ddahle1970
Member
I have "shared applications" turned off in my VM config - but from time to time, Parallels will partially populate the start menu with some of the apps on the Mac side. How do I correct this?
Parallels Shared apps appearing in Start Menu
- Thread starter ddahle1970
- Start date
ddahle1970
Member
I notice the menu populates every time I install something on the Mac side.
As I mentioned earlier, this is even with the Shared Apps / Shared Profile turned off.
What's going on?
As I mentioned earlier, this is even with the Shared Apps / Shared Profile turned off.
What's going on?
ddahle1970
Member
Hrmph.
I thought this went away, but right now I have these shortcuts in my VM's start menu:
Disk Utility (Mac) - haven't run this in a while on the Mac side?!
DiskImageMounter (Mac) - seems to be an internal OS X function?
Opera (Mac) - this has only recently been installed and not run yet
Parallels Desktop (Mac) - what the heck? Why would I want to launch Parallels from inside the VM?!
...and checking the configuration menu showed Shared Applications was on. I KNOW I turned this off. Sigh.
I thought this went away, but right now I have these shortcuts in my VM's start menu:
Disk Utility (Mac) - haven't run this in a while on the Mac side?!
DiskImageMounter (Mac) - seems to be an internal OS X function?
Opera (Mac) - this has only recently been installed and not run yet
Parallels Desktop (Mac) - what the heck? Why would I want to launch Parallels from inside the VM?!
...and checking the configuration menu showed Shared Applications was on. I KNOW I turned this off. Sigh.
This has been a BUG in parallels for as long as I can remember. It's quite annoying. It does that "both ways" even though I have the "shared apps" turned off (Mac Apps are visible in Windoze, Windoze apps visible on the Mac).
Parallels tech: Are you listening? Is there somewhere we should be reporting this other than here???
Thanks,
Steve
ddahle1970
Member
This is with the current build (3844), by the way.
I should add I have yet to see any of my few PC apps show on the Mac side - so I am at least thankful for that.
I should add I have yet to see any of my few PC apps show on the Mac side - so I am at least thankful for that.
ddahle1970
Member
I decided to wipe my profile in the VM to free up some space - it had grown to a significant size.
Once the profile was regenerated, it had a fully populated Shared Applications menu, then when I went to customize it, it repopulated. It seems each time that any change is made, Parallels repopulates the Start Menu with the shared apps regardless of the setting in the preferences.
Once the profile was regenerated, it had a fully populated Shared Applications menu, then when I went to customize it, it repopulated. It seems each time that any change is made, Parallels repopulates the Start Menu with the shared apps regardless of the setting in the preferences.
Tony Carreon
Hunter
this is a problem that has existed for a long time in parallels. i have never been able to completely get it to go away. i've learned to ignore it because parallel's support has proved useless on this issue. maybe you can learn to live with it too.
ddahle1970
Member
At this point I think I will have to do that. I think I did find what triggers it, however. It seems after any files are changed directly relating to Windows (this time, I was removing some of the stock patterns and wallpapers I don't much care for), Parallels goes to refresh the start menu. Next time I install any updates or the like, I will know to visit the Start menu and delete the newly created folder.
Hi ddahle1970,
It goes much deeper than that. The recreation of the "Shared Applications" folder on your Windows side is tied to version of Parallels Tools that came with Parallels 4. And that menu will come back every time you right-click a file in Windows.
I went through the trouble of renaming the DLLs and Folders that Parallels Tools installs to - and after doing so, every time I right-click a file or press CTRL+C to copy, the Parallels Tools MSI installer would try to launch and of course fail because I have renamed the files it's looking for. In fact, I just deleted the Shared Apps folder from my start menu, went to "My Documents" and right-clicked a Word file. Didn't even have to choose anything off the right-click-menu. And now, the Shared Apps folder is back on my start menu.
Unfortunately, in this version of Parallels Tools, there are no user-configurable install options. And it would appear that the Shared Apps feature is directly tied to the other, actually useful features - like clipboard sharing, mouse synchronizing, etc. The only option is to uninstall Parallels Tools.
BUT, that is a major FAIL as well. I uninstalled Parallels Tools via Add/Remove programs and then Windows cannot find a video driver nor can it find a driver for an unspecified PCI device. Not good.
It looks like we're all stuck having our Mac apps show in our Windows VMs whether we want them there or not. The most frustrating part is that there's a config check box in the VM that makes you THINK you can disable this feature, but it doesn't do anything. Or maybe the most frustrating part is the fact that there doesn't seem to be any response from the Parallels techs about fixing it...
Another point of interest, deleting the start menu folder only temporarily cures half the problem - the other half is that all the Mac apps show up in the "Open With..." context menu. If you want to get rid of those, you have to edit your registry and remove all keys and folders therein that contain the text "(Mac)". This can be a very long and arduous process and is not worth it because they will come back.
Please, Parallels, fix this...
It goes much deeper than that. The recreation of the "Shared Applications" folder on your Windows side is tied to version of Parallels Tools that came with Parallels 4. And that menu will come back every time you right-click a file in Windows.
I went through the trouble of renaming the DLLs and Folders that Parallels Tools installs to - and after doing so, every time I right-click a file or press CTRL+C to copy, the Parallels Tools MSI installer would try to launch and of course fail because I have renamed the files it's looking for. In fact, I just deleted the Shared Apps folder from my start menu, went to "My Documents" and right-clicked a Word file. Didn't even have to choose anything off the right-click-menu. And now, the Shared Apps folder is back on my start menu.
Unfortunately, in this version of Parallels Tools, there are no user-configurable install options. And it would appear that the Shared Apps feature is directly tied to the other, actually useful features - like clipboard sharing, mouse synchronizing, etc. The only option is to uninstall Parallels Tools.
BUT, that is a major FAIL as well. I uninstalled Parallels Tools via Add/Remove programs and then Windows cannot find a video driver nor can it find a driver for an unspecified PCI device. Not good.
It looks like we're all stuck having our Mac apps show in our Windows VMs whether we want them there or not. The most frustrating part is that there's a config check box in the VM that makes you THINK you can disable this feature, but it doesn't do anything. Or maybe the most frustrating part is the fact that there doesn't seem to be any response from the Parallels techs about fixing it...
Another point of interest, deleting the start menu folder only temporarily cures half the problem - the other half is that all the Mac apps show up in the "Open With..." context menu. If you want to get rid of those, you have to edit your registry and remove all keys and folders therein that contain the text "(Mac)". This can be a very long and arduous process and is not worth it because they will come back.
Please, Parallels, fix this...
This has occurred for me, as well, in Parallels Desktop for Mac Version 10.1.1 (28614).
I did as suggested above, but the entries are still in the contextual menu.
I do not use any of the cross-platform tools, but I, unfortunately, turned them rather inadvertently. I was trying to massage my new installation of Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit and chose some option that somehow turned all of the coherence stuff on and I did not realize it until I had rebooted and was faced with all kinds of crap from my Mac desktop on my Windows desktop.
How can I get rid of the contextual menu items, please? (other than the last-mentioned regedit solution, which is avowedly non-permanent.)
I did as suggested above, but the entries are still in the contextual menu.
I do not use any of the cross-platform tools, but I, unfortunately, turned them rather inadvertently. I was trying to massage my new installation of Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit and chose some option that somehow turned all of the coherence stuff on and I did not realize it until I had rebooted and was faced with all kinds of crap from my Mac desktop on my Windows desktop.
How can I get rid of the contextual menu items, please? (other than the last-mentioned regedit solution, which is avowedly non-permanent.)