ADDED: Usable multi-monitor support with "Displays have separate Spaces" turned off

Note: this feature was implemented in Parallels Desktop 14 for Mac (see updates summary).

Since PD12, Parallels no longer works properly across multiple monitors, and is about as useful as not having any multi-monitor support at all. With "Displays have seperate Spaces" unchecked, you get one "virtual monitor" per physical monitor, spread across multiple spaces. In other words, it's completely unusable. With "Displays have seperate Spaces" turn on, which parallels dictates is the "solution" - despite most multi-monitor users much preferring this to be turned off for their workflows - the situation is not much better. Switching Spaces in this circumstance obviously only switches the Space on whatever monitor has focus; the other monitor retains one of VM's virtual monitors. Clicking into this an attempt to change spaces on that monitor also, results in Parallels changing back to both virtual monitors in both spaces, making it unnecessarily difficult to changes all spaces away from the VM. In other words, it's a mess and immensely frustrating.

As it stands Parallels is simply not usable on multiple monitor setups. Even when you relegate your VM to one monitor, with "Displays have seperate Spaces" turned off, all other monitors appear black, and it's not possible to have the VM fullscreen on one monitor, and other applications simultaneously on the other monitors. So whether or not you're using the "Use all displays in Full Screen" option on the VM, the situation is just as hopeless.

A solution needs to be found, especially given how much better Parallels 11 and earlier was when using multiple monitors.

These are just some of the users experiencing this issue who have commented on these two threads:

• https://forum.parallels.com/threads/pd12-messes-up-multiple-monitors.337791/
• https://forum.parallels.com/threads/pd13-multiple-monitors-still-a-problem.341601/

@AdamR4 @RuiH @DonP @MattJ2 @SreechandraD @LARWORLD @MarcusR1 @RogerH6 @gmelin @bvanderwkc @DanW6 @CraigS4 @KC_ @CharlesC5 @TimM9 @glaycock @teddy-j @GlennE @KorkyPlunger @NicholasC1 @KeithSav @JanVis @michaelborland @CodyG1 @MobyR @SladeE @StefanC1 @JuanS2 @Hans-GunnarV @Developer1 @DaniloF1 @MobyR @DexterH @AndersT2 @ErnestC2 @MortenL @KennethF @AdamTM @Ken5 @zalusky @Sirreal

 

Hands up vote on this. I have dual large screen monitors and 4 spaces. One dual screen is for Windows mode. The others are for mail, browsing, ...
I do not want to mix windows and Mac, I want them separate and I want to interact with both screens and easily ctrl arrow out when needed.

I will not upgrade to PD12 or PD13 until this is working again. I purchased PD12 but I downgraded as this is a deal breaker.

 

Hi Tom, interested to read your posting. I'm new to all this but thought I'd share. Just installed PD13 Pro with Windows 10VM on MacMini host with two displays
(2560x1024) and (1920x1080). It seems as though I have a different experience as I can have the VM (e.g. in full screen) on one screen whilst still seeing my open mac applications on the other.

I was disappointed after installation to find that multi-display functionality was not included though - so I think I share your frustration there - as was hoping to run two PC programs on the VM both at full screen on two separate displays. Hearing that this used to be possible in earlier versions gives me hope however that this may be a re-introduced feature down the line (too naive perhaps)?

Sorry not to be able to offer a solution to your problem though...

 

Thanks for mentioning that, because you've touched on the only circumstance where fullscreen behaves as you'd expect. If you only want to make the VM fullscreen on a single monitor AND you have "Displays have seperate Spaces" turned on under System Preferences, then it that specific circumstance, it works as you'd expect. If however you want to use a VM over multiple monitor, OR you prefer to have "Displays have seperate Spaces" turned off as I'd imagine most power users would, then unfortunately Parallels offers no reasonable solution.

 

So far Parallels 11 is working for me in High Sierra. I'd rather not have to switch to VMWare Fusion as 8.5 leaves a few things to be desired BUT it does support multiple monitors properly. As soon as PD11 no longer functions in the latest MacOS, I'll have to drop it assuming the Parallels development team hasn't already fixed this issue by that time.

