problem with keystrokes passing through

so i've seen this problem from time to time and finally got it captured on video.

it seems that when parallels starts, even if it's not the foreground window it still captures the keystrokes in any mac-side window.

here's the video link on youtube...

watch the background window (parallels / visual studio) as i type in mac's spotlight search box and safari's address bar. one i return to parallels and then have it lose focus it goes back to normal.

parallels desktop 7.0.14924
mac os x lion 10.7.2

 

I've seen this behavior, and also had the contrary where what I type in the Windows screen mirrors onto a Mac program. I've not managed to catch it on video though, cudos for that!

For me the behavior you report happens sometimes when Windows starts to run if I haven't switched screens manually. To see the other mirroring option start Parallels, then click something like Text Editor to the front before Windows if fully operational. Sometimes Windows will remain behind Text Editor and when you click Windows to the front you see that some of what you typed in Text Editor is filling the Windows log-in password screen!

This never has happened to me after Windows is fully running and I bring either Windows or a Mac program to the front and activate the screen. It only happens early in the Windows startup process but until I change the active program it continues indefinitely.

 

Thank you for reporting,

This behaviour is already under investigation by our Product Maintenance team, the fix woulf be included in one of the future updates.

 

Same problem here. Can anybody tell me how to avoid the problem? How long do I have to wait after Windows has been started?

 

Even if Windows has been running for a long time, sometimes the virtual machine will still receive keystrokes that were not meant for Parallels. For example, run Note Pad in Windows, then hold down the Command key and press the Tab key. This shows the application switcher. Every time you press the Tab key, the next icon is selected. If you press Shift-Tab, then the previous icon is selected. If you press Tab again, the next icon is selected AND the tab is sent to the virtual machine! No other Mac application has this problem.

 

as an update, it's not just the keyboard that is stolen, it's the mouse as well. when starting a VM i have to wait for it to finish loading because my mouse jumps around the screen.

 

I usually klick into the VM's window once (resp. change over to the VM virtual screen and click that) as the VM is starting up. That then allows me to operate Mac programs normally even while the VM is starting.

 

Was this supposed to have been fixed at some point?

I still have this problem occur pretty regularly. With commands on the Mac side like Cmd-A, Delete and Cmd-S passing through to Windows, I've actually lost a good amount of work because of this on a few occasions. I'm up to date on the latest version of Parallels 7 (build 7.0.15107).

 

I just tried my example today (using Command-Tab, Command-Shift-Tab, Command-Tab).

I was surprised to find out that it worked as expected! I'm using Build 8.0.18354 (Revision 823166; December 4, 2012) on Mac OS X 10.6.8 with a Windows 7 64 bit virtual machine.

I'm not sure all cases are fixed but this is a good sign. I don't know which version contained the fix.

 

I'm not sure if this problem is related or not, but although I never had issues like this with Windows 7 Enterprise, I can't login to Windows 8 Enterprise unless I either 1) Use the on-screen keyboard, or 2) Enter my password many, many times (more than 20). It seems like my keystrokes may not be getting through correctly, although the keystrokes are echoing as dots to the Windows password screen. My password is quite strong, being composed of upper and lower case letters with numbers and punctuation - and completely random. Perhaps the shift key isn't getting through?

 

Once you're able to log in, do you have any problems typing your password into Notepad?

You could try turning on the "Optimize modifier keys for games" option in the Advanced section of the virtual machine configuration and see if that changes anything. I don't think it should but I always keep that enabled so I can see the cursor change when making shortcuts or copying files in Windows Explorer.