Help needed tracking down symptoms

The system I'm working with had problems, so it first got a reinstall of XP SP 1 from a CD, and then had the SP2 download applied to it. I'm hoping someone will know what's causing these items:

1. Parallel's shared folders don't work right. Trying to access them either gives me a "You do not have access to this network resource", or sometimes "There's a duplicate device name. Go to system properties and change your computer name". Othertimes, it will connect, but ask me to type a password (insisting that it wants to connect to \\.psf as guest). This problem existed before AND after upgrading.

2. Prior to upgrading to SP 2, IE works just fine.
After upgrading to SP 2, the desktop icon doesn't work, it just creates a duplicate shortcut on the desktop.

Additionally, the "Manage Add-ons ..." menu does nothing.

(This is IE 6, not 7)

3. The automatic downloader wouldn't give me SP 2 -- it insisted that I already had it. Everything else (About the computer, popup at startup) said I did not.

4. BSOD when attemping to use a USB printer from the windows side.

 

Hello,

did you try to reinstall Parallels Tools?
Also could you please provide me with a BSOD that you have received?
And please tell me your Mac OS version and number of Parallels Desktop build.

Best regards,
Stacey

 

OS is 10.4.11
Parallels is the latest non-beta
Reinstalled parallels tools
USB BSOD is "Device driver has pool"

 

Alright, here is the latest.

Since a number of the problems started after installing SP2, I uninstalled SP2. That did not solve the problems, but it did allow me to reinstall windows (my CD is an SP1 CD).

A fresh upgrade reinstallation, done from within windows, both to maximize the "save settings" and to give it a chance to download the updated setup/installer program from microsoft. The only odd drivers being used was the unsigned parallels video driver -- everything else went without any problems or complaints.

Adobe flash player installer started up after windows had been reinstalled, and it was allowed to run/install.

At this point, there is a USB controller in the system, with nothing connected to the USB. Everything seems to be working -- IE is well behaved, etc.

I then attach the USB printer; no immediate problems.

I try to install the parallels tools; I get the "Device driver has pool" BSOD. This BSOD only comes when the printer is connected to the USB controller, but has an almost 100% occurrence rate. It normally comes after trying to print a test page. The BSOD screen mentions using a special pool to detect the error earlier, but there's no indication of how to do this.

Parallels build #: 5160. (Why are there multiple versions of 3.0, and not a 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, etc?)

 

Hello,

please try to use this article.

Best regards,
Stacey

 

This will only give me printer access. I'm doing that with Bonjour right now.

I need scanner access. That means that I have to get the USB to work. Unless there's a way to fake the scanner across the parallel port interface. (Hey, there were parallel port scanners way back when).

Do you have any idea why trying to access the parallels shared folders gives me a prompt for password, trying to use a name of "guest", with no way to change the "guest"? (No, the shared folders do not automatically mount as drive letters).

 

Hello,

do you use your scanner in Mac OS?

As for shared folders issue, please tell me if you used a Transporter to create a VM.
If no, please tell me your what users do you have in 'Start' -> 'Settings' -> 'Control Panel' -> 'User Accounts'.
Also please tell me if your VM is added into domain.

Best regards,
Stacey

 

No, I could not get transporter to work. I took a drive image and made a 40 gig hard drive file, and then had to do a repair install from a window install CD. (The old system died). I've done a "remove SP 2", "Repair install", "Re-apply patches from windows update" sequence.

Start -> settings -> control panel -> user accounts:

Bob Davis (computer administrator)
Guest (Guest account is off).

Hmm. Let me try turning that on

Didn't help.
Title bar: Connect to robdavis

Contents:
Connecting to .psf
<grey> User name ROBDAVIS\Guest </grey>
Password: <Blank space to type in>

"enter" does not work.

Mac computer name, as reported by System Preferences: Robert Davis' Computer

Windows computer name, as reported by Control panel -> system: robdavis.
Wokgroup: MSHome.
No description.