I am eagerly awaiting Fusion 10 to see if I can drop PD11 altogether and move forward with a platform that is being actively developed. All Parallels has to do is add the custom fullscreen checkbox from PD11 to PD12 or PD13 and my problem would be solved. Why they haven't done so boggles my mind.

 

Echoing TxAg.

To be clear to the Parallels team, there are no circumstances under which my firm or I personally (or I imagine many others here) will continue to be Parallels customers if this isn't fixed before PD11 is no longer supported. Do not expect that we will "deal with it" if you choose not to solve the problem and stop supporting the last working version. It won't happen. Period.

Unlike some others here, our business is an unfortunate subscriber, which means we have been paying for (now) two versions that we cannot use. For now, we're using PD11 to avoid the friction of a switch, but at some point, it becomes irresponsible for us to operate on two-generations-old software. I have already instructed our firm's IT team to start planning for a Parallels exit, as we haven't seen any recognition that this is a problem Parallels is willing to even acknowledge, let alone solve.

Show us you give a crap that your loyal customers (almost 9 years running, some here I am sure have been longer) are going to leave because you are deaf to our needs - not new feature requests, but simply bringing back a user-required feature you used to have. Please stop ignoring the problem - if you include the fact that you made this same mistake in the first release of Parallels 11 and then had to revert to including the old full-screen mode after receiving many complaints (see, you've done it before!), it's been going on for years now.

 

Does the Parallels team even read here? It would seem like they DO NOT. This has now been a major issue for over a YEAR!

 

Nope, same problem. Every application using the macOS Fullscreen API has this exact problem.

What they should create is another mode: a fake fullscreen mode. In this mode it should show a window that is as big as one of the screens and does not have window decorations. Or maybe just an option to remove the screen decoration. That would solve the problem.

 

A solution needs to be found, especially given how much better Parallels 11 and earlier was when using multiple monitors.​

Quite so !!!
How can one fall back behind it's own level way so far ??
The new v13 behavior is just ridiculous. You really think, my idea is to have 8 space of which 4 are Parallels.
"Monitors use different spaces" is a NON-option - already in macOS - AND it does not work either.
So...
How about my second monitor ? That is the one that full screen should use as part of the same space.
How come v11 knew it all ?
This is a sad story.
Mitch

 

My partnership has 29 copies...all stuck on PD11 due to this issue. Losing perfectly functional features in an 'upgrade' is frustrating at best. To echo prior messages, if PD11 support is dropped, we will have to pursue other options--as the current 'workaround' is unusable in any practical way. As an unhelpful aside, the constant barrage of emails and reminders that we are 2 versions behind is tantamount to jeering at this point.

 

BIG WARNING TO EVERYONE. DO NOT UPGRADE TO HIGH SIERRA and/or PD13 YET!!
Apart for the notorious ignorance about the multi-monitor issue, they just introduced some MAJOR bugs with the latest version which now have prompted our business to cancel the subscription. Two full versions in and the monitor issue not fixed, plus now it has become completely unusable for the most part. Just look at this video of a macbook pro running High Sierra and PD13. Win7 running full screen and a USB device is plugged in. The left swipe is SUPPOSED to switch to Mac OS.
Just look and be amazed at what you have to go through to connect a USB device !!!!!!!!

 

Ditto to everyone's frustration here. I unfortunately upgraded from v10 to v12 last year and have been restricted to a single monitor since, which very much hampers my productivity. Parallels is otherwise a very good product, but I have no intention of upgrading to v13 until this is figured out.

 

I have this same issue using Ubuntu and it sucks, big time since I'm stuck on 12 cause I run on 17.10.
If this is because of the (cr)apple system api, I agree the route to go would be a "fake full screen" mode to be able to give the same feel and usability that was PD11.
It's ridiculous that the option just wasn't included in the first place. Why would you just make a huge change like this, breaking user's workflows and not even given them the option? That's just terrible product planning, IMO.

