What's the right way to upgrade Parallels Tools?

M

Mark

Member
I've done countless upgrades all through the Beta process leading to the Parallels Desktop release and now from the release through 1940 and now to 1966. In the past, I have always done an uninstall of Parallel Tools from Add/Remove Programs and then installed using the VM/Install Parallel Tools method.

As I started 1966 for the first time, I was told to do the upgrade by simply installing the new version. Is this sufficient and the tested way to upgrade? I worked at Microsoft for 10 years and am in the habit of always uninstalling/reinstalling, so wanted to make sure. Thanks!
 
Upgrading Parallel tools for build 1970

I've upgraded to build 1970 of Parallels Desktop for Mac, but when I try to upgrade tools, the "install Parallels tools" option under VM is grayed out! Am I missing something? Any help would be appreciated.

Thank You
 
babrams said:
I've upgraded to build 1970 of Parallels Desktop for Mac, but when I try to upgrade tools, the "install Parallels tools" option under VM is grayed out! Am I missing something? Any help would be appreciated.

Thank You
Click to expand...
make sure the guest machine window is in focus
 
I have just updated Parallels/Mac to the latest version released today. I try to update Parallels tools, but nothing happens. When I check the VM menu, I m given the option of canceling the Parallels Tools installation.


I've tried this multiple times. I even uninstalled the old version of the tools, rebooted the virtual machine (WinXP - SP2) and trie to reinstall Parallel Tools. No dice -- It just seems to hang, though I can perform other Windows functions. I have also waited for reinstallation for an hour before canceling.
I am utilizing a MacBook Pro, CoreDuo, 2.16GHz with 2 gb ram. The VM worked flwlessly until the upgrade today.

HELP!!
 
joem said:
Silly question, but since you didn't say so, did you reboot the Mac after the upgrade?
Click to expand...
Yes, I did a full shutdown, then reboot. I even re-downladed the updateand completely redid the update. The only other thing I can do is backup the virtual drve, remove Parallels completely, New install the new version, reinput the registration information and try again. For obvious reasons, I've been avoiding this last option.

Has anyone else had this problem, or something similar? Any other suggestions?

Thanks for the help.

< drsbmac >
 
drsbmac said:
Has anyone else had this problem, or something similar?
Click to expand...

Yes, I see the same behavior where nothing happens when I try to run the Parallels Tools install under the VM menu. When I click on the "Install Parallels Tools..." menu item, the menu item text changes to "Cancel Parallels Tools installation" but the actual install never runs.

This is happening with build 1970 of Parallels Desktop for Mac on a Mac Pro with 4 gb of ram.

There may be an easier way to do this but here's what I did to manually get the Parallels Tools install to run on my machine:

1. Before launching Parallels, double click on /Library/Parallels/Tools/vstools.iso to get PRLTOOLS to mount on the OS X desktop.
2. Launch Parallels. Before starting the VM, click on Edit and added a shared folder with the path of /Volumes/PRLTOOLS to the shared folders list with the name of Tools.
3. Start the Windows virtual machine.
4. After Windows starts, create a pt subdirectory off of the root of the c drive ( i.e. c:\pt )
5. Open the Tools folder under the Parallels Shared Folders on the desktop and copy the entire contents to c:\pt.
6. Next open a command prompt and run the subst command to make Windows have "d:" point to c:\pt, change directories to the root of the d drive and then run ptstart. Like this:

C:\> subst d: c:\pt

C:\> d:

D:\> ptstart

The reason I ran the subst command was because if I didn't have the d: substitution in place, when I ran ptstart from c:\pt directory, the install would not run. It did, though, create a ptstart.wlg file with this text in it:

01/11/2006 21:39:14.645 | Unrecoverable error 2. String D:\PrlTools.exe; code = 2

So I figured the install must be looking for a d drive which I didn't have which is when I tried the subst trick.

Hope this helps!
 
Last edited:
drsbmac said:
Yes, I did a full shutdown, then reboot. I even re-downladed the updateand completely redid the update. The only other thing I can do is backup the virtual drve, remove Parallels completely, New install the new version, reinput the registration information and try again. For obvious reasons, I've been avoiding this last option.

Has anyone else had this problem, or something similar? Any other suggestions?

Thanks for the help.

< drsbmac >
Click to expand...
The uninstall for Parallels will not uninstall your virtual machine(s) or your license information.

Another question though -- if you attach the tools image and boot your VM, can you navigate to the CD and see its files? If you can, you can start the tools install directly by double clicking ptstart.

If the tools install doesn't work, it is sometimes because you turned off autoplay for CDROMs in Windows.
 
jimud said:
Yes, I see the same behavior where nothing happens when I try to run the Parallels Tools install under the VM menu. When I click on the "Install Parallels Tools..." menu item, the menu item text changes to "Cancel Parallels Tools installation" but the actual install never runs.

This is happening with build 1970 of Parallels Desktop for Mac on a Mac Pro with 4 gb of ram.

