Can I configure Parallels to always ignore a USB device?

Greetings,

I use Parallels 10.2.1 (29006) to run Windows 8.1 on my Mac Pro system, and I frequently have two additional USB monitors attached to my Mac. Every time Parallels switches to Coherence, Windows recognizes the USB monitors and adds them to the Windows Display list, and adds their screen area to the space that can be used by Windows.

Sometimes the software I'm using in Windows, (or Windows itself) reacts badly to this, and some of the widows of the running applications will be moved from the larger main monitors to the smaller secondary monitors, thus messing up my manually setup layout and sizing of the windows of those applications. I don't want it to work this way, and despite all my attempts to stop it form happening, it still does.

Every time I resume my suspended Win 8.1 system I have to go to "Control Panel -> Display -> Screen Resolution" and change the "Multiple displays:" setting for each of the additional monitors to be "Disconnect this display". If I only had to do that once, I would be OK with that, but the setting does not persist though reboot of the Win 8.1 system, or through suspend and resume. I have even tried to disable the Driver for what is considered the "Generic Non-PnP Monitor" by going to "Control Panel -> Device Manager -> [ my computer name ] -> Monitors -> Generic Non-PnP Monitor -> Properties -> Driver -> Disable". Unfortunately this change will also not persist like my attempts to use "Disconnect this display".

Since the trigger seems to be switching the view to Coherence, is there any way to configure Parallels so that it will always ignore the two USB devices, even though they are connected and live on my Mac?

James T. Savidge, Thursday, June 25, 2015

 

Hi James,
Could you try to disable "use all displays in full screen" and check if the issue still persists.
You can do that by clicking on the Parallels Icon on top of your Mac then choosing 'view' and un-tick 'use all displays in full screen'.
Or you can also shut down your Virtual Machine and go to virtual machine configuration->options->full screen-> and uncheck use all displays in full screen.

 

Unfortunately, I already had both of those unchecked.

Are the full screen options used by Parallels if you are only using Coherence, (which is all I'm using,) but not going to full screen?

James T. Savidge, Thursday, June 25, 2015