 

+1 to all the frustration everyone else is feeling regarding the full-screen issues. I made the mistake of upgrading from 11 to 13 without researching any potential issues since I figured anything major would've been worked out through a 13.1.1 release. I was wrong. It's very disappointing and I hope this gets resolved soon.

 

Ok, I have been using Parallels since v7 after switching from VMWare. Everything was fine until v.12 upgrade when multiple window no longer remained "linked" when switching between Spaces. Long promised v13 didn't fix it. However, v11 works just fine with High Sierra so it is total BS that Parallels is blaming MacOS for the bug. IT IS PARALLELS THAT CAN NOT FIGURE IT OUT! This is the number 1 voted feature suggestion. If they can't figure it out they should not insist on paying for upgrades with annual renewal. Also, maybe it is time to OUTSOURCE and get a programmer who can help you. PLEASE LISTEN TO THE YOUR ARDENT SUPPORTERS OR ELSE THEY WILL NO LONGER BE THERE! I am about ready to switch back to VMWare. My patience is coming to an end.....

 

Yeah... very unfortunate, but now VMware have become Apple's bitches too. They went down the same wrong path and took out their (perfectly working!) full screen feature in favor of (and disfavor to everyone on this planet!!) Apple's crippled "full screen" hack.
So as it currently stands, there is no more "professional" VM solution that is usable for multi monitor setups. I think only VirtualBox still does it.
I already canceled all renewals for Parallels and am currently looking in to other options like dedicated (mini) PC with Synergy or something along those lines.
Parallels is not listening to our input or maybe that's the way is is now, even the big companies are all Apple's slaves to some extent and if Apples says, all monkeys do!!

 

I would experience something like this sometimes and I would have to "unmaximize" it from full screen and re "maximize" it to full screen. Sometimes after doing that it settled in and works fine. Other times I've had to reboot (on rare occasions). I've been using Paralells for the last several years for doing ASP.Net on my MacBook Pro. There have been some rough edges here and there (lessons learned like download the current installer and make snapshots before every PD update).

Overall though, I'd have to say it's a good product to me.

I'm curious I've used PD on a late 2013 & mid 2014 model w/ Nvidia dual graphics. Those of you having trouble are you on the 2015+ ATI dual graphics models?

 

I am still on PD-11. I was on the regular upgrade path. I know that Parallels can fix this by going to the same strategy as PD-11... that is, generate a "screen-sized" window and locate it on the target display. I can only suspect that the rationale for them to abandon the PD-11 method is to cater to gamers.

Can't Parallels simply add the PD-11 method as a configuration option?

 

I just wanted to voice my request to keep the current behaviour as an option if another option is put into the code as a result of this request.
I have been using multi-monitor support on my macbook pro and parallels for the last couple years now from v11 through v13 and it is working exactly as I would like it to work.

Here is how it is working for me:
I have "Displays have separate spaces" enabled. I have had this enabled for so long, I forget what happens when I disable it. But I do like the behaviour I have now with each screen having its own work space.
I have "Use all displays in full screen" enabled in parallels.

This allows me to have a mixture of mac os screens visible and windows screens visible. And that supports my workflow perfectly. In fact, I recently setup a new VM and it defaulted to having "Activating virtual machine shows all its spaces" to true and this drove me nuts because each time I clicked on a windows screen, all the other monitors switched to that VM, which is not at all what I want to happen - ever.

With the current behaviour, I can move to each monitor and three finger swipe to quickly switch between windows and mac. It's perfect.

The only thing I would request is that parallels remember which monitor is the "main" monitor for windows when I "undock" and "redock" my laptop. More often than not, parallels will enter full screen across my monitors automatically but will use my laptop screen as the "main" monitor for windows. This means that every time I redock my laptop, I have to exit fullscreen, drag the parallels window to the big external monitor and then enter full screen again.

Clearly the current behaviour isn't good for some people and I hope they fix that for you. But I just wanted to also ask that they keep the current behaviour as an option when/if they do fix it.

 

ANY PROGRESS HERE??? BY NOW I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR **YEARS** FOR A FIX !!!