How do you get the Start Menu menu option to work?

My "Start Menu" menu option for the dock icon's context menu doesn't seem to work. When I right click on the dock icon, the context menu pops up. But when I click on the Start Menu option, the menu just disappears and nothing else happens. The Start Menu doesn't show up. I've tried this with and without Coherence and fiddled with a ton of options, but the behavior is the same. Am I doing something wrong?

 

Nobody knows or has a similar problem?

 

Same thing here. I'm using win2k ... what OS version are you using?

- Dave

 

I've never gotten this feature to work for any VM for Windows XP Pro when Coherence is on and the task bar is hidden. It's always worked for my Windows Vista VM's though. Go figure. To get the Start Menu to pop up on the Parallels icon, I just left click on the icon. Right click doesn't do it. But as I said, it works great for Vista, but not at all for XP.

I would love to be able to hide my Windows Task bar in XP since I have a dual monitor setup (with dual monitor recognition turned off in Parallels because Coherence doesn't work) and have no place to put my Mac Dock. I can't put it left since it goes way off to the other monitor. I can't put it right because it runs into the Mac desktop icons. And it looks really weird on the bottom co-existing with the Windows Task bar.

 

Hi,

To make Windows Start Menu works please do the fllowing:

1. Open your Windows VM (2k, XP or Vista)
2. Remove Parallels Tools using Add/Remove programs in Windows.
3. Reboot Windows.
4. Install Parallels Tools using Install Paralllels Tools... menu of Paralles Desktop application.
5. Reboot Windows.

Windows Start Menu can work in two different ways:

1. Open Start Menu using RIGHT-CLICK on the Parallels Desktop icon in Dock then select Start Menu menu item. It works in Windowed/Full Screen/Coherence mode.

2. Open Start Menu using LEFT-CLICK on the Parallels Desktop icon in Dock. It works in Coherence mode only.

Alex

 

Found a solution

This one is my own doing. I've used an excellent 3rd party utility to put the Windows Alt key back where it should be. On my hacked copy of Windows I can bring up the Start menu by hitting the Option key.

- Dave

 

I've just gone through these steps and the Start Menu in the Dock icon menu still doesn't work. Neither the left click or right click approach works. My VM is running Windows XP, if that matters.

 

Try the start keys

With Parallels running in the foreground ...

What happens when you press the Option key?

What happens when you press the Command key?

- Dave

 

I'm actually using a Windows keyboard that is shared via a KVM to my Vista box and my iMac. In OSX, I've swapped the Options and Command keys in the Keyboard preferences pane. With that said, with Parallels in the foreground, if I hit the Windows key, then the start menu shows up. Hitting the Alt key does nothing.

I have no problem getting the Start Menu to pop up via the keyboard. I just want to get the dock icon's Start Menu to work. I've tried undoing the key mapping, but the Start Menu menu option still doesn't work.

 

Troubleshooting suggestions

You can tell easily if it's related to the Windows keyboard by simply plugging in your Mac keyboard. I suspect that Parallels wont support a Windows keyboard connected to a Mac via KVM.

- Dave

p.s. I would highly recommend ditching the KVM altogether in favor of the open-source Synergy software. This lets you use one keyboard and mouse to control two computers; each computer having their own screen. That way you can use both boxes at the same time--assuming of course that you have enough desk space for two screens.

 

I installed that program in my Windows VM, but it doesn't work. I had to install .NET Framework 2.0 first, then I started up sharpkeys. I clicked "Add" to add a remapping, then "Type Key," but when I pressed either the Option or Command key (the two I want to remap) nothing happened. After a few repeat attempts and restarts, it finally recognized the Command key as "Special: Left Windows" (funny how it says all the keys are special), but if it doesn't recognize the option key, I can't swap them. I can tell the Option key is doing something, because it makes the little "Type Key" window flicker when I press it; it will also toggle the cursor from an I-beam to an arrow if it's hovering over a text field or document window, but as far as doing anything remotely useful? Nada. Bupkes.

Another oddity I've noticed is that the "Remap CMD+ZXCVAF" doesn't. I can swap the CMD and CTRL, but then I have to remember to use Command-click instead of Control-click to right-click, but only in Parallels. At first I thought I could simply reassign the right-click to the Command key (which has been remapped to the control key by the swap) to restore the balance, but Parallels apparently anticipated this and insisted that if I use the Command key, I must also use either the Control or Alt key too. It simply won't let you uncheck both the Control and Alt keys at the same time. (Why does it sometimes seem like software designers are trying to deliberately thwart their users?)

 

Same problem here. I don't know what my father did, but I have a multi-account configuration with two shared Windows VMs (Windows XP and Windows Vista). I, my brother and my sister we have not problem at all: the start menu shows up correctly. Starting from today the start menu of both VMs doesn't work when I logged with my father's account.

Only a thing, it still shows up when the cmd key is pressed, but not in the near of the dock icon but at the left of the screen. Somebody can help me?