I've scoured the net, hunted high and low, and could not find any mention of anyone else having this problem... Basically, When running Vista under Boot Camp, which is also configured as a Parallels VM, I cannot use a UNC path in the Run dialog - Every time, with any server, I get a "Could not find \\host\share. Check the spelling and try again" error. At first I thought this was specific to my installation of Vista, and some obscure firewall/network configuration setting. Turns out that I can use "Map Network Drive", and things proceed as normal, *except* that the drive in windows explorer always appears as a disconnected network volume. Now, the kicker: Reboot into Mac OS X, and fire up the VM under Parallels, and everything works as expected - UNC paths in the Run dialog work, and mapped drives are 'connected'. Has anyone else seen this? (as in, is it a Parallels thing, or just me?) Just thought I'd ask before running away to reboot and try to remove all trace of the Parallels Tools under Boot Camp.
Further to this, I've nailed it down to only being a problem connecting to shares that require authentication, with a different username/password pair than your logged in session. Connecting to the C$ share on two seperate systems on my home network, the one with the same user/pass works fine, the other with the same user, but different password fails. This certainly appears to be a side effect of Parallels, as using an indentical installation of Vista on a workmate's MacBook who doesn't use Parallels, everything works as expected. So, Parallels support guys: does installing Parallels Tools on a Vista Guest OS do something 'funky' with file sharing? I'm thinking yes, due to the \\.psf\ stuff.. I'm now about to go and remove Parallels Tools to see what happens.
Yeah, it's not that much of a surprise with the way the tools work. Perhaps there is a way Parallels can load the config stuff so as not to effect BC. This has been a gripe with the way Parallels works versus Fusion. Parallels is more robust, but Fusion is less intrusive to the system files.
And just to reply to my own thread, yet again... (sorry) I've found that simply removing the "Parallels Shared Folders Network Provider" Client protocol from the Network interface properties dialog (Network and Sharing Center -> View Status -> Properties) also fixes the problem.
Glad to hear you have isolated the exact tool that uses the same service. This really isn't so much a bug, considering they re-write system files, so much as a conflict of usage. Sorta like running out of memory... Perhaps a well-written app might use less memory, but if it does and another app does, the memory can't go around twice, neither can system files. Well, except, you have to add new VMs to add new systems, which unless you run images usually isn't as easy.
