Parallels 8, Windows 7, iMac, Mountain Lion 10.8.2 (unfortunately). Windows updated itself today and asked me to reboot, which I did. Now it is refusing to open. Parallels sits on "Starting Coherence". What do I do? All my work is on the Windows side and I can't get to it! I have shut down, restarted, reinstalled Parallels - all to no avail. After the automatic Windows update, I clicked on Restart Now. Then, when Parallels/Windows didn't restart, I clicked on Show in the Starting Windows window. The "Windows didn't shut down properly" screen was displayed. I told it to start Windows normally. It went through the usual Windows motions, got as far as the Welcome screen, then closed that window and just sat on "Starting Coherence". I wanted to see if I could start it in safe mode, but I was not offered that opportunity again; it now switches straight to Starting Coherence and sits there. Many thanks for any suggestions. Yours desperately
PS By right clicking on the Parallels icon in the dock and selecting Show All Windows twice (by accident), I have just discovered that there was a Windows error message (Windows has just recovered from a major fault, check for information, or something) waiting to be acknowledged. I acknowledged it, and Windows has now opened in a separate window (not in Concordance). I will back up all my work, reboot and see whether the problem is fixed. I will report back.
Even after having Parallels support on the phone for an hour yesterday, unable to solve this problem. Obviously there is some conflict between the update in Windows and Coherence mode. Windows works in its own window, but when I start Coherence mode it crashes Windows (or is it the other way round). After trying various permutations of uninstalling (including all anti-virus on the Windows side), reinstalling Parallels Tools, tweaking the registry etc, the support guy has told me that the only thing left is to reinstall Windows completely... So here goes (and bang goes my Saturday afternoon!).