There may be an easier way to do this but here's what I did to manually get the Parallels Tools install to run on my machine:

1. Before launching Parallels, double click on /Library/Parallels/Tools/vstools.iso to get PRLTOOLS to mount on the OS X desktop.
2. Launch Parallels. Before starting the VM, click on Edit and added a shared folder with the path of /Volumes/PRLTOOLS to the shared folders list with the name of Tools.
3. Start the Windows virtual machine.
4. After Windows starts, create a pt subdirectory off of the root of the c drive ( i.e. c:\pt )
5. Open the Tools folder under the Parallels Shared Folders on the desktop and copy the entire contents to c:\pt.
6. Next open a command prompt and run the subst command to make Windows have "d:" point to c:\pt, change directories to the root of the d drive and then run ptstart. Like this:

C:\> subst d: c:\pt

C:\> d:

D:\> ptstart

The reason I ran the subst command was because if I didn't have the d: substitution in place, when I ran ptstart from c:\pt directory, the install would not run. It did, though, create a ptstart.wlg file with this text in it:

01/11/2006 21:39:14.645 | Unrecoverable error 2. String D:\PrlTools.exe; code = 2

So I figured the install must be looking for a d drive which I didn't have which is when I tried the subst trick.

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Jimud:

Your procedure worked perfectly!! I hope that Parallels fixes this particular problem ASAP, as some users will not have the technical knowhow or patience to go this route. It's funny that Parallels simplified the creation of Windows VM's with this release, but made the installation of the Parallels Tools more problematic. Oh, well -- I know they will get it fixed soon.
 
joem said:
The uninstall for Parallels will not uninstall your virtual machine(s) or your license information.

Another question though -- if you attach the tools image and boot your VM, can you navigate to the CD and see its files? If you can, you can start the tools install directly by double clicking ptstart.

If the tools install doesn't work, it is sometimes because you turned off autoplay for CDROMs in Windows.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Jimud's procedure worked perfectly for me. I hope that Parallels fixes this particular problem ASAP, as some users will not have the technical knowhow or patience to go this route.

It's funny that this release simplified the creation of Windows VM's, but made the installation of the Parallels Tools more problematic. Oh, well -- I know they will get it fixed soon.

Looking forward to ver. 2.0!!
 
This really needs to be changed. I already have a "d:" drive on my virtual machine and I didn't like having to put the ptools install files in the root of it to get this to work.
 
The same here...

I was in the same boat.

As i already had a d: drive, i was obliged to drop the files on this drive (d:) in order to be able to launch the tools update program.

This is clearly a bug that should be adressed.

Otherwise, the 1970 build runs very well.

Fred.
 
I have a D drive on my VM, and tools install works just fine.

Check to be sure that autoplay is on, or run the tools install from the CD image directly.
 
joem said:
I have a D drive on my VM, and tools install works just fine.

Check to be sure that autoplay is on, or run the tools install from the CD image directly.
Click to expand...

Joem: Can you please clarify, as follows:

1) I am upgrading 1966 from a dmg file. Suppose I upgrade Parallels, and launch it. At that point are you saying to turn autoplay on? Why should this make any difference?

2) Where does one get a CD image? Again, the download is for a dmg file. What am I missing here?

Sorry for the stupid questions, but I'm stuck at 1966 since I could not successfully install tools after the upgrade.
 
joem said:
If the tools install doesn't work, it is sometimes because you turned off autoplay for CDROMs in Windows.
Click to expand...
I just want to say thank you and how angry I am that the parallels manual doesn't say how installing the tools works. If they just said: running VM/install parallels tools makes as CD available to the OS which contains the tools installation files, I would have been fine. But no, I'm guessing to keep things simple, they omitted that and I had to hunt around for a solution.
In any case, thanks for posting this. I just ran ptools.exe from the CD drive and everythign went great.
 
whytyger said:
Joem: Can you please clarify, as follows:

1) I am upgrading 1966 from a dmg file. Suppose I upgrade Parallels, and launch it. At that point are you saying to turn autoplay on? Why should this make any difference?

2) Where does one get a CD image? Again, the download is for a dmg file. What am I missing here?

Sorry for the stupid questions, but I'm stuck at 1966 since I could not successfully install tools after the upgrade.
Click to expand...
To upgrade the Parallels application, just mount the dmg, and double click the installer you will find inside it. The install is automatic.

When the install completes, REBOOT THE MAC -- this is a critical step.

Remove any Parallels dock icon you may have installed. Re-add it if you wish, and start Parallels and your VM. With some upgrades in the past, old dock icons haven't worked properly, so be safe and recreate it.

Once the VM is running, select install Parallels tools from the VM menu. This will locate the tools image and mount it in Windows. The tools image is part of the Parallels application install.

Now comes the tricky part. When the tools image mounts, Windows will automatically run the installer UNLESS you have disabled autoplay IN WINDOWS. If you have done so, you have a non-standard Windows installation which the tools install mechanism is not expecting, so the installer won't run. To solve this problem, either turn autoplay back on, eject the image from within Windows and try the VM menu install again, or just run ptools.exe from the mounted CD image.

Note to counterpt: If you modify the Windows installation by messing with the registry, it is probably less than reasonable to be angry at Parallels for not compensating for your modification -- just my opinion.
 
There's a slightly easier way that worked for me:

  • In windowed mode, right-click on the CD-ROM icon on the Parallels status bar and choose "Connect Image…".
  • In the open file dialog box, navigate to /Library/Parallels/Tools/vmtools.iso. This will cause your CD drive to contain the Parallels Tools CD.
  • In Windows, navigate to My Computer then your CD-ROM Drive and double-click the PTStart application.
 
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