PD9 = Worst version to date

J

jeffro01

Member
Okay I have run out of patience here. Mavericks and Windows 8 and 8.1 have been out long enough and Parallels STILL hasn't fixed log standing bugs. Here is what still doesn't work.

1. Must use OS X full screen mode to get rid of menu bar at the top of display, please fix Parallels so that I can go into full screen mode without having to use OS X full screen.
2. When in full screen mode, cycling through my spaces causes the windows VM to randomly flicker and resize, this did not happen in PD8. I should be able to flip through my spaces how I want without having to deal with my windows VM flickering and rescaling, resizing as I do so.
3. In windows 8.1 I STILL do not have the ability to select a scaled resolution on my 15" rMBP as I do on Windows 8. I can either check "enable retina resolution" or not. I was told awhile back this was due to 8.1 still being beta, well it isn't anymore and if your going to falsely advertise full Mavericks and 8.1 support then freaking provide it.
4. Auto DPI scaling, I am not sure this is a purely a parallels problem but the reason why I have to keep the retina settings off and my Windows 8 VM on scaled is because you have to reboot the Windows VM with retina enabled if the VM shifts between my primary retina display and my secondary display which is not "retina". I would think there has to be a way to keep from having to do that. I have been told VMWare Fusion does not require such a step.

Anyone else having these issues? If so have you found resolutions for them?

My parallels is updated to: Build 9.0.24172
(Revision 951362; Tuesday, December 3, 2013)

Thanks
Jeff
 
1. It's unclear to me what you mean here. Menu bar normally hides itself in OS X full screen mode, but can be brought back by bumping mouse at the top of the screen. This is how Apple designed it. Why (and how) should Parallels Desktop behave differently?

2. I've never seen VM resizing when switching spaces. (Resizing does happen when VM exits full screen.) Generate a problem report via Parallels Help menu after resizing happened and post report ID here. Maybe you could also record a short video of this happening.

3. When VM Config > Hardware > Video > Retina resolution is disabled for Windows 8.1 you get exactly the same scaled mode that is selected by Scaled button for Windows 7/8. When retina is enabled UI scaling is controlled by Windows 8.1, see Control panel > Adjust screen Resolution > Make text and other items larger or smaller. There are two main options: Smaller-or-Larger slider which scales based on physical display dimensions and resolution, and "Let me choose one scaling for all my displays" check box, which, when checked, allows to set fixed percentage scaling. Setting custom 199% scaling is what Parallels Desktop does when Best for retina button is selected for Windows 7/8. PD video settings behave according to guest OS type, you can set your Windows 8.1 VM type to Windows 8 if you prefer.

4. Automatic DPI scaling in Windows 8.1 works only if "Let me choose one scaling for all my displays" box is unchecked. Keep in mind that some applications might not react to DPI changes appropriately. One notable example is Windows Explorer which needs to be restarted for DPI change to apply. There's nothing Parallels can do about that.
 
1. Prior to Mavericks I could put my VM in full screen mode (NOT OS X full screen) and it would work just fine since there was a top menu bar on my second display. Now with Mavericks I can't do that, if I put the VM in full screen (again NOT OS X full screen) the menu bar remains on top clipping my VM off at the bottom where the task bar is. I HATE OS X full screen mode but am forced into it because parallels simply can't seem to handle the spaces change in Mavericks.

2. Well just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't happen, it happens to me CONSTANTLY and it's incredibly annoying as i have to wait for my VM to resize and stop flickering when I change from another space back to it roughly 70% of the time. Yes I have opened up a ticket and got NOWHERE. Parallels support is an epic fail. Their answer to everything is uninstall everything and try again, that's not support. I will try to capture a video of it happening.

3. I guess I don't follow here my apologies. In windows 7/8 I had an option to select the scaling in my VMs video settings if retina support wasn't enabled. In Windows 8.1 I have one choice, enabled or disabled. I'll try that suggestion on my 8.1 VM.

4. Interesting on that one... I have a few WMWare fusion friends who swear up and down that everything works just fine for them in regards to automatic DPI scaling, I'll ask them again in a different way...

