Windows 10 Coherence - Pop-up menus hidden

Well said, lulian-CasianM. Though it seems that Parallels don't really care about us old buyers - apart from deleting forum posts that they don't like, they don't even bother getting involved in the correspondence to help us, and up-to-this-day have not released a bug fix for 18 version users. The only thing they DO know to say is "upgrade".

It really does look like this is an old "bug" that they keep returning to their program in purpose, in order to break any previous version from working correctly when a new version is released, just to force customers to upgrade. Not to mention that vicentem1 has reported above that he's using version 19 in Sonoma and that this bug is still there. Either way, this is a very wrong behaviour from Parallels side, and I would even add that it's a substandard and unrespectful for their customers who rightfully paid the full price for the non-subscription product.

If you ask me, I don't expect Parallels to fix this for us 18 version users, and how things look this issue will sure come back again and again and again, in version 19, 20, 21, and so on. What I do look forward is that Windows 11 on ARM will be sooner or later natively supported to be installed on Apple silicon Macs, where we could ditch Mac OS and Parallels altogether and work natively on Windows on our Macs with all our beloved Windows apps. Technically, I think that it will come around someday, the same as was with Intel based Macs that could eventually run both Mac OS and Windows in Boot Camp. Until then, I found myself a workaround which works quite fine for me, and I would like to share it below as it may be helpful to some users - I do hope that Parallels won't decide to remove this post "as if it makes them 'lose' customers", because as it is now, they already lost us by not fixing this. So, we had to find workarounds ourselves.

Please note that this workaround may not be an ideal solution for everyone, as many of you are probably using your Macbook on-the-go and that its your primary and only machine. I mostly use mine within the house, connected to my local network WiFi, and I do have some PCs as well. Here is what I do:

Since this issue occurred on my end, I ditched launching Parallels altogether as using it in a non-coherence mode is like doing a remote desktop to a Windows PC on my local network and work on it on a separate window anyway - which I don't need Parallels for, as I have a powerful PC that outwits ANY virtual machine running on my M1 Mac, and I can basically remote desktop to it to do my work. My PC is physically connected to my router so there is no lag from its side, but I did face some lag issues that came from my built-in router WiFi, so I upgraded it to a dedicated product which now gives me a much stronger signal.

So, I just ended up working on my powerful PC through a remote desktop from my M1 Macbook Air, using the free "Microsoft Remote Desktop" app from the AppStore. All the calculations are natively done on the remote PC, which also leaves my M1 Macbook Air in a much more reasonable state in terms of power and battery consumption, while on a virtual machine in Parallels the battery runs out much quicker. In addition, I can run many Intel based Windows apps natively which Apple silicon can never run, unless (if at all) doing it in an emulation and eating up your battery.

It tems of copying and pasting of files between the two, dragging between desktops doesn't work - you have to use either the right-click context menu or the keyboard hotkeys, and the remote window should remain OPEN during the entire copying process. Keep in mind that you can run only a SINGLE copying task - this is a remote desktop limitation. If you try to copy something else (even a 'word' to the clipboard) while a copying task is running in the background, your copying task will be terminated. Also note that the copying and pasting task runs over the local network, which is slower than doing it between a virtual machine that runs locally on the actual Mac, but I can bare it over the many benefits of working in a remote desktop. If you wish to access your Windows PC hard drives from the Mac OS Finder where you can do multiple copying and pasting and work on projects files there on-the-fly, you can just share the drives from your Windows PC and access them natively from your Mac over Samba (Command+K). Unlike Mac OS limitation with an external hard drive that is formatted in the NTFS file system, which Mac OS can only READ from but not write to without a 3rd party software, accessing any drives over the network will allow you to both READ and WRITE to and from them without any problem.

Sound output from your PC is by default forwarded to your Mac speakers via the Remote Audio driver. For most parts I found it accurate. However, the microphone input also uses the Remote Audio driver, and as far as I checked when trying to record a short voice clip over a remote desktop using the Mac built-in microphone, the recording went through to my PC but it was recorded a little faster than I actually spoke (feels like a voice clip that plays in a 1.5x speed), so take that in mind. I don't do recording over remote desktop, but if you wish to run any communication programs for doing voice calls like Microsoft Teams / Skype / Discord / WhatsApp when doing a remote desktop, just do what I do and launch the native communication app on your Mac, so the audio is routed natively from there. Note that you can also edit the remote connection audio settings and have the audio play on the remote PC hardware instead of on your Mac. But in this case, it will use the speakers and microphone that are connected to your PC, and you won't hear anything on your Mac. Which doesn't make sense for remote desktop anyway as if the audio output and input are happening on the remote PC, I could just sit and work there.

The only issues I found so far when working in a remote desktop is that some programs and games that I tried to run are not working correctly or not working at all - but this is either a remote desktop limitation or that the program / game was deliberately designed to NOT run in remote desktop. For example, I found that Adobe Audition CS6 which I have on my remote PC doesn't launch at all, where other CS6 programs launch and work without any problem. As for games, I found that the GOG Galaxy client immediately terminated after it opens, but you can still access the actual game folder and run them from the executable files from there.

So there. I spent quite some time to write this post in hope that it will help others. I do expect that Parallels will not remove this information and actually LEARN from it that at the bottom line, customers are the ones who hold the power to make the decisions whether to remain loyal or not - decisions that can surely impact their revenues. If it's important to them to preserve their loyal customers, they should work harder to fix such irritating issues which already caused enough trouble for those who rely on their product. Who knows, maybe this way they will learn and start working.

