Please resolve some Boot Camp annoyances

S

sparklight

Bit poster
Since the day I loaded Parallels, I have always used it with my Boot Camp partition, and it always starts with the following annoyances:
1. My Macintosh system password is required
2. It always boots up with the overlaid text, "Parallels tools installation is in progress. Do not perform any operations within the virtual machine or the guest operating system...."
No matter how many times I have installed Parallels Tools, it never goes away.

A (paid) call to tech support just now informs me that currently there is no workaround for these. So I ask you:
1. PLEASE use the Keychain to store my password, so you don't have to ask me for it again every single time!
2. They tell me that (2) is an issue of a contrast between Boot Camp drivers and Parallels drivers. OK, fine, the system is working. But please, could you recognize that situation so as to make the annoying message go away?

Thanks,
Ken
 
Additional information:
MacBook Pro 17"
MacOS 10.4.11
Windows XP Professional SP2
Parallels Build 5584, downloaded today
 
Hello Sparklight,

1. Mac password requirement is a current design limitation;
2. When you boot up, you got "Parallels tools initialization is in progress" - not installation. It is normal.

Best regards,
Xenos
 
There have been many discussions on the password with launching the BootCamp partition in the past... There are some technical reasons why this is not done, primarily in regards to security. Go ahead and dig one of them up.
 
Bugs with boot camp!

Parallels, in general, needs to do a better job of advising users about the limitations and bugs when using the Boot Camp partition as a VM.

1. The repeated "installing tools" issue as noted by the OP

2. The fact that you can't standby or hibernate Windows XP in the VM. (Parallels is kind enough to warn you about this - AFTER you click hibernate and then try to stop the VM! Thanks for nothing!)

3. Snapshots cannot be used

and so on.

None of this is in the owner's manual BTW.

Using the Boot Camp install of XP as a VM seems half-baked, and I wish I had tried the demo prior to shelling out the cash.
 
Obviously sparklight doesn't read the message that comes up, nor do you. It is NOT installing tools, it is initializing the tools, as Xenos pointed out. You are switching hardware, to virtual hardware, it needs to get some stuff running.

What's wrong with it warning you after you click the button, it is an error message.

Naturally snapshots can't be used, you aren't running zfs ;). That's what a program like ghost is for.

Anyhow, I do agree that things should be in the owner's manual.
 
"Do not perform any operations within the virtual machine or the guest operating system...."

If the user simply CLICKING in the VM has the ability to damage the Windows XP installation, then the window should be dimmed out or simply made unclickable by Parallels so that the user cannot interact with it. Why allow the user to so easily do harm?

And FYI - mine is not "initializing the tools", it is actually "installing" each time I start the Boot Camp install in Parallels as a VM. It boots up, Parallels does something, and then reboots a second time, before it's ready for use. On the XP boot screen (black screen with white text) on the second go-round I can see that there is a new entry at the very top:

1. Parallels Installation
2. Windows XP

I think that's the text. It goes by very fast. Are you suggesting that this is normal and expected?
 
Last edited:
That's a good idea, although simply clicking will probably not damage the image.

If you are actually installing the tools each time, disconnect the disk image from the machine.

Yes, those two entries are normal.
 
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