing a new $99 Premium Edition of the product called, simply enough, Parallels Desktop Premium Edition. It includes the latest Leopard-ready build of Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac (normally $79), plus three utilities from leading third-party software companies that help keep Windows virtual machines safe and secure on your Mac. Bought individually, these three utilities can cost more than $175.

Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0
To protect against the viruses, spyware, spam and malware that can harm any Windows machine, even virtual ones, Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 is included with Parallels Desktop 3.0 Premium Edition. Kaspersky offers "Triple Threat" protection, including automated hourly anti-malware updates, intelligent active heuristics that provide proactive protection to investigate all unknown files and real time behavior analysis for consistent monitoring of a system's activities for any malicious behavior.

Acronis True Image 11 Home
Acronis True Image 11 Home is the latest version of Acronis' award-winning backup and disaster recovery software. With Acronis True Image Home, users can easily back up individual files on their Windows virtual machine or take an entire image of their Windows virtual computer. Backups can be scheduled to run automatically at any interval and can be stored on external drives, DVDs and off-site computers via FTP.

Acronis Disk Director Suite
Acronis Disk Director Suite provides the ability to resize, move, copy, split and merge virtual disk partitions without losing data. It includes a boot manager that allows users to boot other operating systems, such as Linux, inside their Windows virtual machine.

"Maintaining and securing a Windows virtual computer is every bit as important as it is for a physical computer," said Serguei Beloussov, CEO, SWsoft. "We are pleased to work with Acronis and Kaspersky to make it easy and affordable for our Mac customers to protect, backup and customize their Windows virtual machines."

Posted by David Marshall on December 5, 2007 06:38 PM