Aero Transparency stopped working

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by excessivechaos, Feb 28, 2013.

  1. excessivechaos

    excessivechaos Bit poster

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    I'm using parallels 6 to access my win 7 32bit bootcamp partition on my macbook air 10.6.8. Out of the blue, Aero transparency just stopped working. If I boot into windows directly, it works fine, just not when using parallels.

    When I select the Aero theme, there is a link to troubleshoot the issue at the bottom. After running that it tells me that the Windows desktop manager was not running and that it fixed the issue, but it did not. If I check services I see that it is in fact running, but still no transparency.

    I have tried various "fixes" that I've come across searching google, but nothing has worked.
     
  2. TobiasH

    TobiasH Bit poster

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    I'm having the same problem on a 2010 MacBook Pro, 10.6.8, Parallels 6.0.12106
    (Revision 692267; September 7, 2011). Does anybody have a suggestion for a fix?
     
  3. Christian Walther

    Christian Walther Bit poster

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    Same thing here with Parallels 7.0.15107, MacPro3,1, Mac OS X 10.6.8, Windows 7 64-bit. It started after I installed a bunch of Windows updates. Going to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Installed Updates and uninstalling Update for Microsoft Windows (KB2670838) fixed it. In the Windows Update control panel, the update was called Platform Update for Windows 7 x64-Edition (KB2670838) and the KB article mentioned Direct3D updates, which is why it was the first one I suspected, luckily.
     
  4. TobiasH

    TobiasH Bit poster

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    Thanks so much for posting that finding! It fixed the issue for me.
     
  5. Christian Walther

    Christian Walther Bit poster

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    It has happened again today and this time recovery wasnt as easy :(. Even after uninstalling all the new updates I could (some I couldnt because they either didnt appear in the Installed Updates list or didnt offer an uninstall option), the problem persisted. I had to use F8 to boot into System Recovery mode and use System Restore there to revert to the restore point created before the updates. By reinstalling the updates one by one, I was able to narrow it down to the Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems update. However, uninstalling that update did not fix it. I had to use System Restore again to get back to a working state.
     
  6. Christian Walther

    Christian Walther Bit poster

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    As an additional data point for people who find this, I just discovered that the issue persists in Parallels Desktop
    9.0.24251 (on the same MacPro3,1, Mac OS X 10.6.8) - installing Internet Explorer 10 or 11 breaks Aero transparency. The issue does not occur on my MacBookPro8,2 (also Parallels 9.0.24251, Mac OS X 10.6.8, Windows 7 64-bit), where I can use Internet Explorer 11 with no problem.

    I wonder if any of the other posters in this thread have tried whether updating to Parallels 10 fixes the problem.
     

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