Trying Parallels build 5580
So I posted a couple of weeks back about how my Windows VM under Parallels had become damaged; I was no longer able to run Windows Update, and I kept getting a popup on each boot about "Error loading Tcp Mib library". I restored the disk image from a backup, and thought I was good to go. Earlier this week, I started up parallels to use IE again, and got an error message that the virtual disk was corrupted and could not be booted. Argh.
I wasn't sure how long this had been the case, so I checked my Time Machine backups to see how many different timestamps I had since I'd restored the original version. Only one, and it was corrupt too. Double argh. So today I downloaded the beta build for Leopard (5580), and again brought back the old Windows image from my April/May backup. Hopefully this one will last for a while; I really don't enjoy the extended process of parallels tools installs followed by multiple windows updates. That ain't exactly speedy.
I really, really wish Apple would build a full-featured Exchange replacement so that I could get rid of Parallels entirely. I would live with Microsoft's remote desktop client for IE when necessary if that was all I needed from Windows.