Full Dual Monitor Support (WinXP on OSX)

re-booting into XP sucks

For me, the entirety of the reason why I purchased Parallels was to run it and OS X side-by-side. Unfortunately, I got some bad information and purchased before I checked for myself about whether it would work with dual-monitors or not. If I would have known about this shortcoming I wouldn't have bought it (and judging from these posts, I have to assume I'm not the only one).

The truth is, it is not always convenient or possible (not to mention professional) to keep rebooting anytime you want to switch apps.

Please add this functionality soon!

 

I also wish I had checked for dual monitor support before paying $50 for Parallels. This was the number one feature I was looking for when I bought Parallels, because I really need to run Mac applications at the same time as MediaShout on a guest Windows OS. Mediashout works great on Bootcamp, but then I can't touch my much needed Mac apps. With Mediashout, I should be able to control my presentation on the primary display and project my media presentation on a second display (second monitor or projector). With Parallels, I CAN NOT DO THIS!! Please include this functionality in the next release!!!

 

I would really like to get multiple monitors added as well.

I just bought a Mac Pro with 6 monitors. Once I finally got the work around to work for the Mac Pro, I was really sorry to see I could not use my six monitors to run Windows with Parallels.

Any confirmation that we are going to see this released? If so, a date?

Thanks in advance.

 

I thought about this for a long time last night. I originally just thought that I would be able to resize the window on the Guest OS, Windows XP, and the Guest OS would adjust the resolution accordingly. I thought that if I resized the window over multiple monitors the Guest OS would adjust the resolution and adjust the number of pixels accordingly. While I guess this might be te best soultion for the user, it might be hard to implement for the developers.

Now, I think the best solution might be to have the user choose which monitors it wants to run the Guest OS on. I think someone mentioned this before. For example if Windows XP is the Guest OS, the user would see all of the monitors avaible on in the Display Properties and could choose which monitors should be available to the Guest OS.

Any implementaton would make me very happy. I hope to see this soon as I am currently unable to use Parallels on my new Mac Pro with six new monitors. :-( Looks like I will be running VNC until this gets implemented. Any word from the developers on the likelyhood of this in the future would be very nice. Thanks in advance.

 

Boy howdy

I'd love this feature as well. I have to use Windows in my dev job and have my MBP hooked up to an external monitor. I'd like Windows under Parallels to see two monitors, just as it does in a normal dual-monitor setup.

Jim Tomlinson

 

I too would like to have this capability. Right now, I have to run bootcamp to have full dual-monitor support (which I need), and I'm getting more and more frustrated with my windows install on bootcamp everyday (networking flaky for me, but it could just be a window config problem).

Anyway, I do believe we'll see dual-monitor support for PD for Mac at some point. The windows version, Parallels Workstation for Windows/Linux, does have dual-monitor support. However, I do not know exactly how it's supported: 1) pick a screen to use or 2) full dual-monitor suppot.

Here's the "what's new" for PW 2.1 Beta 4 (PW is now at 2.2):
* Introduced full screen mode
* Introduced dual-monitor support <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
* Improved real CD/DVD support
* Improved, easier to use interface.
* Better sound support, including a fix for Windows 2000 guest OS
* Networking kernel panics resolved
* Bridged networking issues fixed
* WiFi networking issues fixed
* Fixed some of the issues encountered when entering Sleep mode when a VM is running
* Many other minor bug fixes

I think we'll see it for PD at some point, hopefully sooner than later.

 

Did this get built in the latest version?

 

I just downloaded the newest version, and looked for it. However, I did not see it.

Anyone else have any luck?

Maybe someone from the Parallels team could give us the official word on when we could expect this?

 

amen to that. i have a nice monitor just sitting there waiting to be manhandled by some sexy maxpook dual screen action.

 

Yes indeed, I use Parallels to run FlashDevelop (which isn't available for Mac yet) and dual-monitor support would be extremely useful.

So pretty pretty please?

 

I am guessing this feature still did not make in the newest release?

Anyone get multiple monitors to work?

 

is anyone out there...

It seems like we're STILL waiting on someone from PD to get back to us about this feature! Can someone please at least let us know if we're hoping in vain or if we wasted our money on a program that doesn't do what we need it to do?

 

Hello? Bueller?

Anyone from Parallels able to give us an update on the feasibility of / schedule for this feature? Lots of us are waiting for it, and I know a lot of others are keeping their credit cards in their wallets until this is supported.

 

Dual Monitor support for the Guest OS

I'd really like to see the option to have dual windows/monitors for the Guest OS. Then I can banish all PCs from my home and office!

 

We need this for use with Autocad. I guess what I would want is to have windows full screen across both monitors.

Mac pro with two 23" monitors

 

Did anyone look into MaxiVista mentioned earlier in this thread with two VMs on two screens? Your main VM would be given most of the RAM for your two screen app, your second VM running on the second screen would need 64 or 128mb to drive the MaxiVista virtual monitor and give its screen to the first VM.

 

This is nice to have but not critical

I spend most of my time doing software development under Windows using Adobe Flex Builder. I decided to switch from a Dell to an iMac so I could debug and test under both Windows and Mac on one machine.

My Dell has two monitors and that's what I'm used to now, so going back to one monitor for Windows (and the other for Mac) seemed like it was going to be a set back.

But I figured out how to get a single 3400x1100 window to go across both monitors (one is 1920x1200 and the other is 1600x1200), and now I'm pretty happy. It's not as good as true dual monitor support for Windows, but it's good enough that I'd rather that the Parallels team spend their precious time working on more important stuff.

(One mystery: I don't fully understand why I can't have full 32-bit color with a 3400x1100 screen resolution. I assume it's because there is only 8 MB on the virtual video adapter, but why can't that be increased?)

 

Workspace Spanning Multiple Monitors

The current multiple monitor solution (with Parallels Tools installed on the client) that allows the user to switch focus between displays without exiting full screen mode is great!

My dream solution would allow me to use VirtueDesktops to switch between dual monitor Mac and Windows environments (VirtueDesktops will probably be phased out by Spaces when Leopard is released).

Here is my guess at how the screen switching would work (Might be the same as the current Hot Key functions): Add a screen switching key combination setting to the Preferences page. Have the Parallels Tools application on the client machine watch for the key stokes. If detected forward a message to the host for handling by the virtual screen switching application. I am sure this part is easy compared to the actual dual monitor support... I won't attempt to provide suggestions on how that might be accomplished.

 

I think what you are referring to is having a Guest OS on one monitor and OS X on another, but what I think this thread is referring to is being able to have a guest OS across more than on monitor. There is no known solution for this with Parallels Tools that I know of, correct me if I am wrong.

I have six monitors and I want to have the Guest OS on four of them and OS X on two of them. I have never heard of a solution for this, but I hope to get one soon! Other people need different variations of the what I am looking for I believe. So just to clarify: There is no current multiple monitor solution as people in this thread are looking for at this time that I am aware of.

Hopefully we can here from the development team soon as this thread remains popular.

 

My goal was to start my previous post by complimenting Parallels on their current support that handles multiple monitors without breaking out of full screen mode when the guest looses focus.

Like you I would like a single guest to span multiple displays, though I only have 2 monitors. My twist in addition to this feature is for added support for a virtual desktop manager like VirtueDesktops/Spaces.