(Note: No trailing domain. It ends with a dot).

Yes, we use the scanner in Mac OS. Mac can access windows disks while parallels is running; parallels cannot access mac disks. So at the moment, it is Scan in mac, copy into the windows disk, let windows programs access it. That's inconvenient at best.

 

Hello,

please try to install a new build 5582 and observe the performance.

Best regrads,
Stacey

 

Installing ...
(I'm surprised no one asked me to upload the machine for your engineers to ponder over.)

Ok, the USB is working now. In fairness, it's a new printer, and a new driver. (Now the HP j5780 all-in-one. Scanner works!)

IE's desktop icon has a right click menu of
Create shortcut
Delete
Rename
-----
Properties

And no "Browse the internet" on the top.

EDIT: Shared folders are working!

 

Hello,

please do the following:
1. Right click on any open area of the Desktop.
2. Click 'Properties', select the 'Desktop' tab, then click 'Customize Desktop' button.
3. Select the 'General' tab.
4. In the 'Desktop Icons' section place the checkmark next to Internet Explorer.

Best regards,
Stacey

 

Trying to turn off internet explorer, and then turning it back on, did not change anything. The same right-click menu is displayed.

Now, one more problem: We have had two different VM's on the machine. One is called "Historic (backup) Windows XP", and the other is "Primary Windows XP". Primary is the one we want to use.

The problem? Some file associations are attached to a windows app in "Historic". I have tried turning off the shared applications on "historic", yet it doesn't stop files from trying (and failing) to open there.

Goals:
1. Disable any use of "historic" apps, and force "Primary" apps instead.
2. An easy way to get some of these to open on the macintosh side. Right now, the only way I've found to fix it is to save a file on the mac side, right click, open with, always open with this app, Finder, Get info, change all. Is there an easier way to change the mac's default app for an extension?

 

Hello,

please try to move your existing Internet Explorer icon somewhere from the Desktop and then perform the actions I have described before.

Can you start your 'Historic' VM?

Best regards,
Stacey

 

I have tried removing the icon from the desktop. It doesn't help.

That IE desktop icon isn't normal. It's tied into the registry somehow, and every time it is re-created, it is created with the flawed right menu.

Windows XP doesn't behave that way on real hardware, but it does on parallels' emulated hardware.

Yes, historic does start most of the time. Just realized: I haven't tested it much since upgrading.

 

Hello,

please perform the following:

1. Click Start, Run.
2. Type "regedit.exe" (Without quotes).
3. Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel

4. In the right hand pane, double-click {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D} key.
5. Enter dword value as 0 to enable the Internet Explorer icon on the Desktop.

Best regards,
Stacey

 

The problem isn't that the icon isn't on the screen. It is.

The problem seems to be that the right click menu for it is damaged. It seems that for some reason, one of the updates from windows update changed this menu so that the normal "Open Home Page" and "Start without addons" choices were removed.

This doesn't happen on normal hardware, but did happen on parallel's VM.

 

Again, both of these are still issues for me.

I don't want anything to open in "Historic VM". That's more for a backup than anything else at the moment.

If I'm opening a windows app, I want to use the "Primary VM" version of the windows app.

And, I'd like to have a way to say "Don't use this app for this extension", or "Don't use this app for macintosh files at all".

Is there some easy extension/file type manager, that will let you check a file extension, see all the apps associated with that extension, and let you choose which one will be used?

Wish list time: Browse by file extension, file creator code, or application. Assign priorities (so that rather than saying "Never open in this windows app", it becomes "Only use this windows app if there is no other choice").

 

Bump

How can we disable apps opening in the wrong VM?

 

Hello,

please open the Configuration Editor of your Historic VM (start Parallels Desktop, choose the Historic VM, but do not start it, then click 'Edit' -> 'Virtual Machine'). There you should disable 'Shared Applications'.

Best regards,
Stacey

 

It was already disabled.

I tried re-enabling it, and then disabling it again. No good.