5160: STILL screwing up my desktop with shared profile!

I've posted about this so many times with 5144 and 5158, and it still hasn't been fixed.

Even when I uninstall parallels tools and reinstall the new version, Parallels always screws up my mac desktop so I can't see the files or mounted drives ON my desktop, but they still exist in the desktop folder.

This is true on the windows side, too. Can't see any files on the desktop or in the desktop folder, but can save to it, and access them on the mac.

I really wish this would stop happening every time i upgrade parallels.

 

please define your Machine and both OS

It pays to log on to Mac OS with a personal
user name

and Win XP too

create guest accounts for the other users

Hugh W

 

a screen shot or two might help us to help you

Hugh W

 

Every time I reboot my VM, I get the message that says "You will log out and your shared profile will be set up. Desktop -> Mac Desktop. My Documents -> Documents, etc"

It does this TWICE IN A ROW

and EVERY TIME, the files on my mac desktop DISAPPEAR

I have already UNINSTALLED and REINSTALLED parallels tools

Macbook Pro C2D 2.2, 2gb RAM

Windows XP Pro SP2, 512mb RAM

 

I just really wish someone from parallels team would EVEN PRETEND TO CARE

 

The smartselect, shared profiles thing is a nightmare. I'm sorry you are having such issues. I have disabled everything I could. The process I followed was:

Disable shared profiles. There is a check box for this in VM settings. You'll have to have your VM shutdown to access it.

Set security to high (highest). Again in VM settings.

Remove all "Windows Application" folders associated with your VM. Usually they are near the hard drive image. (Not sure if your VM is a bootcamp version or not).

Even following ALL of those steps above I still have application on the mac side that want to open Parallels to edit them. For each of these you have to right click, open-with, select your desired program and check "Always open with". Many times this has to be repeated for similar documents.

IE I have 3 excel sheets I use on the mac side. Doing open with/checkbox on one of them did NOT fix the other two. I had to do it on them as well.

Frankly I think the concept Parallels was trying for is neat. The implementation is extremely poor offering the user that doesn't want it, NO WAY to turn it off and revert back to what they wanted.

I think a dialog should have been provided in Parallels preferences where you could add (using the good ol + and - buttons) ONLY the associations that you wanted Parallels to try and mingle. That would have been nice.

But to try and do a complete sweep of your system for you automatically was dangerous and foolish.

As far as "sharing" things and shared profiles go, I was PERFECTLY happy with networking between the two machines. I could see my mac desktop as a folder in Windows explorer, and I could see my VM files in the mac side by just mapping network shares. Why they needed to go further is beyond me.

I personally see the smartselect and shared profiles additions to Parallels as a HUGE waste of programmer effort that could have been better spent on providing better vista support (directX 9.xx or whatever is required), better USB support. Built in support for a USB to serial device so you didn't have to deal with all the crap it now takes to use one.

M

 

I agree with you that they are buggy, but they are also VERY NICE when they work.

By the way, I rebooted my VM today and it happened again. Any help, parallels team? You know you could at least put a CANCEL button on that dialogue box... since shared profiles were working fine UNTIL i rebooted and got that message...

Aw man, I love it. Every time I reboot my VM, my mac desktop becomes unwriteable!

 

YES! My VM crashed when coming back from suspend (a frequent occurance), which means the stupid shared profile thing will come up twice again and ruin my desktop again!

 

And a wonderful surprise! The files that were on my desktop are now deleted!

 

Dear Parallels Team:

Every Time My Vm Reboots, It Logs Me Out Twice, Telling Me That My User Folders Will Be Redirected According To The Shared Profile Tool

Then, My Desktop Gets All Its Files Erased.

Then I Have To Relaunch Finder

And Then Restore My Files That I Backed Up, Because Now I Know To Backup Every Time I Reboot My Vm


This Is Annoying.

Fix It.

 

PARALLELS TEAM, SUPPORT, ADMINs, SOMEONE.

Today my VM crashed while coming back from sleep.

Then it rebooted.

Then I logged in.

