Hide Dock Icon/Parallels Desktop Menubar Icon

R

RujusMacBook

Member
First of all, I would like to thank the whole Parallels team for such an unparalleled (pun intended) achievement. Parallels Desktop for Mac has been my savior as far as using the required engineering applications that do not have Mac counterparts on my MacBook Pro.

I would like to suggest creating the option of being able to hide the Parallels dock icon while Parallels Desktop is running, and instead having a menubar option. For those of us who run Parallels with VirtueDesktops, the Parallels icon in the dock merely takes up space in a desktop that I'm not using Parallels in. Furthermore, in the desktop that I am using Parallels in, I run Parallels in full screen so a dock icon is definitely not needed.

What do you guys think? Is this possible sometime in the near future?
 
Andrew @ Parallels said:
RujusMacBook,

Thank you for feedback! But why just you don't remove Parallels from dockbar and place alias to desktop for example?
Click to expand...

Andrew,

Thank you for responding to my suggestion. However, I think I didn't explain it well enough. That said, here goes:

With the introduction of Coherence in Parallels, Windows now runs as almost an invisible layer on top of OSX. Therefore, my suggestion was to add the option to have the parallels icon not in the dock but in the menubar (similar to the way quicksilver gives you that option). This way, you know the parallels is running, and it has all of the same options as the dock icon, but does not take up precious dock space. In fact, you know parallels is running because any windows program that is running in parallels has a parallels icon at the bottom.

This would be a great feature to add to an already amazing product. The menubar location would not be a way to launch parallels, but a way to run parallels more seamlessly. Does this make more sense? I'm talking about a preference option like this (from quicksilver):
 

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great idea. i was looking for a way to do this too since the dock icon for the parallels app is often unnecessary.

there is a workaround and that is to use 'dockless', a little freeware app that can make any program run without a dock icon on OSX with toggle settings.
 
I'd just like to refresh this topic to say that I'd be very interested in this as well. I regularly use a Windows XP VM in it's own Space (OS X Spaces), and when I flip back to OS X, I'd rather not have my dock filled up with every application I have open in Windows XP.
 
john@parallels: it works. will report how this works out in practical use. note that if the app was set as 'keep in dock' from OSX you will need to drag it out of (delete) the dock.
 
parallels devs take note: there is confusion between the VM pref settings and Parallels App pref settings on Mac. you may want to make it much more CLEAR where the user is and a hint to check out the other settings panel.
 
Could you please clarify some of them?
Also please note, Parallels Applications settings are for default
VM settings are for particular one
 
im not sure what you mean by 'clarify some of them' but to say it more clearly: when i am in the VM preference pane i am not sure what i have to change there and what is a global setting that i should change in the Parallels preferences.

after getting more used to parallels i have simply fallen into the habit of checking one and then the other when changing settings.

another way to do it may be to include both sets of settings in one window/area with a toggle or tab to switch back and forth between global app settings and specific VM settings so the user does not have to trudge around the menus each time they are looking for settings.

i hope that makes more clear what i meant. its really more of a nuisance at this time but for new non-techie users could be a deal breaker. i've seen people lose interest over simpler quirks.

===
on an unrelated note: any idea how to restore the Win XP default theme after it was mistakenly deleted on my parallels VM installation? MS does not make this easy.
 
Hello, pendolino,

Thank you for the clarification.
The logic is quite simple:
- if you want to edit something in Parallels Desktop as a whole - use Parallels Desktop top menu: Parallels Desktop -> Preferences
- if you want to make changes for this very particular virtual machine - click on Configure button on its window.

As for Windows Theme - it is not quite clear what do actually you mean, but if it is a Windows Desktop sheme, you can change it with right-clicking on the desktop with a mouse, selecting Properties -> Appearance
 
Can't find application hiding in dock in the latest Parallels 5

I can't find this function in Parallels 5. I have the current latest version (5.0.9344). If I go to the Shared Applications menu I only have an option to hide the Windows applications folder in Dock (which is IMHO very useful), but I can't hide the applications seperately. The only option when the application icons disappear if I turn the whole application sharing off, which I don't want to. I also use Parallels in Window mode.

Is there a way to set this function elsewhere or could you reintroduce this setting in the next version, please? :)
 
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