Parallels 8 - Use Animations?

I just upgraded to Parallels 8 and I've noticed the Mac animations are happening to my VM windows now. I had that disabled by unchecking the 'Use Animations' on the general preferences pane (as seen here) in Parallels 7. I don't see that configuration option anymore. Is it possible disable them anymore?

 

Same here, it's annoying me greatly. I'm ready to go back to Parallels 7 if I can't turn it off.

 

PS - if anyone from Parallels is looking - this is more than just a "personal preference" issue, it's a real usability problem. In certain apps (like SQL Server Management Studio) all the menus slowly "pop" when you click them, which is incredibly annoying and slows you down.

I've already downgraded back to Parallels 7 because of it (and other minor odd things) and am waiting for them to fix this kind of stuff.

Maybe it's time to get Fusion 5 another try.

 

If I understand correctly, you're talking about OS X full screen animations. Try to uncheck Virtual Machine -> Configure -> Options -> Full Screen -> Use Mac OS X Full Screen. Then change default Active Corner from Show Menu Bar to Exit Full Screen
Hope this helps

 

If you read BennettD's original message you'll find that that is not what we're talking about. He even includes a link with a screen shot that demonstrates what he's talking about.

 

BennettD attached a link to PD6 documentation. In PD6 this option really disables transition animations, but not in PD7.

 

Would the option you pointed out have any effect if you aren't running in Full Screen?

 

OK, looks like I've finally figured out what annoys you. Window opening animation is a system thing, "Use animations" option has nothing to do with it.

The good news is that this behavior can be easily tuned in Terminal.app

To disable animations for Parallels Desktop only:
defaults write com.parallels.desktop.console NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool NO

To disable animations for all applications:
defaults write -g NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool NO

 

Maybe I'm still not explaining it right. "Use animations" had something to do with it because unchecking it will stop this behavior, and checking it will enable the behavior.

I just tried the change you recommended and unfortunately it did not make a difference.

Perhaps this will help - here is a video of what I'm seeing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ronmichael/7907316542/

I do notice that if I go into the Windows system preferences, advanced performance or something like that, and I enable Slide menus down, the popping effect is somewhat less annoying. It doesn't seem to pop on the first menu click but will pop if I move to another menu item.

 

OK, try this one:

defaults write com.parallels.Parallels\ Desktop.plist Application\ preferences.Use\ animations -bool NO

 

That didn't seem to help either.

 

Great video, that perfectly demonstrates the issue. I suppose I neglected to mention the issue is observed when running in Coherence mode. Also, the link I posted to in help was just hit number one from Google when I searched for the solution to the problem I used previously. I'd like to add that I've used Parallels for some time now and it is entirely possible that I unchecked Use Animations in version 6, the setting carried over to version 7 and got wiped out in version 8.

I do recall that being the 'fix' to the 'problem' though...

 

We have found the cause of this issue. Unfortunately, this behavior can not be changed neither via gui, nor via terminal.
We will try to solve the problem in the nearest update.

Thanks for your feedback and the detailed explanation of the problem.

 

OK, one last chance - try to open virtual machine bundle (right click -> show package contents), then open config.pvs file, find WindowAnimation entry and change its value to 0, so it looks like:
<WindowAnimation>0</WindowAnimation>

 

I tried this, and it's working for me. Now there is no more animation on windows programs.
This should be solved in the preference-settings as "option" like before in Version 7!

 

Worked like a champ! And like the crazy person I am, I didn't shut down the VM when I made the modification and it took effect without a reboot

Thanks for the quick support!

 

Awesome, it worked!

I also found another setting in there that let me change an annoying new behavior in P8: set DoNotMinimizeToDock to 1 to have it stop minimizing apps to the dock.

 

Works!

Changing that line in the config.pvs file did the trick for me Thos animations on dropdown menus are terrible...

Just shut down your MV.
Locate the pvm file. Right-click -> Show package contents
Open the file config.pvs for editing
Locate the following line:

<WindowAnimation>1</WindowAnimation>

Change it to:

<WindowAnimation>0</WindowAnimation>

Save. Boot your machine and done

 

It is nice to have this workaround, but why did you guys take this option out of the preferences?

Also, perhaps having these turned off should be the default, as I suspect nearly everyone finds them annoying.

 

Help with same problem

Hi All,

I'm having the same menu zooming problem HOWEVER, when I right-click on Parallels Desktop in my Applications folder and "Show Contents" I DO NOT see the config.pvs file.

Can someone please help?

Thanks!