Parallels and Windows 10 the worst experience ever..

N

nicwilson

Junior Member
Trying to install or upgrade Windows 10 on Parallels has been my worst experience installing an OS in many many years. I tried and tried to get the upgrade to work but kept getting the display adaptor issue. I subscribed to the knowledge based article and waited.

Meanwhile I tried to install it fresh, as I had no issue installing any of the preview. As an MSDN subscriber, I downloaded both the enterprise ISO and the multiple version ISO. Pointing parallels to the image file both version failed to install with errors during install, none of this happened in the preview versions.

then the knowledge based got updated and showed how to upgrade using MediaCreator Tool, I tried this and once again failed with a unusual "Something Happended" error, very useful error huh. I tried various thing but nothing I did would work, media creation tool either crashed, and gave the stupid error.

I decided to abort of their recommended ways and just try the upgrade from my experience. I took the Windows 10 ISO and extracted with 7Zip to a USB Stick. I then mounted this stick in the Windows 8.1 VM and ran the setup. The whole installation upgrade went without a hitch and worked fine. My Windows 8.1 is now upgraded and working.
 
Beautiful, nicwilson!! All worked just fine until Setup asked me for the key code. It would not accept my Win 8.1 Pro Key. Of course, I'm trying for my free upgrade .... did you have any problems there?
I have at least 6 hours invested in this upgrade and probably have the same level of frustration as you!? Perhaps I should wait for Parallels to come up with the fix? Your advice would be appreciated.
 
Sealoozie said:
Beautiful, nicwilson!! All worked just fine until Setup asked me for the key code. It would not accept my Win 8.1 Pro Key. Of course, I'm trying for my free upgrade .... did you have any problems there?
I have at least 6 hours invested in this upgrade and probably have the same level of frustration as you!? Perhaps I should wait for Parallels to come up with the fix? Your advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Windows 10 will not accept the Windows 8.1 Key. You have to install and activate 8.1 then do an upgrade to Windows 10 to get the free upgrade. You will not receive a Windows 10 key -- activation is tied to the hardware ID of the (virtual) machine.
 
In the thread I created (https://forum.parallels.com/threads/windows-10-pro-clean-install-a-success.329043/),
the process I described went smooth as silk, amazingly. The actual upgrade process took about 1/2 hour
(SSDs are the greatest thing since sliced bread). Note that this was a clean install and did't save anything
from the Win 8.1 VM.

Whether any of my apps work remains to be seen as today was a beautiful day and went bike riding
and so will be tomorrow so won't get to installing stuff until Monday.
 
nicwilson said:
Trying to install or upgrade Windows 10 on Parallels has been my worst experience installing an OS in many many years. I tried and tried to get the upgrade to work but kept getting the display adaptor issue. I subscribed to the knowledge based article and waited.

Meanwhile I tried to install it fresh, as I had no issue installing any of the preview. As an MSDN subscriber, I downloaded both the enterprise ISO and the multiple version ISO. Pointing parallels to the image file both version failed to install with errors during install, none of this happened in the preview versions.

then the knowledge based got updated and showed how to upgrade using MediaCreator Tool, I tried this and once again failed with a unusual "Something Happended" error, very useful error huh. I tried various thing but nothing I did would work, media creation tool either crashed, and gave the stupid error.

I decided to abort of their recommended ways and just try the upgrade from my experience. I took the Windows 10 ISO and extracted with 7Zip to a USB Stick. I then mounted this stick in the Windows 8.1 VM and ran the setup. The whole installation upgrade went without a hitch and worked fine. My Windows 8.1 is now upgraded and working.
Click to expand...
I just deleted my windows 10 installation. First I got the error "Something went wrong" while trying the MediaCreation Tool. I assume that is because I am on windows 8.1 enterprise. Got the .iso from MSDN of windows 10 enterprise and this was a nightmare. The mouse is not recognised, windows can not be activated at all, because then i try to enter my SN nothing opens up and the settings window becomes like there is something open but not visible. total hell.

Can you describe the 7zip process a bit better, I would like to try that.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
EllwoodN said:
In the thread I created (https://forum.parallels.com/threads/windows-10-pro-clean-install-a-success.329043/),
the process I described went smooth as silk, amazingly. The actual upgrade process took about 1/2 hour
(SSDs are the greatest thing since sliced bread). Note that this was a clean install and did't save anything
from the Win 8.1 VM.

Whether any of my apps work remains to be seen as today was a beautiful day and went bike riding
and so will be tomorrow so won't get to installing stuff until Monday.
Click to expand...
After my unsuccessful attempt I followed your guide but still the same results. No network, no mouse, this time as a bonus no audio as well. I guess parallels 10 just does not support Windows 10 as it should be.
 
