I just installed Parallels 8 on my Retina Macbook. I have a 30-inch Dell monitor connected via a Dual-DVI Link. The resolution on the large monitor seems stuck at a 1024 x 768 resolution. I tried changing the monitor settings in Windows and while the change appears to start out correctly (the login screen is at the new resolution), as soon as it logs on the resolution switches back to 1024 x 768. If I drag the VM window to the Retina Macbook display it seems to work much better. Parallels makes the proper adjustment on the Retina display to upscale the objects on the screen to appropriate resolutions. But it does not seem to handle external monitors correctly. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Unchecking Hardware Enable Full Resolution fixed it For me, unchecking the Hardware Configuration Setting under Video "Enable Full Resolution" fixed the problem on all my monitors. Screen Resolutions seem fine on both the Retina Macbook display and the 30-inch external Dell.
Retina display w/external monitor is not supported Unchecking "Enable Full Resolution" just turns off retina display support. This might fix the scaling issue for the external monitor, but the MacBook's display is back to the normal resolution (i.e. not retina). The real problem is still there. With retina support on, Windows is scaling by 199%. This makes the retina display show correctly, but Parallels does not compensate for the scaling in the external display. So, we are stuck to choose which display we want to have show correctly. Please fix this, Parallels.
Set to Ope in Low Resolution I had a serious problem with Parallels 8 when I first installed it. I have it working just fine right now. I resolved my issue by navigating in Finder to Applications, right click on Parallels Desktop, Clicked Get Info and checked the box next to Open in Low Resolution. All is working fine now.
Thanks for suggestions above. Config: Parallels 8 with latest [Sep 5] update. MBPRetina with Win 7 Pro. 2nd Monitor is Samsung. All seemed to work well with PD 7. Tried Parallels Config Retina Display Enable Full Res / Optimize Win for Full Res. Everything is so small [with or without the 2nd monitor] as to be unworkable, and fuzzy on the secondary monitor. Found a Firefox add-in that allows defaulting the zoom to 150% so I can see something on we pages. Tried setting PD8 to open in Low Res and turned off Retina Enable Full Res / Opt Win for Full Res. Windows on secondary monitor exhibits problem above ... reverts to very low even tho it shows 1600x1200. Hope this gets solved quickly. I'd prefer not to revert to PD7, but that may be necessary to get some work done.