Best regards to everyone.

 

And let's see one more detail: Parallels users are not dumb; we are technical users; we know what bug fixing means and fixing a little bug in previous version it's not a big deal. But when the marketing says no-no, and the support comes with bla bla, supported/not-supported explanations we figure that out - we are not stupid. But creating bugs on purpose... well that's ugly... very ugly.
Parallels may not agree with this, but guys... that's how it looks, so make it look different by fixing the bug in older versions too.

 

The issue is now back with the 19.1.1 update...
Anyone found a more permanent solution?

 

Same issue here with Parallels 19.1.1 and Windows 11.

 

And it's getting worse. I reverted back to 19.0.0, which was good for few days and now it started there as well.
Coherence is practically unusable.

 

Just to add, in coherence mode, select lists do not work for the local user. However, when I use Apple Screen Sharing app built in to Sonoma, and log on to the remote computer, in coherence mode I can click the select lists and they work. The local user still cannot (both trackpad and external mouse). I don't understand how that can be a thing!

 

I've found a workaround and I feel that everyone here will appreciated it (and maybe Parallels could learn from it too and finally provide a permanent fix):

It seems that if you have some window / pop-up message open which always shows on top, that suddenly sub-context menus and sub-panels appear correctly. And if you close that 'always on top' window that the problem returns.

That made me think of why shouldn't I just write a simple code to display some generic message, and to set that message to always show on top, and then I could just drag this small message window to some corner where it's less bothersome? And guess what - as a workaround it mostly works!

I'm providing the steps to writing the code below - it is basically built from a vbscript file with the generic message in it, that is set to show in a pop-up message without showing the command-prompt window at the background, and a batch file for calling and running that vbscript:

1. Open Notepad, paste in it these 2 lines of code below and save it as "Script.vbs":
Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.Popup ("Keep me open! I'm your coherence mode bug workaround."), 0, "Coherence Mode Temporary Fix", 64 + 4096

2. Open a new Notepad, paste in it these 2 lines of code below and save it as "Coherence_Temp_Fix.bat":
@echo off
start /min wscript.exe "Script.vbs"

* You may keep these 2 files on your Windows Desktop for quick access, or to move them somewhere else. Just make sure that they're stored in the same path for the script to work.

Now, run the "Coherence_Temp_Fix.bat" file and keep the pop-up message open - just drag it to some corner where it won't disturb you much.
As long as it remains opened, you should be able to see the sub-context menus and sub-panels showing in-front, as they should be. Please note that I found that in some minor cases, you may have to to re-click or re-right-click on the menu that you want to open until it's showing up. So it's not a permanent solution, yet it's better than nothing that we got from Parallels so far.

I really hope that it will help you guys.
And Parallels, please - spend some more effort on this topic. Really, ignoring us doesn't help your reputation.

Best regards

 

Cannot edit my message so just adding to it:
- I found that right-clicking in the actual File Explorer window still shows the sub-context menu at the back of it - in other applications that I tried to open menus, such as File, Edit, View, etc. it shows the menus correctly.
- If you find that a sub-panel that you've just opened is showing behind it's parent window, just click on the title of the temp pop-up message and it will make that panel come to the front. As I mentioned, this is not a permanent solution...

 

Thanks Gal. I find that running your script and clicking the dialog title fixes things with some applications like Chrome but many others like NotePad++ and Eclipse RCP apps it only works on the rarest of occasions. It is definitely some improvement though.

 

thank you for your advice, gal. what exactly do you mean by:

 

The pop-up window that my script does. Keep this pop-up message open and just drag it to a lower corner where it is less visible so it won't interfere in your way. Then, if for example you open Device Manager and double click on a certain driver to see / change its settings and the driver window goes behind the Device Manager window, just left-click the title of the pop-up message window that my script creates and it will bring the hidden window to the front.

 

ah now i understand, gal - thank you very much!

 

i have learned a very simple workaround: i click several times on the place (in explorer or in a program) where a context menu should open - until it actually appears in the foreground.

this is very annoying, but it works. i hope that parallels finds the error soon and fixes it!

to anyone who reads this and wants to give it a try: please share your experience!

 

Yes, it does work but not all the time - in some certain programs that I use, no matter how much you click on File / Edit / View / right-click to open a context menu, etc. the menus always show behind the program window... Unless suddenly another window pops up to the front and takes focus. That's why I made this script which makes the pop up window to always be on top of everything else. Still annoying, though.

 

in the brand new version 19.2.1 it seems to be much better. not perfect yet (sometimes i still have to click several times until the pop up menu appears) but noticeably better than before.

what are your experiences?

 

As long as this issue is present, no matter the frequency nor the version, it should had been permanently fixed a long time ago.
Every now and then I launch my 18th version and check for updates and get disappointed to find that there is none - Parallels either don't care, or just don't know how to solve this; in which case they should replace their developers.

 

Yes fix it now Parallels. Coherence Mode is unusable and seriously undermines the decision not to just buy a windows laptop!

 

I can confirm the issue seems to be resolved having upgraded from Parallels Desktop Standard Edition v18 > v19
To clarify... now, menus are visible on top having right clicked to reveal context menus in coherence mode!

 

I'm still experiencing this problem with Parallels Desktop V19 with a Windows 11 VM.