Full Screen for 2 of 3 monitors?

L

llanowar

Bit poster
I am using Parallels Desktop 8 and have three monitors. Ideally, I would like to have one display for Mac OS X and use the other two for Parallels in full screen mode. I only see an option in the "View" menu to "Use All Displays in Full Screen". Is there a setting for me to assign 2 displays instead of "All" displays for full screen?

Thanks.
 
As of now, VM in full-screen mode takes up either only one display or all available displays. You can't assign it 2 of 3, sorry.
 
serv said:
As of now, VM in full-screen mode takes up either only one display or all available displays. You can't assign it 2 of 3, sorry.
Click to expand...

Any plans to have this as a feature? I'm thinking of upgrading my macbook air to a pro so I can have 2x external monitors... and ideally I wanted the 2x external screens for parallels and the main macbook pro display as Mac OSX...

Is this a common thing on all virtualization or just parallels??
 
Currently use 2 of 3 monitors

llanowar said:
I am using Parallels Desktop 8 and have three monitors. Ideally, I would like to have one display for Mac OS X and use the other two for Parallels in full screen mode. I only see an option in the "View" menu to "Use All Displays in Full Screen". Is there a setting for me to assign 2 displays instead of "All" displays for full screen?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I will start the VM with 3 screens, then I use a 3rd party software (UltraMon) and disable the one display so that my VM uses two screens running Windows 7 and my MacOS uses the one.
 
A single display can be disabled in Windows 10 (not sure if this is a feature of other Windows versions) through Settings > System > Display. Click the display you wish to disable (can't be the one selected as the main display) and choose "Disconnect this display" beneath Multiple Displays, then click Apply. The full screen Parallels window will close itself on the disconnected display.
 
DeezNutzRSteel said:
Currently use 2 of 3 monitors

I will start the VM with 3 screens, then I use a 3rd party software (UltraMon) and disable the one display so that my VM uses two screens running Windows 7 and my MacOS uses the one.
Click to expand...

How were you able to achieve this? I tried UltraMon and each time I disabled a single display out of 3, Parallels Desktop for Mac 11 would exit out of Full Screen Mode.
 
I concur with the feature request to specify the number of monitors. I have tried disabling the monitor in Windows, but as soon as I do, I lose full screen all together. I will try UltraMon and see if that produces any different results. But I think there is a justifiable need for the ability to choose 2 of 3 (or more) monitors.
 
Ok, so I am not sure if everyone has figured this out or not, but I stumbled upon the way to make this work. In fact, it has been there for a while. So, while in full screen mode using all screens, simply click on the screen on the monitor you wish to make the host OS, hold [CONTROL] and press the left arrow. To go back to the full set of screens, click that screen, hold [CONTROL] and press the right arrow. In this way, you can select any screen you want to be your host computer screen, (or more than one depending on how many monitors you have). I have four, so my right most monitor is the Mac (Host) computer, which I use for my "Mac" life, while the other three are my working, Windows 8.1 VM. (Still cannot upgrade to Windows 10 for some reason... Going to have to go fresh install I fear).

Anyway, I hope that helps anyone who has not figured this out yet.
 
The above reply works, but will just hide one of the monitors on windows - so applications can get lost on the 3rd monitor. I found that going to the windows display settings in Windows 10, you can select the monitor you do not want to show (this only works for additional monitors, not primary) and under "multiple displays" choose "disconnect this display". I think that to do this, you must also set your VM configuration display settings to "best for external displays" which allows you to manage displays in windows instead of overriding it with Mac settings.
 
BrianD3 said:
I found that going to the windows display settings in Windows 10, you can select the monitor you do not want to show (this only works for additional monitors, not primary) and under "multiple displays" choose "disconnect this display"
Click to expand...

Doesn't work under my following circumstances:
- External monitor 1 set as Windows 10 primary display
- External monitor 2 set as Windows 10 secondary display
- Retina MBP display set as Windows 10 third display <-------- Unable to disconnect.
- Parallels Graphs set as 'Best for External Monitors'

+1 feature request to individually disable/hide Host OS monitors from Guest OS.
 