Thanks
Jeff
 
Ok... Now I feel confused a bit.

1. How do you put VM in full screen? Are you pressing green candy + button on VM Window caption? And I'm having hard time imagining Windows task bar being clipped off at the bottom... Could you post a screenshot of your second display with VM in that inconvenient state?

2. Problem report I'm asking for is not a support ticket. It's a collection of system information intended for debugging purposes. Read here how to submit one.

Lets not start on bullets 3 and 4 until we clear 1 and 2.
 
There are two methods of full screen, one is Parallels based full screen, the other is OS X Full Screen mode. The OS X Full Screen mode "works" I just hate how it opens up yet another space to do it. The parallels based full screen looks like this on my second monitor.

DT.jpg

I understand how to file a problem report, the problem here is it's hard to grab one while the flickering is going on.

Thanks.
Jeff
 
Hmm... I thought we've disabled legacy full screen mode long ago. I was wrong. We can certainly fix task bar clipping by trimming guest resolution, but the menu bar will still be there anyway, I'm afraid, because it's part of the OS.
Why do you hate OS X full screen? You know, you can have different spaces on different displays. This way VM would occupy your secondary display only. What's wrong with that?
 
Primarily it's because for whatever reason either OS X or Parallels doesn't remember my screen order when I unplug my external monitor and plug it back in.

The one thing that I really need to get fixed is the constant display flickering\resizing when changing between a space with Parellels in OS X full screen mode and a space without it. It's like parallels forgets the screen resolution and when I switch back to that space it has to rescale\resize which results in 3 seconds or so of flickering and resizing. That part has really gotten on my nerves... The rest I can handle... I'm not sure if switching to Windows 8.1 will fix the problem or not...

Thoughts?

Thanks
Jeff
 
Jeff,

I can finally confirm both issues: Windows task bar clipping and resolution adjustment/flickering when switching spaces. The two are related, both happen in 10.9 when the VM is set to *not* using OS X Full Screen *and* VM goes to full screen on *secondary* display. I will pass this for investigation to appropriate person, but my guess is that this may be the due to 10.9 full screen mode peculiarities. The best solution may well be to use OS X native full screen mode.
And no, Windows 8.1 will not fix this, because the problem is on the OS X side.
 
Good Morning,

My apologies for not being clear. My flickering problem is occurring WITH OS X full screen mode enabled, I stopped using the non OS X mode due to the task bar clipping. In addition I can't even use the setting "Use all displays in full screen" because 50+% of the time when switching spaces it "forgets" about the secondary display (secondary now being my rMBP main display) and I have to pull the VM out of full screen mode to get it back, or it just randomly comes back on it's own. Very annoying issues to say the least.

Thanks
Jeff
 
Jeff,

I wasn't able to reproduce flickering with OS X full screen. Could you enable verbose logging via Parallels Desktop menu > Preferences > Advanced > Troubleshooting: Use detailed log messages and generate a new problem report via Parallels Help menu, post report ID here.
 
(The subject of this thread is not descriptive and makes the discussion unlikely to find.)

Yet, I think I have the same or related problem. I use Windows 7 with with one external monitor on a Macbook Pro (Mavericks). The external monitor is 1440 x 2560 (portrait).

Screen Shot 2014-02-14 at 5.57.04 PM.png

Screen Shot 2014-02-14 at 6.00.13 PM.png

Screen Shot 2014-02-14 at 6.02.13 PM.png

Generally this works ok and is fine as long as I am using the VM.

However, several times a day I return to my computer or VM to find the all the windows in the upper left corner of the external monitor, resized to probably 800 x 600.

I have witnessed the change a few times. Sometimes it happens when I return to the computer or the space. The external monitor (only) flickers and briefly changes to that tiny res (text gets big and grainy), then it returns to the correct resolution.

It's annoying because I have to resize every window on that monitor after this. They are so tiny that they are unusable.

I have a work and home setup this way, with different models of monitor (DELL and HP), at the same resolution. Both have the same behavior.

Any ideas?
 
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