PD13 Multiple Monitors Still a Problem

I am using Coherence as well, over 2 external monitors and my MacBook Pro. Windows 10 and PD13. Everything works reasonably well except for one thing--from time to time one of my external monitors will simply go blank for a few seconds, and then come back on. This has been going on for some time and it is very irritating. Anyone encounter this?

 

I use two external monitors also. Never had that problem.

 

I am having the same problem on a single external monitor. I am also having major stability problems with PD 13. How do you get someone at PD to actually talk to u=you when you're having problems.

 

Guys, I've made a "feature suggestion" under Parallels Desktop for Mac Feature Suggestions titled "Usable multi-monitor support". Please give it a vote if you'd like Parallels to fix multi-monitor support.

 

My corporate IT team upgraded me to PD 13 when they installed my new Windows 10 guest computer, and like all of you I am completely aghast that multi-display does not work properly. I have gotten it to work by using the Mission Control "Displays have separate Spaces" fix, but that to me makes my MAC side almost useless. This is unacceptable for a company the size of PD to ignore. I previously had switched from VMWare FUsion to Paralells based on the fact that back then VMWare was having significant issues with dual screens. Now I am stuck between the two largest vendors and their broken products.

 

Any official word on this from Parallels? They keep prompting me to upgrade given High Sierra is just around the corner, but I want the multiple displays to work the same way it does in PD11, which is exactly how I want it to be!

 

So far Parallels 11 is working for me in High Sierra. I'd rather not have to switch to VMWare Fusion as 8.5 leaves a few things to be desired BUT it does support multiple monitors properly. I am eagerly awaiting Fusion 10 to see if I can drop PD11 altogether and move forward with a platform that is being actively developed. All Parallels has to do is add the custom fullscreen checkbox from PD11 to PD12 or PD13 and my problem would be solved. Why they haven't done so boggles my mind.

 

Just upgraded to PD13 and within the first 5 minutes found myself here. Every time I give these guys money I regret it. As this has problem has existed for two versions I guess they consider it as fine. I'm going to try and get a refund. If enough of us demand our money back maybe they'll actually address it.


EDIT: I got my refund. Sad, I would have rather they addressed the problem. Using "Displays Have Separate Spaces" isn't an option as one of the screens is a video display and can't have the menu at the top. If they ever fix this (which doesn't seem likely) I may be back.

On a side note I'm glad I didn't go in for the subscription. It would have meant I'd paid the last two years for products that aren't usable.

 

It looks like Parallels isn't going to do anything about this.
I remembered someone posted that they were using TotalSpaces2 to be able to work with Sync'd mutilpe fullscreen desktops. I have now given it a try and to my surprise it works!!
The set up I have gone for is:

Installed TotalSPaces2 (initially in trial node) having followed instructions and followed switching off & on SIP (Instruction on website).

MAC OSX (High Sierra) In Mission Control - Group Windows By Application
- Displays have seperate Spaces
TotalSpaces2 - In Layout - SyncGrids - Checked
- Added the correct desktop before opening Parallels
- In Transitions - Use Transitions
- Swipe to change Spaces (4 Fingers)

Then Voila - everything works as before.
I top this off with Hyperdock and it's nearly perfection.
I am not sure if you need all the above setting but it works for me.
Hope this help someone - I certainly feel it's restored me to 99% back to old PD11 - If only Parallels would do the same.
Ken

[I do not work for or have any connection to either Hyperdock or TotalSpaces2]

 

Thanks Ken5;

Quick question, are you able to get this to work without a menu bar at the top of each screen? I could use "each display has a separate space" but that gives me a menu bar at the top of each screen, which is a problem on the display we are outputting video to.

Still it's a shame we have to use someone elses software to fix Parallels

 

Hi James

I don't see any menu bar on either of the two monitors I am using. The one issue I have come across is that when I have more than 3 OSX desktops it seems to get confused. Other than that it seems to work well. Why not give the trial version of Totalspaces2 a go?

Happy to help describe my set up more if needed.

Ken

 

@Ken5

Ok, I'll bite. Haha. I installed TotalSpaces2 and followed your instructions, but I can't seem to get there. The discrepancy I have, is I don't see a "sync grids" checkbox at all, in TotalSpaces2.

In my configuration, I have two monitors, and (with parallels running) three desktops. The first desktop is OS X, and parallels is the other two. Each with one monitor's worth of info displayed, and the other "half" being black.

I've got separate spaces turned on in settings, as well as group windows by application.

Thanks for your glimmer of hope here.

