Strange Windows 7 Taskbar behavior

[jkwuc89]

Ever since upgrading to Parallels Desktop 7, the taskbar inside my Windows 7 fullscreen VM has been exhibiting an annoying bug. Whenever I start a new program, the icon for that program does not show up in the left most available space in the taskbar. Instead, it displays to the right leaving a gap. Each time I start another program, the gap gets larger. The attached screen shot shows what I am seeing.

Has anyone else seen the taskbar act like this?

 

[GreatMcKay]

I see the exact same thing...

Did you find a solution for this?

 

[jkwuc89]

No solution found yet. I did some research via Google and did not find anything relevant. Is anyone else seeing this?

 

[GreatMcKay]

Still cannot find a resolution

Since the update, its been painful. I'm kind of wishing I remained on 6.

 

[edd--]

I have the exact same problem, oddly I only see it on my macbook air, on my Imac I haven't seen it yet. When I restart the explorer.exe process then the taskbar works fine again ...

very weird, and very annoying ...

 

[edd--]

Also noticed it on my iMac, must be a bug, I wonder why not more people are experiencing this ??

 

[Parallels User]

Please people, file a bug with support.

 

[edd--]

Parallels ?? Anyone ?

 

[Parallels User]

The forums are not the official way to contact Parallels, the forums serve to get help from other users. Go to the main site and click support and/or report problem via the help menu in Parallels.

 

[James Holcomb]

This bug is quite irritating. I submitted a "Report a problem" bug through the Parallels menu.

I've been able to work around by doing this:

open Task Manager
kill explorer.exe process
click New Task...
enter explorer.exe

 

[edd--]

what OS versions are you guys running ?

I'm running 64-bit Windows 7 Business edition, maybe the problem doesn't occur with 32-bit ?
I also posted a support ticket with parallels in the meantime ...

 

[edd--]

Got this back from customer support:

1. Right click on the desktop.

2. Choose "Personalize".

3. On the left hand side of this control panel, click "Change desktop icons."

4. Uncheck "Allow themes to change deskop icons"


Trying this now ...

 

[edd--]

too bad

not solved with the previous settings

 

[SkeetS]

I am also having this issue on Win7 x64 and the above suggestion also did not fix the issue for me.

 

[YoungHwanK]

I also have same problem after the sleep

I also have the same problem on my MBP after the sleep function finished. When the computer started up after sleep, mouse right click function on taskbar doesn't work. And the taskbar goes just like the picture above. This problem came up after the installation of version 7. I had not had any problem for sleep function on ver 6.

 

[edd--]

on 32-bit OS same problem

ok, did a complete re-install on windows 32-bit: same problem I can't believe not more people are experiencing this issue, and parallels support is suggesting ridiculous steps to re-install the parallel tools:


1. Start Windows Virtual Machine.

2. Click on Start menu -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs/Programs and features and uninstall Parallels Tools if it is present.

3. Go to My Computer -> C Drive -> Program Files -> Parallels folder and delete the Parallels Tools folder, if present.

4. Click on Start menu -> Run(search box) and type regedit. Hit OK.

5. In Registry Editor, go to "My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Parallels" and delete the "Parallels Tools" entry, and go to "My Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Parallels" and delete the "Parallels Tools" entry.

6. Go to Start menu -> Run(search box) and hit Enter/Return ->(search box) type %temp% and hit Return -> select all files under this Temp folder and delete them permanently (also from Recycle Bin).

7. On the top Mac menu bar, click on Devices -> CD/DVD -> Connect Image. Browse to Mac HD\Library\Parallels Tools. Select "prl_tools_win.iso" and click on Open.

8. Wait for a minute and you will get the Auto-play window. Click on "Install Parallels Tools".
-OR-
If you do not get the Auto-play window, go to Start(Windows logo) -> Computer. Double click on the CD/DVD drive which would read "Parallels Tools". If it shows the contents, double click on "setup.exe".

 

[edd--]

workaround script (save as rex.bat)

@echo off
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
start explorer.exe
exit

this will restart explorer exe and clean up the taskbar

 

[YoungHwanK]

Thank you for your script, edd--

I made a batch file that you've suggested. It immediately cleans up the explorer, but it still makes me upset because waking up from sleeping shall be normal without any additional script!!

 

[cody_au]

I have the same problem in 7.0.15050. Occasionally icons in the Windows 7 task bar will start being pushed off to the right. Rebooting the VM fixes it until the next day pretty much.

I switch between full screen and non-full screen mode at the end of the day. I do hibernate the laptop each day and disconnect my second monitor. It's pretty annoying having to reboot my VM all the time.

 

[edd--]

second line support just kicked in

Hi,

finally I got second line support looking at the issue, hard part is that it's not easy to reproduce since it happens sometimes after resuming from sleep. So could everyone in this thread please help by sending problem reports and mentioning the ID's in this thread please ?


1) Start Parallels Desktop, start the virtual machine, reproduce the issue;
2) Right after the issue is reproduced, go to the top Parallels Desktop menu choose 'Help' > 'Report a Problem';
3) Enter your description of the problem, Name and Contact E-mail;
4) Click 'Send Report';
5) After clicking "Send Report' you will get window with the message 'Your problem report has been sent to the Parallels Support team with id XXXXXXXX';
6) Please remember this ID and put it in this thread

Thank you guys, hopefully parallels will find a solution soon ...