Parallels M1 Windows 10 / 11 Spinning Wheel of Death

J

JamesR40

Bit poster
I tried to a previously working Windows 11 ARM image on my M1 Macbook Air, but after displaying the desktop the task bar did not display and moving the cursor only displayed the spinning wheel icon. Clicking on the Trash Can icon brings up a File Explorer window, but after a few minutes the window closes. Sending CTRL-ALT-DEL brings up the menu and I can select Task Manager, but nothing unusual appears in the task list.

Thinking I hosed my VM image, I downloaded and installed a Windows 10 ARM image from the Microsoft website, but after installation completes I am still stuck with a desktop and spinning wheel icon over the task bar.

Anyone else seeing similar behavoir in their VMs?
Jim
 
I have the same problem since this morning. The task bar is blank and if I try to open any app it just gets stuck. I have not done tried going back to Windows 10 as I have data in this instance of Windows that I do not wish to lose.
 
I ended up reinstalling the Windows 10 image from the Microsoft site, configuring TPM prior to starting the image. No problems so far.
 
I also had massive issues with Windows 11 Insider today. I was able to fix it thanks to snapshots and because i could still access my data as windows was "half" working still. FWIW, I use macrium reflect to mirror all my user data to an usb stick (sandisk usb c luxe drive) every 15 minutes, i recommed you do that too in some way. I didn't need it here, but came close. I also recommend you take snapshots at least 3 times a day, and backup your full VM every weak at least (clone it via parallels).



Anyway, I do NOT know what caused that!

It was hell:
- context menu on desktop had extreme delay or did not appear at all.
- rebooting did not help.
- explorer could not be launched (gave a blank window)
- directory opus still worked but i could not move files to an external drive, only certain operations.
- The taskbar was no longer there
- windows update no longer appeared in settings, only certain settings worked.
- device manager worked
- taskbar settings were not accessible in settings
- i wanted to get into safe mode but that had lots of hurdles and I do not know if I would have managed.

I had to revert to an old snapshot and actually I used telegram to send files that had changed in the meantime as zip files back to myself because i could not easilty move them to extrenal usb.

BEWARE it might be that this behavior suddenly creeps in.

good pratrice is to isolate your VM before rebooting after an update, and make a snapshot before the reboot and perhaps even a copy of your VM. and beware, I think shutting down the VM via windows taskbar, and then starting later does not do a real reboot. I think one has to do it via taskbar and then click reboot explicitly.
https://www.howtogeek.com/349114/sh...-shut-down-windows-10-but-restarting-it-does/
 
Just FYI, neither the registry fix provided by MS, nor reinstalling Macrium fixed the problem. I am lucky to have my backup and snapshots, but I am still mentioning this in case it is of any use to anybody. I still have a backup of the half-dead VM and will keep it for reference. In case sb needs it for reference, I am glad to help.
 
I came into the same/similar issue last week and decided just to uninstall the whole lot. I plan to do a fresh install of Parallels and keep with Windows 10 for now. Not sure if this issue is TPM / Win 11 / changes in the insider programme updates or a combination of the lot but it basically left my Win 11 VM unusable. Luckily I only really use it for working on documents in my Onedrive so everything is backed up.
 
I am correcting: I didn't mean Macrium, I meant I re-installed Parallels Toolbox.

I don't think it is necessary to move away from Windows 11 on Parallels at this stage. It has been working perfectly fine again now. Weird stuff has also happened on normal x64 windows installations for me, on PCs.
 
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