Keyboard input directed to both OSX and Windows after waking from sleep

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PhilipH

Bit poster
I often have Parallels 7 running in full-screen mode on Lion- allowing it to create and occupy its own "Space" as is now the standard.

Recently, I have been encountering a peculiar problem with keyboard input immediately after waking my laptop from sleep.

Anything I type is input into both my host operating system, and the virtualised one. As you can imagine, this tends to make a serious mess of whatever code I have open, and tends to result in Windows 7 doing unexpected and random things depending on what I'm typing that morning.

This morning I switched over to my Parallels 7 space, to find a Google search for half a forum post I'd typed earlier, open help windows, screen zoom turned on, and an open page of code replaced with garbage.

I'm using an external, wired (Apple) keyboard.

The problem is resolved as soon as I switch to Parallels 7/Windows and then back to my host operating system. But keyboard input always goes to both after waking from sleep, and until I do this.

Has anyone else run into this weirdness, and perhaps found a solution?
 
Hi, I'm very glad I found your post, so at least I know I'm not the only one experiencing this problem ;).

I was going to send a support request, but thought I'd better look in the forums first as I still haven't had the time to carefully reproduce the issue in detail.

I have the exact same problem as you, with the same seriously dangerous consequences, but my configuration is a little different: I'm running Windows 7 Pro inside Parallels version 7.0.14924 (Revision 699487; Mon, 03 Oct 2011), running on Snow Leopard (10.6.8) on a MacBook Pro. I'm using the built-in MBP keyboard, and I usually just use the VM in full-screen, I do not use Spaces.

Does anyone have a clue?
Otherwise, Parallels support will receive my request in a few days...

By the way, I also have a similar problem with the app switcher: when the VM is in full-screen, I press Cmd-Tab to call the switcher and switch to a Mac application. I'm accustomed to moving in the switcher by using the arrow keys, I find it to be a more intuitive way to select the desired application, but when I press the arrow keys the keypress is also passed on to the VM, so for example the Word cursor moves, or different icons are selected on the Windows desktop!
 
Your first troubleshooting step for a problem like this is to uninstall and reinstall Parallel tools from the VM. The tools are what are used to capture input for the VM, so reinstalling them if there is a problem with them should fix the problem.

Steve
 
Didn't work - Video attached

Thank you but uninstalling and reinstalling Parallels Tools didn't work, nothing changed.
And I didn't expect anything different, to be sincere: I already noticed the problem on at least two different virtual machines, and one was freshly installed.

I attach here a short video showing how I can reproduce the problem. Here is what I do in the video:

1. I wake up the VM from sleep.
2. While the VM wakes up, I switch (Cmd-Tab) to TextMate on OSX for writing, and start writing.
3. When the VM is ready, it starts capturing everything I type, with possibly serious consequences. Keep in mind that the user might not be seeing the VM screen while he types in OSX, I left the window visible just for the video.
 

Attachments

Update

Hi, I just upgraded Parallels to Version 7.0.15050 (Revision 707095; Fri, 28 Oct 2011), and Parallels Tools have been automatically upgraded, too.
I tried a couple of times to reproduce the problem, with no success.
Maybe they really fixed it? I'll see how it behaves during the next few days.
PhilipH, did you try this upgrade?

Anyway, I still have the smaller problem with Cmd-Tab and arrow keys.
 
I've recently updated Parallels, but still get the problem. However, I've realised that I was previously discounting another part of my daily routine: connecting the external monitor.

I can now re-produce the problem with the following steps. Note, I am running Windows 7, full-screen in its own "space" on OSX Lion. Parallels Build 7.0.15052 rev 710728

1) Fire up notepad in Windows 7/Parallels so there's something for keyboard input to go into without causing immediate madness
2) Switch back to OSX using gestures or CTRL+LEFT
3) Pull the display port connector out of my laptop and wait for everything to settle on the screen
4) Plug the display port connector back in
5) Select any OSX window and type

It's at this point that I can switch to Windows and see my typed input there, in addition to where I originally typed it.

This seems to happen with all keyboard input, plus modifier keys. The resulting madness caused in Windows 7 can be quite severe, as mentioned before.
 
Problem NOT fixed!

Hi PhilipH, sorry for not getting back sooner but I can confirm that the problem is still here, too.

I can easily reproduce it as I did in the video I previously attached. Maybe immediately after the upgrade something was preventing it from happening.

Other updates came up in the meantime and I currently use Parallels 7.0.15052 (Revision 710728; Fri, 11 Nov 2011), which still has this bug.

I need to find the time to properly report this to official support.

Do you use any keyboard "hacks", by chance?
I use KeyRemap4MacBook and wanted to do a test after quitting it, just to be sure, although I strongly doubt it's involved.
 
No keyboard hacks or things of that nature. It's a reasonably fresh, from-scratch reinstall of Lion.

I've been in touch with support, but received a standard "Reinstall Parallels Tools" response. I've since gone back with the above set of steps, hoping they'll have better luck recreating the problem.

Your problem seems to be slightly different to mine; in that I'm leaving the VM running and waking my whole computer from sleep. Either way, there's definitely a problem with Parallels being too "greedy" in terms of capturing keyboard input.

I've been lucky thus far, as I've been able to undo any damage done to code or other things I have open in Parallels.
 
I think I had the problem also when putting the Mac to sleep and waking it while the VM was running, but it's something I don't do anymore because it caused some problems inside the VM (a special application I use was not starting anymore, who knows).

I now am aware of the keyboard input problem and pay attention to it every time I wake up my VM, of course, so no damage is done, but it's a nasty bug nevertheless.
 
Hi, just for the record, I opened a support issue for this problem, and until now Parallels support could only suggest a workaround which didn't fix the problem (disabling the "Enable Mac OS X System Shortcuts" option).
 
I see this problem too.

It's a minor problem for me, but could be major for others since you could lose your work if it's overwriting text fields depending on the application.
 
Support update

In the meanwhile my support request was brought forward, and it was closed when the issue was passed to the development team. Let's hope they will really take care of it...
 
No sign of a fix yet, this problem still plagues me almost daily and I've come to accept it... despite the huge potential danger it poses to open Beyond Compare or Visual Studio sessions!

It only seems to happen when I've got an external monitor connected, when I open my laptop at home with no external monitor then there is no problem.
 
Ditto!!

Dang! This is a frustrating little problem! I have the same issue and have for months. I just decided today to check out for a solution because I went to my "space" for Windows and see that it has opened several programs, typed up lots of google searches, and even tried to register some software, all without me knowing about it! I don't see anywhere where you can tell it to not share the keyboard! I hope I didn't hit the delete key today!! Here's hoping Parallels is not asleep at the wheel like on other support issues.
 
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