Am I completely missing something here?

Hi,
I am testing out a trial of Parallels 9 for Mac, have installed Windows 8.1 and using parallels "As a Mac." It is driving me nuts, because I cannot open any executable files within finder, even in the folders I am "sharing". A "Windows Application" folder never appeared and I am completely confused on what to do. I wanted to use Parallels to run a Windows trading platform on my Mac. I am running Mavericks 10.9.2 and the latest version of Parallels 9 (it is a trial). Is it because it is a trial that I can do nothing? If so what is the point of the trial...? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have run parallels in the past, and any executable file will have the little || parallels logo on the icon. Not the case here.....is there something obvious that I am missing?

I even restarted my Mac in recovery mode and repaired file permissions, reset password, and reset the file permissions.

Thanks,
Ross

 

"As a Mac" sets the default view to Coherence and enables a lot of the sharing options. I usually start with "As a PC". You can enable or disable the options separately afterward.

There's the Parallels Desktop menu in the menu bar. You can right-click it for the start menu or left-click it for the Parallels menu. Alt-left-click for additional Parallels menu items.

There's the Virtual Machine app in the Dock (has the same name as your virtual machine). Left-click it for the start menu, or right-click it for some Parallels options.

The menu from the virtual machine app or the menu bar has View options. You can Exit Coherence to get back to a normal PC view.

Use the Configure option to enable or disable sharing features. Configure -> Options -> Sharing, Applications. All the configuration screens have a (?) icon to get to the Parallels Desktop Help for those options.

The dock should also contain a Virtual Machine Applications folder (has the same name as your virtual machine). This is where all the Windows apps should appear if you have "Share Windows applications with Mac" and "Show Windows applications folder in Dock" enabled.

Read the "Merge Windows and Mac OS X" section in Parallels Desktop Help for more information on Coherence mode.

If an app doesn't have the || mark then it might be a Mac application. If it's an exe instead of an App, then it should have a Parallels Desktop document icon and it should open in the currently running virtual machine. If it doesn't open, then you may need to access it using a helper app in the Windows applications folder or from the the virtual machine using the Start Menu or Explorer.

All the apps in the Windows applications folder that Parallels Desktop creates are helper apps which point to an exe on a virtual machine. They run on the Mac to start the exe on the virtual machine. Or Parallels Desktop starts the helper app when you start an exe on the virtual machine. The helper app represents the Windows exe on the Mac side in the Dock and the Application switcher (press Command-Tab). The helper app can receive Mac events such as Quit or Hide and send those events to the virtual machine.

I'm not sure how all the options behave with Windows 8.1

 

What Sharing and Applications options do you have set in the VM's configuration?

Steve

 

Thanks guys. I just switched to "Home Folder Only" from "All Disks", then I added my downloads folder as a Custom Folder...Every checkmark is checked in my sharing options.
I just don't understand why this wouldn't work....the whole purpose of Parallels is to run Windows files on a Mac....

Strange...

 

Did you check that \\psf\Home\ works? Also check

\\psf\Home\Desktop\
\\psf\Home\Downloads\
\\psf\Home\Music\
\\psf\Home\Documents\
\\psf\Home\Movies\
\\psf\Home\Pictures\

I've tested this with 8.1 just now with no problems. The Windows folders for Desktop, Downloads, Music, Documents, Movies, and Pictures will have their location set to the above when Shared Profile is enabled.


You don't actually need Shared Profile to run Windows files on a Mac.

You should see a Parallels Desktop Shared Profile dialog in Windows whenever you change the Shared Profile which says that you need to re-login for the changes to take effect. If you don't see that, then Parallels Tools probably isn't installed correctly.

 

hey joevt,
thanks for the response. i have everything shared and no matter where a I place a .exe file, I won't be able to run it. I have placed it in every folder that is supposedly shared. Then I shared "All Disks" so that the whole drive was shared, but nothing. Not sure what to do. Not a great first impression of parallels. Dang.

 

Check if the folder is shared by going to the folder in Windows, starting from \\psf

That will at least let you remove "supposedly" from your statement.

Can you open the exe from Windows instead of the Finder? Go to the exe in Windows using the \\psf path.

 

In OS X, do a Get Info on a .exe file. What is Open With set to? Can you change it to Windows Explorer?

Steve