MatthewS9 said:
Doesn't work under my following circumstances:
- External monitor 1 set as Windows 10 primary display
- External monitor 2 set as Windows 10 secondary display
- Retina MBP display set as Windows 10 third display <-------- Unable to disconnect.
- Parallels Graphs set as 'Best for External Monitors'

+1 feature request to individually disable/hide Host OS monitors from Guest OS.
Click to expand...
As informed in this thread earlier, VM in full-screen mode takes up either only one display or all available displays. Unfortunately, you cannot assign it 2 of 3. You can share your feature request here.
 
MatthewS9 said:
Doesn't work under my following circumstances:
- External monitor 1 set as Windows 10 primary display
- External monitor 2 set as Windows 10 secondary display
- Retina MBP display set as Windows 10 third display <-------- Unable to disconnect.
- Parallels Graphs set as 'Best for External Monitors'

+1 feature request to individually disable/hide Host OS monitors from Guest OS.
Click to expand...

There is a somewhat inelegant work-around for your particular situation.
Close the MBP's lid before launching Parallels and then bring your VM up in Full Screen mode using all displays. It won't use the display on your MBP because it is asleep.
After you've launched the VM and it is operating on the two external monitors, reopen the lid on your MBP. It should awaken with the MacOS.
 
For what it's worth - I was able to achieve this for a windows VM. This is annoying nuance to Parallels as parallels picks up on monitor arrangement of the MAC, and in general acts poorly.
I have two Thunderbolt displays. Originally, I had my macbook pro to the right of the two monitors, then plugged the far left into the display port on the "center" monitor.
When I did this - the macbook pro would show up as monitor 3. I could disable in display properties manually without issue. This is key, apparently, it can only be disabled when it is monitor 3.
I got tired of manually disabling the 3rd display so I searched around and I found a tool called MultiMonitorTool, which can run with switches to kill display 3. I set it up to run at login as a task and everything was good.
Then I moved offices and now my macbook sits to the left of the two displays. The result is the mac display shows up as monitor 2, and it can't be disabled. Disabling in display properties throws the parallels mouse off, and in general makes parallels unusable and it has to be shut down.

I just tested using MultiMonitorTool to kill display 2, and it worked. [ ran: (path to tool)\MultiMonitorTool.exe /disable 2 ]. YMMV.

So, if you want this and your arrangement is consistent - this is how I did it. MMT doesn't throw an error if the monitor you want to go away doesn't exist, so nothing happens if you are mobile and fire up your windows instance.
Of note, sometimes my VM is slow to start and MMT (MultiMonitorTool) didn't pick up on monitor count when it ran, so I ended up adding a shortcut on the desktop to run the command manually. You could setup your task to wait longer than the 20 seconds I give mine.

HTH
 
MichaelN3 said:
For what it's worth - I was able to achieve this for a windows VM. This is annoying nuance to Parallels as parallels picks up on monitor arrangement of the MAC, and in general acts poorly.
I have two Thunderbolt displays. Originally, I had my macbook pro to the right of the two monitors, then plugged the far left into the display port on the "center" monitor.
When I did this - the macbook pro would show up as monitor 3. I could disable in display properties manually without issue. This is key, apparently, it can only be disabled when it is monitor 3.
I got tired of manually disabling the 3rd display so I searched around and I found a tool called MultiMonitorTool, which can run with switches to kill display 3. I set it up to run at login as a task and everything was good.
Then I moved offices and now my macbook sits to the left of the two displays. The result is the mac display shows up as monitor 2, and it can't be disabled. Disabling in display properties throws the parallels mouse off, and in general makes parallels unusable and it has to be shut down.

I just tested using MultiMonitorTool to kill display 2, and it worked. [ ran: (path to tool)\MultiMonitorTool.exe /disable 2 ]. YMMV.

So, if you want this and your arrangement is consistent - this is how I did it. MMT doesn't throw an error if the monitor you want to go away doesn't exist, so nothing happens if you are mobile and fire up your windows instance.
Of note, sometimes my VM is slow to start and MMT (MultiMonitorTool) didn't pick up on monitor count when it ran, so I ended up adding a shortcut on the desktop to run the command manually. You could setup your task to wait longer than the 20 seconds I give mine.

HTH
Click to expand...
This is the best solution - its free and it can be configured at windows startup. Thanks for sharing
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top