Full Dual Monitor Support (WinXP on OSX)

Have to agree here. It's a very basic, and increasingly important feature for users that was requested a very long time ago. What is the ETA?

 

Estimated Time of Arrival ... hopefully not Enormous Time Assumed ...

 

True Dual Monitor Support...

Is there any update on Dual Monitor Support for Windows XP in Parallels 4?

Using VMWare Fusion due to the lack of multi-monitor support in Parallels that I can tell.

Thank you.

 

No - nothing changed. :-((


-- Harald

 

Disappoint...

I just saw the Fusion multi-display support and it's much better that PD4 support.

 

Yes - it is perfect, but it is slower when you work with CAD or DTP apps.

 

this seems like such a trivial thing, but i HAVE to have it. i kept telling myself to wait for the next update, that it would come...yet....still nothing. this is an issue that REALLY needs to be fixed. if it wasn't such a pain to reinstall windows and all of it's apps...i would have switched to vm a long time ago...and only because of the dual monitor support.

 

MaxiVista

You *could* run a second VM and get a product called MaxiVista which allows a Windows OS to span monitors attached to multiple computers. The basic design is meant for cases where you have a desktop and a notebook and you want to use the monitor built into the notebook as monitor #2 attached to the desktop.

I have a PC notebook with external monitor attached - and have run two virtual machines on my Mac (notebook with external monitor attached) with MaxiVista running in server mode on the PC and in client mode on both VMs resulting in a PC with 4 monitors attached. Perhaps not the idea solution but the secondary VMs can be very small in terms of RAM and disk and they appear on the primary PC just as if they were physically attached.

 

This is not a good solution.
There is no reason not to do that! This is a very important feature.

 

i agree with yoavhacohen. there is no reason for that. the dual monitor support should work properly. when running a vm, you want to make as small of a footprint as possible. so, running another program is just going to take up more system resources.

 

Great Post Olivier, I was thinking it but did not think little ole me should say it!! I Love my Parallels and the productivity it affords me!

 

Sounds great, but as for the money... Maybe the guys at Parallels should include the app in the next update if they do not get it running. I find it quite annoying not being able to use a secondary display on my MacBook Pro with XP because Parallels does not support it.
:-(

 

We are working in this direction very hard, unfortunately no ETA for now, I can provide

 

Dual Monitor Support

Does Parallels finally support Multi-Monitor displays yet for the VM Guest?
Seems every VMapp including opensource has this feature.

Would not mind trying out Parallels 4, I bought Parallels but quickly dropped it due to the lack of Dual Monitor support.

Thank you.

 

Gaping Hole

This is becoming a huge hole in their product, and to other posters point, not one people have to live with now.

Sad thing is that while Parallels offers the best virtualization software otherwise, this single issue can readily take their software out of contention.

If you want to compete with free, you have to at least match free feature for feature.

 

Bummer. I bought Parallels from the Macupdate promo, but am disappointed to find it doesn't support dual monitors from within the guest OS (as VMWare Fusion does under the XP control panel settings).

A shame, as in many ways I really prefer Parallels, but will find the lack of dual-monitor support will be a HUGE show-stopper for me. Coherent mode is too slow for me (as it us under Fusion, too), and I use stock trading software which demands alot of screen real-estate. No dual monitors, and Parallels is cool and all, but impractical.

 

Dun... dun ... dun

Come on Parallels team!

I know you can do it!

Go ask the SUN OpenSource dev's if you can't figure it out!!!

cheers!

 

Parallels, please consider this idea...

Additional "screens" might be added right in the VM configuration just as you can add virtual hard disks or other resources. Those additional virtual screens would simply open a second, third, ... window on the host. They would be exposed to the guest OS as multiple video adapters (or multiple screens on a single multi-port video adapter - as you like, I obviously don't care). One video adapter defined in the configuration == 1 VM window on the host. Two video adapters defined == 2 VM windows on the host.

I take for granted that from this point on, it becomes "simple" to implement and make it scream. Yeah, easy to say, but think again to the implementation, nothing so special in there. It only means virtualize multiple video adapters (or if easier conceptually - multiple screens on a multi-connectors single video adapter) just as it is done today for hard disks. One more virtual hard disk == one more file or folder to hold it on the host. Same thing here : one video adapter (or screen) == one more window.

I could run a VM using two screens (as seen by the VM) on a SINGLE host monitor. One screen as seen by the VM is one window on the host OS. Let me switch the main VM window to full screen on the host display 1 and separately let the second window (screen 2) as a window on host display 2, or full screen, and so on...

Coherence ?
Well I would suggest to keep it as today : Coherence runs as today (only the first screen seen by the guest is Coherence enabled). It would not stop me from running my second guest screen as full screen on a second host monitor.

I'm not sure I can use english straight enough to make the above idea clear, but it looks so straightforward to me that... hear me scream : where's the source code so that I can start implementing right now ? ;-)

 

Any Update?

Is there any update on an ETA, or on the likelihood of this actually being added to Parallels? Parallels not having this feature led me to switch to VMWare Fusion, even though I prefer Parallels in almost every other aspect. It's a real deal-breaker.

 

Multiple Monitors in P4 / F2.

Like many others on this forum, I am forced to use VMware Fusion for one reason; it supports multiple monitors (at various resolutions). Have five 1920x1200 and one 1280 monitor off a Mac Pro.
In all the marketing for Parallels4, there is scant mention of monitors. Had hoped that the latest release would address this. Or did I miss something? Fusion2 supports up to 16 monitors. See this YouTube demo from 2008: http://jkontherun.com/2008/05/31/vmware-fusion-2/