As an added caveat for others, I ended up here after a perfectly working setup in parallels 11. However, in my case, my windows VM is my boot camp partition. When I upgraded to High Sierra, the file system got (automatically for machines with SSDs as I understand it) upgraded to the new APFS. Unsurprisingly, parallels 11 isn't compatible with it, and I can't run my boot camp VM. I'm too defeated and frustrated to roll back OS X, reinstall Windows, etc etc. As someone else mentioned, 11 is two generations old anyway, so I don't want to fight this battle forever.

Edit: If I reopen TotalSpaces2, I do see the "Sync Grids" checkbox, along with a drop down to select my display. However if I click another tab, and then back to Layout, that checkbox and drop down disappears. Odd.

Edit 2: Alright, I'm not totally sure how/why, but selecting my second monitor in that dropdown, while I had the chance, seems to have fixed it, and now the grid is behaving as @Ken5 described. The one annoying aspect that still persists (with or without TotalSpaces2) is when you move your mouse cursor from one monitor to another (in the VM), it loses focus "in" the VM itself, and you'll see it turn from (windows) white, to (OS X) black. Probably not a deal-breaker, but ultimately I'm thinking I may rather deal with VMWare Fusion's quirks, since they at least have a multi-display fullscreen that works without the whole separate spaces debacle. @Ken5, you're a champ. Thanks for your efforts. It's far more than parallels has offered us.

 

This is not just a Windows issue, I have this very same issue running Ubuntu.
This worked fine in PD11, I have 2 monitors, and in Ubuntu they both showed up as 2 monitors and they could be configured separately.
Since I was forced to switch to PD12 (I had to in order to support the latest version), it is now only seen as 1 giant wide monitor.
I'm sure this stems from the same issue and it needs to be fixed.

 

I've just upgraded to PD 13.2.0 and somewhere along the lines, it's now doing multiple displays exactly how I want them.
I have three displays running, and my main requirement was to simultaneously view my Mac Apps on one display and Windows on the other two. After fighting with PD12 and never fixing it, I'm glad that this is finally working the way I want it to (can't speak for others on here)
I'm afraid to change my settings but Full screen is set to "Use All Displays in Full Screen" and everything else switched off.

After a long time, happy again

 

@MarcusD2, can you confirm your display settings? I just grabbed 13.2 to test this, but I'm still getting the old behavior. Each of my two screens is in a different desktop in OS X, with the opposite monitor being black.

In OS X I have "Displays have separate spaces" off. Can you share with us what you have? I also see nothing in the 13.2 release notes about this issue being addressed. I'm glad you got it working, but I'm hoping you and/or others can confirm.

 

Hey there, it's still not perfect for me but at least workable.
I have "Use all displays in full screen" switched on, and "Displays have separate spaces" switched on.
The main issue I have now is I used to be able to Command-Tab between my Windows VM and a Mac application and it'd "just work" whereas now I need to use Spaces to switch between the "Windows" and "Mac" spaces. Which is a pain, but I guess I'll cope. To go back to the first point, I really don't know how it is still able to work perfectly in PD11 but not in PD12 and PD13 - presumably they (Parallels) have changed something for compatibility but it's very annoying.

 

I have been using Parallels since v7 after switching from VMWare. Everything was fine until v.12 upgrade when multiple window no longer remained "linked" when switching between Spaces. Long promised v13 didn't fix it. However, v11 works just fine with High Sierra so it is total BS that Parallels is blaming MacOS for the bug. IT IS PARALLELS THAT CAN NOT FIGURE IT OUT! This is the number 1 voted feature suggestion. If they can't figure it out they should not insist on paying for upgrades with annual renewal. Also, maybe it is time to OUTSOURCE and get a programmer who can help you. PLEASE LISTEN TO THE YOUR ARDENT SUPPORTERS OR ELSE THEY WILL NO LONGER BE THERE! I am about ready to switch back to VMWare. My patience is coming to an end.....

 

I upgraded to PD12 and eventually got my money back and stuck with PD11, I have High Sierra running with PD11. Over the time since sticking with PD11 it can behave odd from now and then on boot up with black screens and wrong screen cropping (so no icons appear), but a reboot of the VM fixes it fine every time, so still can't see any temptation to upgrade. The is becoming the longest running joke, I never read anything from Parrallel's even saying its being worked on, or defending why they can't or won't do it, its just a ridiculous situation.

 

Hey PD guys!
I would like to encourage PD developers that
- either they implement "emulated full screen" / "native full screen" option
- and/or they allow VM to recognize external display/projector as it was in PD 11 emulated full screen mode
Any of these solutions could resolve the issue we all suffer from.

 

Does anyone know if VirtualBox has the desired behavior of multiple monitor support without separate spaces? I already have this installed for an Ubuntu machine, as there was an incompatibility issue with Parallels, so if it works, I'd be happy to port my Windows 10 VM from Parallels to VirtualBox.