Open guest OS programs in host OS window?

Discussion in 'Feature Suggestions' started by posssu, Jun 27, 2006.

  1. posssu

    posssu Bit poster

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    Open guest OS programs in host OS windows?

    If I have ie. Windows XP installed in my Parallels for Mac, would it be possible for the Parallels to detect, when the guest OS has launched a program and then show the window content in a new window withing OSX? So I could kinda hide the actual guest OS and run programs by using the guest OS as a wrapper instead.

    I don't know if this kinda window-capturing is easily possible? But it would be cool to have this kinda alternative 'mode' or behaviour. Then it would actually run like Wine, but with actual Windows. (of course it could be some other OS as well)
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2006
  2. posssu

    posssu Bit poster

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    Is this possible, does anyone know? If there are some Parallels tools in the guest OS anyway, isn't it possible to somehow capture the window inside XP and open a new window in the host OS and display the content there? That would make the running Windows XP work as a wrapper for XP programs, and you could hide the guest OS completely.

    Here's how it would work:
    -click on an XP program in OSX
    -it runs in the running guest OS
    -if certain mode is activated, the window opening in the Parallels window will be captured and a new window will be opened in OSX and the content of the starting program window will be showed in OSX in it's own window.

    Is this technically possible? There are wrapper solutions coming (WINE based), but this would give Parallels advantage over them with no need for emulation or whatsoever. Wrapper-mode?
     
  3. joem

    joem Forum Maven

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    Boy, is that ever the last thing I want. Windows is not Mac and Mac is not Windows. They are different machines, with different conventions. If this is ever provided, I sure hope it's an option because I'd switch to antoher product if it were available if Parallels operated that way. Luckily, it's either not technically possible or at least very difficult so we probably won't see it any time soon (or at least not before full USB pass through and 3D graphics).

    I don't want to run Windows applicatins in OSX. I want Windows and OSX running side by side, with only the interaction I choose to allow. I don't want a Windows virus eating my Mac.
     
  4. constant

    constant Forum Maven

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    .
    Wine does emulation.

    Parallels does virtualization.

    I hope the difference remains.
    .
     
  5. posssu

    posssu Bit poster

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    Of course the difference remains. And there would be no sense, if that wasn't optional. But it would be a very useful feature (_for those who need it_) and would give a big advantage for Parallels in competition.

    I don't know, maybe you guys don't need it. I don't know why you would call that emulation. Nor would it allow any Windows viruses to attack mac. It's still virtualization, just detaching the program from it's os and showing it outside the guest os. Purely graphical feature. The program would still execute in the guest os. Why being so negative about it. I agree 3d and many other things are much more important, but I don't see why this would be so outrageous. There are even rumours about Leopard executing native Windows programs. Why couldn't Parallels do that?

    For example, when testing my website with Internet Explorer, I could have multiple Explorer windows open in OSX without needing to keep the guest OS window open.

    But just an idea. Maybe a bad one. Support for graphics cards is much more important.
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2006
  6. goron

    goron Junior Member

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    I often thought it would be useful to effectively make the Windows desktop invisible, so that Windows windows freely existed on the Mac desktop (or whatever host you are running).

    Citrix provides this 'seemless' mode when hosting remote Windows apps on a client desktop, so perhaps this could be done like that.

    Or perhaps Citrix could provide a very light-weight product where the client (on mac) only talks to server running on guest os... no need for network layer, security etc.

    The -ve responders to this original question seem to assuming posssu is requesting a wine-like environment, but it doesn't have to be like that.
     
  7. posssu

    posssu Bit poster

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    They heard me!!!! :D
     

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