Work Around
Ok.... So I seem to be having a conversation with myself but for those of you that may be experiencing these issues (please post if you are), I have a work around that may assist you in minimizing the impact to your workflow. Follow the steps below and while there is no way in "H" "E" Double Hockey Sticks that it was meant to be this way, perhaps you will find the information useful.
1. VM Machine Configuration >> Options >> Full Screen >> Use Mac OS X Full Screen ENABLED
2. VM Machine Configuration >> Options >> Full Screen >> Use all displays in Full Screen ENABLED
3. Mac OS X System Preferences >> Displays >> CHECK "Show Displays in Menu Bar"
4. Start VM in Windowed Mode and drag it to the PRIMARY display. This is the display with your Mac Dock. I recommend it being the farthest LEFT display.
5. With the VM highlighted.... Go to Parallels Menu (top of Primary Display) >> View >> Enter Full Screen
6. This is where it gets "wonky" but work through it..... Right Click on the desktop (I'm using Windows 7 for this example) and select Display resolution. Turn on ALL Displays by highlighting each display >>> and selecting "Extend my desktop to this display" >>> Apply. Do this for each Display that is not already "active".
7. Identify your displays by clicking "identify" and note the numbers that appear on each monitor.
8. Drag the display icons to the same order that you "identified" in step 7 and click apply.
9. Make sure that the leftmost monitor (after step 8) has a checkbox stating "this is your primary display"
10. Adjust each monitor to the proper resolution by highlighting it >> Changing the resolution in the drop down >> Clicking apply.
After these steps you should have a VM that takes up (is extended to) ALL of your displays and it will be like the Mac environment doesn't even exist. If this isn't the case keep playing with it until you do. The trick is to make sure that ALL displays ( I can't stress this enough) are activated. If you attempt to turn one off the "identification" numbers will change and you will chase your tail around and around.
Now for the Cool Trick......
To get back to the Mac Environment click within the Primary Window, Click "Control" + "Alt" at the same time, release them, and move your mouse to the top of the Primary Display. This should expose the Mac upper menu bar where you will see a "monitor" icon. This is the icon that was made visible during step 3. Click the Icon and select "open display preferences"....
Wa La..... Windows disappears and you are back at your entire Mac environment. Close all the Display preferences boxes by clicking the ONE that has the close (red) button.
To return to windows simply click anyone of your running windows programs (programs with the Parallels Logo) in the Mac Dock or select a program from the "windows applications" folder on your mac dock and....
Wa La again...back to windows...
While these steps are very painful, they currently work for me, but I offer no guarantee they will work for you. I am running four monitors (as outlined in my initial post) and this work around at least allows me to get something done. Of course this "issue" need to be fixed but until such time I hope it works for you.
Once you get these steps configured and working properly I suggest that you shut down your VM from the windows shut down menu. This will insure that your settings are retained and then the next time you start the VM you will automatically be returned to full screen / "all monitor" conditions.
Last edited: Sep 16, 2011