Mine never asked for a key, windows 8.1 was activated and the Windows 10 Pro just installed and activated itself without a key
 
AssenT said:
I just deleted my windows 10 installation. First I got the error "Something went wrong" while trying the MediaCreation Tool. I assume that is because I am on windows 8.1 enterprise. Got the .iso from MSDN of windows 10 enterprise and this was a nightmare. The mouse is not recognised, windows can not be activated at all, because then i try to enter my SN nothing opens up and the settings window becomes like there is something open but not visible. total hell.

Can you describe the 7zip process a bit better, I would like to try that.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Install 7zip. Then right click on the ISO file and under the 7zip menu extract it to a folder. Place the extracted folder on a USB stick and run the SETUP.EXE directly from inside the extracted folder.

NicW
 
AssenT said:
After my unsuccessful attempt I followed your guide but still the same results. No network, no mouse, this time as a bonus no audio as well. I guess parallels 10 just does not support Windows 10 as it should be.
Click to expand...

I have had no trouble with mice or keyboards, wireless ones work, plugged in ones work, and bluetooth ones work, LAN working. I cannot fault it at all so far its all working. I also upgraded my 8" tablet using the same method and its also working too.
 
I have played with this for two days now. Tonight I used Time Machine to restore my Windows 8.1. Windows 10 is Awesome, but Parellels with Windows 10 is just unstable and not working in many respects. I am very disappointed in Parallels given this was the first OS that has had public betas for a very long time and we have reached release in such a state with Parallels. I will stay with Windows 8.1 until the developers of Parallels get their act together.
 
Add me to the list of dissatisfied Parallels 10 customers who can't upgrade from Win 8.1 to Win 10 because of the display adapter error. The posted solution (http://kb.parallels.com/en/123053) did NOT work for me running a 2012 core i7 quad Mac mini w/16GB (4GB allocated to Parallels). Unfortunately in my three years of experience with Parallels going back to v8 they always seem to be one step ahead in trying to sell their latest version and two steps behind in support. And I absolutely hate Microsoft for pulling this last minute "your video adapter doesn't support Windows 10" when all of their pre-release marketing claims if you're running Win 7 or Win 8.1 you can upgrade. Hey, Microsoft - news flash: Graphics adapters are part of computers!!! You can't say allow me to upgrade and use Win 8.1 for over a year, and reserve the Win 10 upgrade a month ago, and spend an hour downloading the installation files, and then go all "Oops! Your graphic card sucks. See your manufacturer." This happened to me on the Parallels VM and on an HP machine with NVIDIA GeForce graphics. So congratulations, Parallels - you're right down there with Microsoft when it comes to supporting advertised "compatibility."
 
slingr said:
Add me to the list of dissatisfied Parallels 10 customers who can't upgrade from Win 8.1 to Win 10 because of the display adapter error. The posted solution (http://kb.parallels.com/en/123053) did NOT work for me running a 2012 core i7 quad Mac mini w/16GB (4GB allocated to Parallels). Unfortunately in my three years of experience with Parallels going back to v8 they always seem to be one step ahead in trying to sell their latest version and two steps behind in support. And I absolutely hate Microsoft for pulling this last minute "your video adapter doesn't support Windows 10" when all of their pre-release marketing claims if you're running Win 7 or Win 8.1 you can upgrade. Hey, Microsoft - news flash: Graphics adapters are part of computers!!! You can't say allow me to upgrade and use Win 8.1 for over a year, and reserve the Win 10 upgrade a month ago, and spend an hour downloading the installation files, and then go all "Oops! Your graphic card sucks. See your manufacturer." This happened to me on the Parallels VM and on an HP machine with NVIDIA GeForce graphics. So congratulations, Parallels - you're right down there with Microsoft when it comes to supporting advertised "compatibility."
Click to expand...
There have been a myriad of threads all over the internet about this issue on Windows machines, even ones
less than a year old shipped with Win8.1. I have seen threads with graphics adapters ranging from
Intel Integrated up to high end super duper graphics cards that run games at 4k at full frame rates
saying that the adapters basically sucked for Win 10.

As for me, clean installed Win10Pro from .iso in Parallels 10.2.2 (OS X 10.10.4) with out any issues and is running
just fine, so far.
 
EllwoodN said:
There have been a myriad of threads all over the internet about this issue on Windows machines, even ones
less than a year old shipped with Win8.1. I have seen threads with graphics adapters ranging from
Intel Integrated up to high end super duper graphics cards that run games at 4k at full frame rates
saying that the adapters basically sucked for Win 10.

As for me, clean installed Win10Pro from .iso in Parallels 10.2.2 (OS X 10.10.4) with out any issues and is running
just fine, so far.
Click to expand...


I challenge that last statement. Run Coherence mode and tell me it works. Select the Windows Start menu left click, and select the Windows Start Menu with a right click and tell me that your coherence mode works.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top