Solution for File Associations in Mac OS and Parallels

did a lot of searching and never found a solution from the Parallels Team or other users so I thought I would post to try and help my fellow VM users;

I use the Mac OS to run Mac native programs like internet programs as they run faster in Mac OS than in VM environment. U se my VM to run Microsoft programs like Outlook, Excel, etc because I prefer the Windows version (more functionality over Mac programs)

My problem was when working in Firefox or any other program in Mac OS that wanted to open a Windows file like Excel, Word, PowerPoint, PDF, etc. the Mac OS wanted to use the Mac programs. What was happening and that when asked what program I wanted to use to open the file the Mac OS would not recognize the windows .exe files.

The work around I found is as follows;

1.) go to VM>Configure>Shared Applications
2.) select show programs in dock (Always or Coherence)
3.) open your Windows program in the VM (i.e. Excel)
4.) it should now show in the Mac dock
5.) right click and select Show in Finder
6.) a Mac window will open showing the file in a Parallels folder; this folder is hidden within the Parallels VM Disk and can not be navigated to any other way in Finder (that I could find)
7.) drag and drop this file into your Mac Applications folder
8.) next time you open a Windows executable file of this type file the pop up window asks what program you want to choose to open the file
9.) navigate to the Applications folder and select the Parallels file you moved (i.e. Excel) to the Applications folder, select always use this association and you are done

Hope this helps