Gray box showing up when running coherence

So I sat here waiting patiently for the grey window to appear, Help menu with Send technical report open. Caught the grey window the second it appeared on my iMac screen. Report has been sent. Waiting patiently for a solution.

 

420757332

 

Same issue here. Can't be "reproduced" as it is random. At first I thought it was something to do with the widget that was in the bottom left corner on the task bar of Windows, but I disabled and removed that and it still does it.

 

same for me.. i think the gray box is the ghosted start menu.. mine is the same size and shape. if you relocate your start menu button in the task bar does the box shift? also i tried disabling my windows key using powertoys but still getting it

 

So odd, Windows 11 did an update and rebooted. When Parallels came back up in Coherence mode, now the box isn't grey anymore. What used to be the grey box is now part of the Windows desktop.

 

I confirm, sometimes, quite randomly, the Windows 11 desktop appears instead of the dull grey box.

 

i guess it's not a ghosted start menu because today it was taking up exactly the left half of my screen.. only grey so far

 

@Asish@Parallels,
i think i finally captured what we're all talking about.. my windows app in coherence is minimized; dock is hidden; and wallpaper is black (for bearings)
it happens every hour or two? even if i'm on another desktop working on something else..

 

You are right, it's not the start menu, but the Windows desktop, as if Parallels had left Coherence for a couple of seconds before disappearing and being in Coherence again. But more often than not the box is simply grey and takes up a good part of the screen.

 

I have the same issue. Is there a solution to get rid of this grey box randomly appearing on the left half of the screen? I attached a screenshot

 

Not yet

 

I've been seeing the same behavior for the past 2-3 months, and I've been trying to characterize the behavior to debug it. Until I saw this forum, I thought it was only me. Here's my set up and what I've learned:

1. I have 2 Thunderbolt displays attached to a MacBook Pro (cover closed) with an 8-core Intel Core i9 with AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB and Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB. I'm running MacOS Monterey 12.5.1. I'm running Windows 11 in Parallels 18 Pro Edition Version 18.1.1 (53328).
2. My dock is on the right side of the right Thunderbolt Display.
3. The gray box periodically (every 5 minutes or so) appears on the left side of the right Thunderbolt display and remains for a few seconds, as shown in in the screenshot below. It is always the same size and at the same location. Also, when Windows Defender shows a notification in the lower right hand corner, when I click it to go away, the Windows Defender notification disappears, but then I can see a gray box behind the notification that remains for a few seconds and then goes away. No gray box ever appears on the left Thunderbolt display.
4. For the few seconds before the big gray box disappears, it stacks with other Mac windows. So, I can click on it to bring it to front, or I can click on other Mac windows to bring them to front over the big gray box. So, Coherence appears to be creating a phantom Mac Window.
5. When I am running Windows 11 in Coherence, but I have no applications open, the big gray box does NOT appear. BUT, if I have any application open (I've tried several Office apps, Photoshop, Windows utilities), whether or not the application has a window visible, the big gray box periodically appears. As soon as I exit all Windows applications, the big gray box stops appearing. So, the big gray box is somehow related to a Windows application running, whether or not the application's window is visible or minimized.
6. I'm not completely certain about the following possible symptom because it happens very fast: when I am typing in a Mac Window and the big gray box appears, it seems to take away focus for a moment, messing up my typing. But it's possible that I simply get distracted and mess up the typing myself.

This a major bug and that is really disruptive. It's gotten to a point where I quit all Windows apps and relaunch them only when I need them, and then quit them again, because it is so distracting to have the big gray box appear.

Good luck tracking down the bug and fixing it.

 

Thanks for your long report, but ... the other day I installed VMFusion on an external SSD, imported a VM and you may not like this, but the same grey box appears with VMFusion 13 as well and it does not only show the grey box but the entire Windows desktop in the same sort of grey box. So this may not be a Parallels issue but rather a Windows (11?) one. Can those who have the opportunity check with VMFusion if it happens on their system, too. My setup: iMac 27" build 2019, 72 GB RAM, OS Monterey, dual monitor, booting from an external 2 TB SSD, VM sits on another external SSD. Running VMFusion 13 Player with Unity (Coherence in Parallels speech).

 

are prl_tools_*.exe and coherence.exe still running on the vmfusion host?

 

I just checked and none of these processes is running.

 

just to continue documenting this.. i'm not using the default windows 11 image that parallel's installs but windows 11 IoT 22H2 22621.1413 with all updates and am also experiencing this issue..

 

Hello,

We addressed this issue to the development team.

They are working on a fix for this issue in future updates of Parallels Desktop.

 

When do we expect an immediate solution?
Now it has become affecting the working performance.
Please share your solution calendar.

 

Greetings UsanG,
Let me inform you that due to the complexity of the issue, it is now investigated along with our Development Team in the internal case. They are continually working on the cases escalated by the Support Team, however, do not share an ETA required for a fix.

Therefore, we cannot tell you exact ETA regarding your issue. Sorry for this inconvenience.

Once there is a response from them - whether it is a request for additional information, a workaround or a permanent fix - we will let you know.
It usually takes time to go into a complicated virtualization software. Yet, we will do our best to find a solution as soon as possible.

We will get back to you as soon as we have an update.

Thank you for understanding.

Should you have any additional questions, let us know.

Have a wonderful week!

 

Thanks Aydaskhan for keeping us posted.
Have a nice weekend.