Removing Parallels Tools from Windows

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by cyberhomie, Jun 26, 2007.

  1. cyberhomie

    cyberhomie Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    My trial just expired so I can no longer uninstall Parallels Tools from my Boot Camp partition. Every time I try, I get an an error "Parallels Tools require that your Windows is running under Virtual Machine. The installation will be stopped." How do I do a full uninstall now? That gets rid of Parallels Tools and any drivers that installed along with it? I have tried safe-mode and I did notice a KB article on removing Parallels Tools manually ( http://kb.parallels.com/entry/38/319/ ) but I'm not sure if this removes everything...

    Thanks for any help.

    - Shawn
     
  2. bmzero

    bmzero Junior Member

    Messages:
    17
    Was there any resolution to this? I'm having the same issue.
     
  3. Alicia

    Alicia Parallels Team

    Messages:
    683
    Hello,

    cyberhomie, yes, manual removal will uninstall the whole Parallels Tools. So the article you've found in the KB should help. But I guess you've already managed to uninstall Tools :)
    So, i hope, it will be helpful for bmzero.

    Best regards,
    Alicia.
     
  4. chrisj303

    chrisj303 Member

    Messages:
    72
    I'm having *really* hard time removing Parallels tools from my bootcamp VM.

    If I ttempt the add/remove method, I get this :

    [​IMG]

    If I attempt the manual method, I get this:

    [​IMG]

    (and i have checked the properties - I have full read/write permissions).

    My problem, is that the mouse cursor (when in parallels) is no longer 'proper' - it appears to be 2 layered on top of one another. I can no longer resize the window either. The parallels tool centre tells me that both the mouse driver and video driver are disabled - but clicking on enable does nothing!

    This is a real pain in the arse, I can't believe that things like this are stil happening. A year ago it was forgivable, but now it's just annoying..
     
  5. Alicia

    Alicia Parallels Team

    Messages:
    683
    Hello,

    chrisj303, do you try to manually uninstall Tools in a safe mode?

    Best regards,
    Alicia.
     
  6. Cosby

    Cosby Junior Member

    Messages:
    16
    hi guys i've remove manually the tools but when i reinstall it and restar the system i get the same error.please help me
     
  7. Alicia

    Alicia Parallels Team

    Messages:
    683
    Hello,

    Cosby, what error do you mean?

    Best regards,
    Alicia.
     
  8. Cosby

    Cosby Junior Member

    Messages:
    16
    Parallels Tools require that your Windows is running under Virtual Machine. The installation will be stopped.

    Please help me

    best regards
     
  9. Alicia

    Alicia Parallels Team

    Messages:
    683
    did you run a trial version of Parallels Desktop? Do you have your VM running while attempting to install Tools?

    Best regards,
    Alicia.
     
  10. Cosby

    Cosby Junior Member

    Messages:
    16
    no it isn't a trial version. I run my vm. I have also installed boot camp
     
  11. Alicia

    Alicia Parallels Team

    Messages:
    683
    Try to install Parallels Tools in a safe mode. Will it work?

    Best regards,
    Alicia.
     
  12. Cosby

    Cosby Junior Member

    Messages:
    16
    no not work. i just tryed
     
  13. Alicia

    Alicia Parallels Team

    Messages:
    683
    Hello,

    please, make sure that hidden filesand folders on your computer are shown (Control Panel->Folder Options->View), then, go to your Program Files and find "InstallShield Installation Information" folder. Delete it with shift+del, then reboot your VM and try to reinstall Tools.

    Best regards,
    Alicia.
     
  14. M A V I C

    M A V I C Junior Member

    Messages:
    12
    I'm experiencing this same issue. I tried the Parallels 3 trial using my Boot Camp partition. Since then I've noticed a performance hit in Boot Camp. The trial expired and I want to uninstall Parallels and all it has done.

    I did the manual uninstall, but Parallels Tools still shows up in Add or Remove Programs. So I did a find for all instances of "Parallels" and I found a few other files and deleted them. Then I checked the registry and found dozens and dozens (probably over 100) of changes Parallels has made. I've removed a bunch of the entries and that has sped things up considerably, but it's still sluggish.

    There's a ton of file association entries that are from Parallels within the registry and Parallels Tools still shows up in Add or Remove Programs. How can I get Parallels Tools fully removed, and all of the muck in the registry cleaned up as well?

    Thanks.
     
  15. Alicia

    Alicia Parallels Team

    Messages:
    683
    Hello,

    M A V I C, there is a solution for unnecessary registry entries provided by user brkirch in the other thread. You can try it.
    As for removing Parallels Tools, have you tried all possible solutions given in this thread?

    Best regards,
    Alicia.
     
  16. M A V I C

    M A V I C Junior Member

    Messages:
    12
    Alicia,

    Removing the "Parallels Tools" under "Program Files" and the "InstallShield Installation Information" folder doesn't remove all Parallels Tools files from the system. I had missed the mention of removing the InstallShield folder so I just did that and restarted.

    The only problem, aside from slowness after installing Parallels Tools, I had was that I couldn't uninstall Parallels Tools. Now the only recent change I've made is to remove the InstallShield folder under Program Files. Now my almost new XP Pro install gives me errors when I login and it's been trying to login for 10 minutes and only presented me with more errors. The desktop bg has loaded but that's it.
     
  17. M A V I C

    M A V I C Junior Member

    Messages:
    12
    As far as that bit goes, please note one of the key steps is:
    How am I supposed to do that when the demo has expired?
     
  18. brkirch

    brkirch Pro

    Messages:
    415
    In this case only steps 12 through 17 apply. Since you are using a Boot Camp partition you can boot directly into it (a virtual machine is not needed).
     
  19. M A V I C

    M A V I C Junior Member

    Messages:
    12
    Thanks much.

    Edit: After running it, I restarted and opened up regedit. I searched and can still find a lot of entries related to Parallels. For example, the Parallels Time Synchronization Driver. Anyway to get rid of all that too?
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2007
  20. brkirch

    brkirch Pro

    Messages:
    415
    Sorry, I'm no expert with the Windows registry (or Windows for that matter) and while being able to clean up those stray registry entries would be nice it probably isn't worth the trouble. If I find out anything about how safely cleanup the rest of the registry entires I'll post it here though. For the moment try going into Parallels, and select "Virtual Machine..." from the "Edit" menu. On the list to the left select "Hard Disk 1 Boot Camp", then select the "Advanced" tab, and click the "Clear..." button. This will remove some of the Parallels configuration information and files from your Boot Camp partition. Hopefully it will eliminate whatever is causing the slowdowns with your Boot Camp partition.
     

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