keyboard issues PD12 and Win10

I am experiencing a weird issue with Win10 guest OS inside of parallels 12: none of the "modern apps" (including the cortana search bar) take keyboard input (i.e., when I press any keys on the keyboard, nothing happens), but the traditional apps work fine with the keyboard. For example, Microsoft Edge -> no response to keyboard input; Microsoft Explorer -> responds correctly to keyboard input. This happened after the most recent parallels upgrade (i'm currently running parallels desktop pro version 12.1.1 (41491), running on a MacBook Air 13" Early 2015).

Another thing, not sure if it's related: since the most recent parallels upgrade, I now get a failed login for Win10 every time I restart: the auto login looks like it is working, but it takes forever and then times out with an "invalid handle" error message. Once I manually type in my password, I'm able to login normally

 

Hey @ClayN,
Please follow the KB article and change the keyboard layout.
Then, try reinstalling Parallels Tools http://bit.ly/1cZWAa3 and keep us posted whether it resolved the issue.

 

I have the same problem as @ClayN. The "United States (Apple) - Parallels" input method does not exist in my settings -- only the "US" method is shown -- so that suggestion could not be used. I have reinstalled Parallels Tools several times and nothing changed. I am unable to type in Cortana, Settings, or any Modern app.

Any other suggestions?

 

after doing some research, i think i may have found something going on, which may be due to the windows 10 guest os, and NOT parallels: many people running win10 noted the exact same problem; a fix (see: https://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardware/64757-keyboard-does-not-work-windows-store-apps.html) was noted discussed as follows: "After hours of going through reverting my custom Windows 10 Tweaks, I isolated the problem. You need to set the TextServicesFramework Task to Enabled and then Reboot your PC and you'll be good to go!

Win+R > taskschd.msc > Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > TextServicesFramework. Right click MsCtfMonitor and choose Enable. Reboot your PC."

So, when I went to taskschd.msc, it said that it couldn't load the schedules for the local computer... so, after more google, it was suggested to run services.msc and check to see that the scheduler service was running.. I did this, and, sure enough, the scheduling service was NOT running. I tried to start it... and, it keeps failing to start with an "error 1067"... Looking in the win10 system logs wasn't very helpful, so I'm now trying to upgrade my win10 guest OS, from win10 home to win10 pro, and see if that helps... very very frustrating, but i'm beginning to suspect that this may be a win10 issue and NOT a parallels issue..

 

This thread and this other thread are closely related, I believe.

Yes ... but (in my case at least) I did not have this problem before upgrading to 12.1.1 and updating Parallels Tools --- perhaps Parallels modifies Windows processes and internals and in doing so can also damage them?

 

You have the problem we are discussing here:
<https://forum.parallels.com/threads...sly-damaged-my-win-10-vm.339566/#post-816127>

Parallels V12, has gone wrong at about 12.1.1. Inside Windows all sorts of things behave oddly, and the performance is awful. Slow/unreliable boots, odd keyboard behaviour, some graphic corruption etc.. Exactly how it behaves, seems to depend possibly on 'sub details' of the Windows installation, but you are talking about the same problem...

It's not a W10 problem (I took two days proving this, including fully re-installing Windows....

 

ok, so here's another update: I can't update to win10 pro via the in-OS upgrade option through the microsoft store, it keeps failing. So, MS tech support recommended restarting in safe mode, which I did, and... amazingly, cortana works... I can't test modern apps, because safe mode doesn't allow them to launch under the default administrator account. I also ran services.msc in safe mode, to see if the task scheduler service was running, and... it WASN'T(!) and, when I try to start it, I'm informed that the service can't run in safe mode!! this gets weirder and weirder!

 

Yes, I've reached the same conclusion: the parallels 12.1.1 update has caused bad things with windows 10 guest os... hoping they can fix the issues and get us back up to speed... i'm fortunately not dependent on modern apps and cortana in my own personal workflow, but i'm sure other ARE and it is just bad business to release a broken update... i would assume that regression testing and unit testing are done, prior to any update releases.. although, a virtualization environment is non-trivial..

 

...and, a further update: I just completed a "fresh" install of PD12 and windows 10 pro, and the keyboard input works with cortana and the modern apps; looking further into this install, I see that the scheduler service is running, and looking at the task scheduler, I see that the text services framework is also running... thus, I think the problem (at least my problem) is that somehow between windows 10 update and PD12 update, the scheduler service breaks and it won't run and then the text services framework won't run and then... no keyboard input to cortana or modern apps

 

Luck of the draw. Over here, a fresh install did not fix the keyboard input issue with Cortana and modern apps (including Settings)

 

I'm having the same issues - and really struggling to see how to work with this.

 

Same issues as ClayN. Went through the same checks as he did and got the same results ... task scheduler not running et al.
I also have issues with the and posted regarding dead slow start pop and app launching discussed in another forum thread.
At this point I guess I give it away and see if the vendor gets into gear and fixes this PD 12 Sierra Win 10 issues.
Not all that happy Folks.

 

Same issues with PD 12 & Windows 10 with typing in the newer applications (like Cortana) and with task scheduler.

 

Hello, please follow the steps as suggested below and keep us posted:

1. Press CMD+ R (to open Run )
2. Copy and paste "C:\Windows\system32\ctfmon.exe" then press enter, it brings back the language bar 3. After executing the run command, proceed to these steps-
   • Navigate to the folder C:\Windows\System32
   • Locate ctfmon (Application)
   • Right-click > Send to > Desktop (Create shortcut)
   • Open run > type ' shell:startup ' (without quotes)
   • Drag & drop the ctfmon shortcut placed in the Desktop to the Startup folder.

 

Finally a solution! I have also been fighting this problem for months and spent lots of time following many false leads and advice. Now I can finally type into Cortana and other modern apps.
Thanks Swati.

 

I also had this problem and Swati's solution works for me. Thanks for publishing it.

 

This is a great workarond, and thank you for posting it Swati. There is still some underlying problem that several of us are running into around not being able to run the task scheduler. The most obvious issue is the inability to type in Cortana or other "modern" apps. However, there are probably other scheduled jobs that Windows runs (and Parallels Tools, for that matter!) that will likely manifest themselves over time. Is there further investigation going on to identify the cause of these issues?

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Yes indeed, I have also started to experience this after a recent PD12 update.


This needs to be fixed in a more comprehensive way, really...

Issues are not limited to not being able to type or the ctfmon startup fix. Boots are slow, after sign-in it takes minutes for task bar and start menu to become responsive and even then, they will intermittently 'flash' and become unresponsive again.

None of the posted fixes are useful. I know what I am doing and this is not normal.