issues with Parallels 8 + winndows 8 + MBP Retina

Hi recently got a macbook pro retina and plan to shift entirely away from windows. But I still need windows for visual studio + sql server for website development work.

Firstly, I dislike windows 8 and would prefer to run in coherence mode. For most of the windows programs this seems to work reasonably well, however:

1) the display crispness just isn't there. Isn't Parallels 8 supposed to support Retina? If I am using windows Chrome in coherence mode there is a massive difference between it and OSX chrome. This is kind of important to me as I am creating websites in visual studio and testing them seems only to be possible using windows chrome and not osx chrome (be happy to be told I'm wrong though)

2) some programs do not work with coherence mode - one example is SQL Server Management Console (see screenshot). It only takes up a fraction of the screen and most of the program is missing and is completely unusable. As I work around (which I am being forced to due since coherence mode doesn't work properly) I am having to use Windows in full screen mode, but that opens a new set of issues, namely:

3) I prefer to have my MBP Retina at the 1680x1050 setting, not the default 'best for retina' setting. Using this setting in OSX makes everything tiny in windows full screen or coherence mode - and I have to keep setting the resolution in windows every time Parallel's starts up.

Basically my dream of using a MBP Retina with Parallel's to run visual studio is not working, and I only have 10 days left on my Parallel's 8 trial to sort this out. Please help.

Note: I have tried toggling the 'optimise windows for full resolution' and 'enable full resolution' settings and they do not solve the issue.

Thanks!

 

installing visual studio 2012 on parallels 8/windows 8 on MBPR

I'm trying to do something very similar. Can I ask which version of Visual Studio you are installing there?

I am unable to install the RC version of VS 2012 on Windows 8 RC under parallels 8 on MBPR - the installer tells me that .net 4.5 is not installed and won't proceed further.

This seems odd as under Windows 8 this should be the default framework version, non?

edit:

N.B. I should stress for any Parallels folks reading this that like the OP this is my *ONLY* reason for trial-running Windows 8 on parallels 8 on MBPR - if I can't get Win8/VS2012 combo working on Parallels, I will have to look to other solutions...

 

I've installed VS 2012 with no problems. It promoted me to installed .net 4.5 as part of the installation. Maybe try installing it again?

 

oops

Looks like this is my problem:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vssetup/thread/9c9275e4-f937-4470-bbfe-e51316803549

 

I'm using Windows 2008 R2 Server, Visual Studio 2010 and also the SQL Server. Parallels 8 supports the retina resolution and the Windows display resolution is 3360x2100 pixel (I use the 1680 retina setting too).
Windows has a high dpi settings since windows 2000/xp and Parallels set the dpi setting to 199% in windows. (not 200%, is 199% the max setting in windows?).
But most Windows apps doesn't support the high dpi setting very well. Visual Studio 2010 doesn't scale the icons in the project explorer, ie9 has a tiny little tab bar and SQL Studio looks terrible like yours.
I am using the fullscreen mode because the retina resolution does not work in coherence for me - I think retina resolution is not supported in Windows 2008 by Parallels?
So its not then fault of Parallels. I think the high dpi settings in Windows 2008 is useless. Now I use Windows without retina support and deactivate the feature in the Parallels VM Setting.

Best
Kai

 

It seems the Parallel's user support is pretty terrible

 

Parallels has implemented a lot of Retina support settings since the recent Update 1. Please go to VM Configure --> Hardware --> Video and play around