Problem with same program in multiple VMs

[scorpio]

Short description: Parallels for Mac starts another VM when launching certain Windows programms.



Hello,

I have the following problem since I upgraded Parallels Desktop for Mac to Build 3188.

Description:
I have two Windows Virtual Machines (A and B), that only vary in the fact that one has IE6 and the other on IE7 installed. Both have WinXP installed. I use them purely for web developpment.

Every time I start "Internet Explorer" in vm A, it creates a '.app' programm in the "Windows Applications" directory. That´s ok, so far. But if I stop vm A and start vm B, and launch an application with the same name (which is, of course "Internet Explorer"), it will launch the vm A!!

I guess this has to do with the link in the "Windows Applications" folder. If I delete it there, the problem is gone. But of course, it is created every time. I also need both vm A and vm B running at the same time.

Does anybody else have this problem? Anybody knows how to handle it?

Thank you very much,

scorpio

 

[mmischke]

Short description: Parallels for Mac starts another VM when launching certain Windows programms.



Hello,

I have the following problem since I upgraded Parallels Desktop for Mac to Build 3188.

Description:
I have two Windows Virtual Machines (A and B), that only vary in the fact that one has IE6 and the other on IE7 installed. Both have WinXP installed. I use them purely for web developpment.

Every time I start "Internet Explorer" in vm A, it creates a '.app' programm in the "Windows Applications" directory. That´s ok, so far. But if I stop vm A and start vm B, and launch an application with the same name (which is, of course "Internet Explorer"), it will launch the vm A!!

I guess this has to do with the link in the "Windows Applications" folder. If I delete it there, the problem is gone. But of course, it is created every time. I also need both vm A and vm B running at the same time.

Does anybody else have this problem? Anybody knows how to handle it?

Thank you very much,

scorpio

I've been wondering about the Windows Applications folder, too. My guess is that it's used to integrate Windows apps into the OS X dock (for Coherence mode). Personally, I don't use Coherence and I'd rather that Parallels not bother to cache my app usage info. Unfortunately I don't see a way to disable this 'feature'.

Are you using Coherence and/or are you launching IE from the OS X dock? If so, you might want to try the windowed VM approach and see if that helps.

If, in fact, you have two discrete windowed VMs, no Coherence and no Windows apps in the dock, then it would seem that Parallels is doing something very odd, since one would expect discrete VMs to be fully isolated and self-contained islands.