3186, coherence and multiple monitors

Anyone know if 3186 supports multiple monitors? I'm running a 15" MBP and a 20" cinema with different resolutions. I would like to run coherence across both screens at native resolution for both, no way do I want to reduce the cinema. Does it support multiple monitors at different resolutions?

Mark

 

Runs fine on my Macbook Pro 15" w/ Dell 1907FP LCD; however, there is a single annoyance, which isn't really the fault of Parallels, just the nature of differing resolutions.

If you enable the multiple displays checkbox in parallels and run coherence, your windows taskbar won't sit exactly at the bottom of your second display, unless you adjust OSX display prefs so that the bottoms of both displays are even with each other.

If you leave multiple displays unchecked, you can get a taskbar on a single monitor; but the Windows apps can't be dragged to the other display (for obvious reasons).

 

Thanks. So you are running two different resolutions? And can you move a Windows window back and forth between them?

 

So you have it working????

Are both of your monitors the same resolution???

Coherence still doesnt work for me on 2 monitors

 

Yes, and yes.

 

Yes, and no. Did you enable coherence on multiple displays in the config of your Windows VM (VM must be powered off)?

 

Thanks! That's great news and I'm closer to upgrading. Now if they would just announce "2.5" instead of a build number I'd have more confidence.

 

Yes indeed. No luck here on my 13" MacBook Core Duo @ 1280x800 + 19" Dell display @ 1280x1024.

Do you mind posting your .pvs for us to look at?

 

It works very well on my two different screens, both running native resolution. Very very cool. Now I wouldn't be a good Parallels user if I didn't have a wish list after a couple days!

1. Align the smaller screen with the BOTTOM of the larger screen, not the top. That way Windows taskbar and other things will be visible across the screens.
2. Enable true dual-monitor support. That way things like message dialogs and splash screens won't appear split between the two screens.
3. Provide a way to quickly add Quick Launch items to the Dock.
4. Congratulate yourselves on the coolest hack I have seen in a long time!

 

[Video]
Video resolutions enabled = 1
Video resolutions count = 1
VideoRes0 enabled = 1
VideoRes0 width = 1440
VideoRes0 height = 900
VideoRes0 name = 1440x900
[Coherence]
Show taskbar = 1
Relocate taskbar = 0
Exclude Dock = 1
Multiple displays = 1

 

Video memory

If one or both of your displays is better than 1680x1050 then you may need to increase the video memory allocation in the VM setup to get Coherence to work.

 

Psychosis: do you have coherence working with 2 displays of differing resolutions? I tried that config with my 1280x1024 external display but it still doesn't work.

lithe: you're the only one who has it working... would you care to help us try and get it to work at all? I'd appreciate it.

 

Works fine for me, too, with one 1680x1050 and one 1280x1024.

How are your displays "arranged" in the OSX Monitors control panel?
Coherence needs them side-by-side (if you have the taskbar at the top you can tweak the vertical alignment so that it is also at the top of the second screen).

 

sjs: I didn't do anything special at all, just followed pubguy's step by step directions to install. Then I set the VM configuration to Use Multiple Displays and it just worked. Here are the relevant parts of my pvs file. It's interesting to note that while the resolution below says 1200x800, the actual Windows resolution reported by the control panel is 3120x1028. The native resolutions of my two screens are 1440x900 (MBP) and 1680x1050 (cinema).

Two different native resolutions, both truly running at native resolution, and coherence windows work across both screens. Right now I've got Outlook on the mbp screen and Excel (XP) running on the cinema, and I can start any number of Windows apps and place them on either screen.

Only negatives I've seen are some artifacting when dragging the windows (but they are transition only) and Windows prompts that are designed to popup center-screen are split between the two displays. That shows Parallels is treating them as one giant display with the 3120x1028 resolution. You can see that because the smaller display "goes below" what's actually displayed - the Start menu button and taskbar can't be seen on the mbp display, and the lower couple of choices on the start menu are hidden.

[System]
Boot = c
Parallels VM Name = Microsoft Windows XP
VM Id = {48fc9613-b302-48d5-98b0-3c3ee9461b7f}
VM Description =
OS Type = 135
Memory = 512
Video Memory = 16
Memory block size = 10
Acceleration level = 2
Enable write-back disk cache = 1
VT-x support = 1
Start auto = 0
AutoShutdown = 0
Start full screen = 23
Start dashmode = 0
Start full screen warning = 1
PC Speaker enable = 1
Window Mode = 0
Multi frame = -1
Guest Tools Status = 2
[Video]
Video resolutions enabled = 1
Video resolutions count = 1
VideoRes0 enabled = 1
VideoRes0 width = 1200
VideoRes0 height = 800
VideoRes0 name = 1200x800
[Coherence]
Show taskbar = 0
Relocate taskbar = 0
Exclude Dock = 1
Multiple displays = 1

 

Thanks lithe! I don't know what all the settings are so I copied yours exactly (the video related ones) and still no dice. I'm going to mess with the settings and see if I can get anything to happen.

I'm using a Boot Camp partition for all this... perhaps that's part of the problem. Are you using a regular virtual disk installation? I may have to switch from Boot Camp if that's the only way to get it to work.

 

well that's promising that more than one person has it working. my displays are arranged like so:

Code:

___________________ ___________________
|                  |                   |
|     MacBook      |    Dell 19" LCD   |
|    1280x800      |     1280x1024     |
|__________________|                   |
                   |___________________|

My primary display is always the MacBook screen, and I usually run Windows on the external display, in a window or in coherence mode (single display).

Maybe I'll see if aligning them at the bottom makes a difference. I've heard that you can do it if you stack them vertically, but I have tried that before and it screws with Fitt's law on the menu bar, or the menu bar is a mile above where it should be. Nothing doing with a crazy vertical scheme!

 

What if you set PD to hide the Windows taskbar in coherence mode? That would solve the problem, wouldn't it?

If you launch an application, it shows up in the Dock. You can then right click on the icon in the Dock and choose "Keep in Dock" to add a shortcut to it. Or are you asking for a way to add all the quicklaunch shortcuts to the Dock in one go? Could be handy for some i guess but usually you only want to have a few shortcuts in the Dock to avoid it becoming a big mess so adding them manually sounds good enough for me.

 

Setting the checkbox at "Use multiple display" also is a problem because some windows apps then open in full view over both displays. Sometimes these apps even have no option for resizing.

 

I do have the taskbar hidden. Problem is, I would like access to it when I need it. With the screens top-aligned, if I unhide it I can't ever get to it because it's below the bottom edge of the smaller display (which is on the left). So that does no good, so I leave it hidden and just toggle window mode if I need the taskbar. It should be easier.

I have them listed as Favorites now to keep from cluttering up the dock. But it would be nice to simply have a dock icon that corresponds to the quick launch, and just allow quick selection of an application. Now it requires right-click on the Parallels icon, open the Applications menu, and then select the app I need. Again, it should be easier.

But overall I like it a lot, great job.

 

This is so frustrating. I have followed all of the directions, and I still can't get it to work. I have a macbook and a 19" external display. I wish Parallels had some sort of official documentation about Coherence so I could figure out how to get it to work.