Then it took FOREVER to log me in (loading personal settings, whatever... Windows XP SP2)

Then I saw a fun little dialogue box that I'm used to: You will be logged out and when you log back in your folders will be mapped to your mac like this:

My Documents > Documents
My Pictures > Pictures
Desktop > Mac Desktop

etc!

Then, I logged back in.

AND IT DID IT AGAIN!

And during this process, all the files on my MAC DESKTOP were PERMANENTLY DELETED.

Thankfully, I anticipated this crap, as it happens 100% of the time and backed up my files.

Why has NOT A SINGLE PARALLELS TEAM MEMBER HELPED ME WITH THIS.

Parallels 5160.
Windows XP SP2
512mb RAM

Macbook Pro C2D 2.2gHz Santa Rosa
2gb RAM
MAC OS X 10.4.10

 

I have the same basic hardware / software as you but do not experience any of these problems

firstly
I never ever put the VM to sleep

secondly
all the power admin is done by the Mac OS

I use two screens

and the VM in single window view (within Mac OS) on either screen as convenient

just to keep life simple

I use the dock to control Mac start up items
and every HD and Mac OS folder is shared with WinXP
up to drive Z in Windows Explorer

some thing you are doing differently to me is causing you all this grief

try not to use all the bells and whistles
EG
just becauese Coherence exists is no reason to use it

my VM tried to go into View Full Screen today when I clicked the green buttom to expand the MAc OS with WinXP window to fill the 22" screen

but I stopped it

checking the activity monitor the latest build PD is only taking 19to 22% of one processor

a clear improvement

looking at
file:///Library/Parallels/Help/indexpage.htm#65

I cannot even see what a "Shared profile" is
running two OS on one processor still seems wonderful to me

I just run everything on the defaults

Hugh W

 

Hey good advice: don't use the features that we're told should work!

Can I get some advice that allows me to continue using the "advantages" of parallels?

 

Shared profile between the OS X desktop and Windows Desktop? Or on a server?

 

It's shared profile between a Mac Desktop and a Windows Desktop... but to be fair, the VM is on a windows domain that has roaming profile. Will that affect things?

 

It just might. I use Roaming Profiles on a domain too, though. I just don't share between OS X and Windows. Although it is on my to-do list, so I'll be motivated to get this working. I just haven't added that last layer of complexity until I work out a caching issue with the TCP stack on my server and a microwave radio relay (this one is tough, as it only gets corrupt every month or so when the radio gets restarted.)

Does the Roaming Profile work fine on it's own?
Does the shared desktop work fine WITHOUT the Roaming Profile?

If the answer is yes to both of the above, we know our problem and we can try to figure out the particulars. It is probably going to come down to some environment and registry settings that is a conflict between trying to do a sort of 'double-roaming'.

 

don't be a masochist

KEEP IT SIMPLE

stop wasting your time on bells and whistles
use the minimum configuration and get some work done

For example don't mess with Vista on Bootcamp unless you are a reviewer or a hobbyist
or like to suffer

WinXP in a single window just keeps on truckin'

Hugh W

 

I'll test the roaming profile stuff when I get to work on monday... I'd really prefer to be able to use the features parallels offers, as it makes me that much more productive. ESPECIALLY shared profile... SO much better.

Then again, if new Mail is better, or if Entourage 2008 is better, maybe I won't need parallels anymore!

 

Hugh, there are very specific reasons for using these features. I guess I could pay and run a fiber line to our house, I'd only be looking at millions of dollars. Or maybe I can tote around a flash drive with rsynced data. But, that is a pain. I also do not want to wait an hour while I pull hundreds of megabytes of files down.

For the record, as you seem to not understand corporate use, backing up EACH individual machine is not really practical. You push a single image that includes a VM, push an install script that does a few details, and WHAM, you're done. Much easier than doing a hand install. Roaming profiles easily do those 'nightly' back-ups by keeping all the data centralized. Now only the servers have to be worried about.

I think the shared desktop is a great feature, most people get lost working with multiple computers. "Why isn't it on my desktop???? I put it there earlier!" "Oh, but it's the same computer, shouldn't it have the same desktop???"

 

Yea I'm not so sure I'm ready to accept the answer of "Oh, just don't use that feature. I know parallels built it in, and it's one of their selling points... but don't use it."