Problems with Coherence, Mouse & Drag & Drop under parallels 4.0

I am just purchased Parallels 4.0 and am having multiple problems. I use bootcamp in Parallels and am running Windows XP. The auto switch for the mouse does not work even though i have parallels tools installed--meaning that when i drag the mouse to the farthest edges of the screen it does not automatically switch over to the Host OS--the option is grayed out under Services, but i can't figure out why... i can't drag and drop files into the guest OS (although i get the green bubble with the + sign nothing happens when i drop the the file into the guest OS), Coherence doesn't work--when i switch to it the mouse will not access the guest OS Start menu, etc. but always goes under the command boxes, etc. i have installed Parallels Tools, and other aspects do work, such as automatically resizing the screen and other features. But i can't drag and drop files, use Coherence, or autoswitch the mouse. These aspects are quite frustrating as they all worked under the previous versions of Parallels Desktop.

 

Parallels Tools is not installed correctly. Go to the Add/Remove Programs control panel in Windows and remove Parallels tools. Reboot. Then reinstall the tools manually by connecting to the following CD image: /Library/Parallels/Tools/prl-tools-win.iso and letting the installer run.

Steve

 

I was seeing same problem as you. Finally fixed by getting into windows and use control panel that deletes programs to delete tools. Then after a restart use Parallels menu item to install Tools from web, not the CD file.

After that all my coherence and mouse switching problems were gone.

 

Mouse drag and drop problems parallels 4

The check box for selecting mouse drag and drop is greyed out. I could not get mouse drag and drop between OSs to work. I reintalled parallels tools a number of times. Used control panel to remove parallels tools. Uninstalled parallels desktop then reinstalled - twice. Now mouse drag and drop between OSs is working but the check box is still greyed, meaning, if I wish to turn it off, I can't. The underlying problem still exists but with a variable outcome.

 

I'm not sure if this is the way it's supposed to work, but my check box is greyed out too. If you suspend or stop VM, it is not greyed out. Not convenient, but try it. Good Luck

 

Suspending the VM does bring the mouse check box back into action. Thanks. All is now working, but not sure, as you said, if it is for the correct reason.

 

Can't reinstall Tools

Can't find any "tools" to reinstall in the Library folder and there is no file (or even folder) called /Library/Parallels/Tools/prl-tools-win.iso

 

on the Parallels toolbar go to Virtual Machine-->Install Parallels Tools.

You might want to uninstall parallels tools first by going to Control Panel-->Add/Remove Applications and then uninstall Parallels Tools before reinstalling per above.

 

davidwilkie,

let me clarify a bit. You should go to the virtual machine configuration, click the 'CD/DVD-ROM 1' item in the 'Hardware' group. Make sure that the 'File Image' icon is active, and browse to the file mentioned above(/Library/Parallels/Tools/prl-tools-win.iso).

I can see you cannot find it. Have you found the ' /Library/Parallels/Tools' folder. What is its content?
If you can find the folder, but no file needed there, that means that you need to reinstall Parallels Desktop.

 

Drag & Drop not working with PD 4

I upgraded to PD 4 under mac os 10.5.5 and "Drag & drop" is not working.
I tried what was suggested in this post, but drag&drop is still not working.
Namely,
- i first reinstalled Paralles tools
- Then, I uninstalled Parallels tools and reinstall it
- Since in my folder ' /Library/Parallels', there is only my VM folder and nothing else (no 'Tools' folder), I reinstalled PD4, but no change in the ' /Library/Parallels' folder and after reinstalling once again the Parallels tools from the 'vm' menu, still no drag and drop working.

When I try to drag and drop a file between os, usually "windows explorer" freezes.

any suggestion ?

 

Are you able to drag & drop when Windows is in window mode and you can see desktop?

 

Being in "window" mode does not change the "drag&drop" behavior.

Actually, I just observed that the files I drag and drop are copied after a very long time, 10 min or so !!!
(I had also windows explorer freeze, but it seems not systematic)

I also noticed with windows task manager, that in windows the service lktsrv.exe behaves quite unstably, jumping all the time from 0% to >50% of cpu activity. Maybe this is linked to the drag and drop problem ????

Quite puzzling !?

 

Please check this,
http://www.backgroundtask.eu/Systeemtaken/Taakinfo.php?ID=15758
Do you have any related software,
Try to kill process and check, it is not part of Windows

 

I could stop the lktsrv.exe.
but it did not change the drag and drop behavior.
With a freshly restarted VM, the drag and drop works between desktop of OS, but with a huge response time delay of several minutes.
After I dragged a file to the other os, it appears finally after several minutes.

Note that I have other symptoms of really long response time when exchanging or transferring files from one os to the other.

 

I suppose you have antivirus(es) which inspect file content

 

Yes, I have anti-virus sft.
But,
I checked that WITH or WITHOUT antivirus on both OS, the drag and drop behavior is the same :
very long response time (> 2 min)

FYI, if I open in windows the MAC desktop folder (or another mac folder) and then copy files from Win to Mac (or the opposite), the files are transferred instantaneously (no delay).

It is really the "drag and drop" between os taking such a long time to accomplish the transfer.

 

probably I wasn't clear
Do you have antivirus on Mac , Win or both

 

Drag and Drop problem

I am having the same problems of not being able to drag and drop but everything else worked fine. New to Parallels. Reinstalled tools to no avail. Then uninstalled (removed) tools from the VM. Restarted, now Windows opens, I see the note that Tools are not installed, BUT now I can't get the cursor to respond in the VM so I can't install the tools - or do anything else. Now I'm really in a bad spot. Please help.

 

Please boot in Safe mode, and delete mouse device from Device Manager

 

No Go

OK, once I figured out how to start in safe mode, I deleted the mouse driver. Now, of course, I have no cursor and can't do a thing. Ideas on where to go now?

Christine