start button in dock

R

RobertT

Bit poster
I have Parallels v6 running on XP. Parallels has been working fine until today. I think the only change that was made to my computer recently is updating OSX to v 10.6.5. Since then, the windows Start button in my dock does not work. It used to expand with all my programs etc, like it should. Also, the icons for Word and Excel no longer show in my dock when I open those programs. Other windows program icons I have in my dock no longer work either.

How can I get the start button and windows programs icons in the dock working?

Thank you!
 
Are you using Parallels Desktop 6.0.11828?

Right click the icon in the dock and select "Options -> Show in Finder". Are they found in the Finder?

Do you have "Share Windows applications with Mac" enabled in Virtual Machine -> Configure... -> Options -> Applications? Try turning it off, then turning it on again.
 
yes, I am using Parallels Desktop 6.0.11828.

when I right-click the start button in the dock and show in the Finder I see the Parallels Desktop.app but I do not see any Windows programs.

yes, I have "Share Windows applications with Mac" enabled. I tried turning this off and then on again but it did not help. I also tried reinstalling Parallels tools but that did not help.

I cannot open any windows apps from the Windows App folder in the dock. I need to use the windows tool bar in order to open a Windows app. When I do this, the icon does not show up in the dock.

I also cannot open any Word and Excel files from Finder. I cannot select any Windows programs to "open with" from the finder as they do not show up in the list of Applications. I used to see all Windows programs and could "assign" them to my .doc and .xls files to open automatically.

I am in Coherence mode.
 
Use Window mode and run the Word and Excel from the virtual machine. Do they then appear in the Dock? If so then right click those and select Show in Finder.

Do you have more than one virtual machine? Each virtual machine has it's own Windows Application folder.

You could try quitting Parallels, then delete the Windows application folder in the Finder. Parallels will create a new folder when you start the virtual machine again.

If nothing works, you could try uninstalling Parallels Desktop using the uninstaller app on the .dmg, then reinstall. Your virtual machines will be remain intact.
 
when I use Window mode and run Excel or Word they do not appear in the Dock.

No, I do not have more than 1 VM

I do not have a Windows application folder in Finder and the Windows app folder that is on the dock does not work.

if I try to uninstall Parallels Desktop, do I need to re-install Windows and all programs too? What do you mean by "using the uninstaller app on the .dmg" ? I do not know what .dmg is or how to uninstall Parallels. Can you please provide detailed instructions on how to uninstall?

Thank you very much
 
The Parallels Desktop 6 installer is on a .dmg disk image file. It also contains an uninstaller application. If you no longer have the disk image file, then download it from the Parallels website. Go to http://www.parallels.com/download/desktop/ and click the "Download Now!" button after selecting your language.

The uninstaller will not remove your virtual machines so you don't need to reinstall Windows.

The Windows Applications folders will usually exist at ~/Applications (The Applications folder in your user folder). If the Windows Application folder in the dock doesn't point to an existing folder, then just remove it from the dock. Removing stuff from the dock does not erase it from the disk.
 
Thanks for the info but it did not work. I uninstalled Parallels and re-installed but it is still now working correctly. None of the Windows apps show in the dock when they are open. I also do not have a Windows Applications folder in Finder so I do not have any program associations with my .doc or .xls files so cannot open them by double clicking. I have to start Word or Excel and then open the files from within the programs.

Is there anything else I can try?

Thanks
 
Robert I am also having the exact same problem as you. I have the same configuration and same versions of Parallels and OS X. If anyone finds a solution, please help us! Thanks
 
I submitted a support ticket to Parallels and received the following instructions. They seem to have worked to fix my problem; hopefully it helps you guys too.

Please follow the below mentioned steps to overcome this issue:

1. Launch Parallels Desktop and start Windows.

2. Click 'Start' on Windows and select Control Panel.

3. Click on Add/Remove programs or Programs and Features and select Parallels Tools from the list.

4. Remove Parallels Tools and wait until it is uninstalled completely.

5. Reboot Windows.

6. Click on Virtual Machine menu on Mac menu bar at the top and select 'Install Parallels Tools'.

7. Wait until you get a message that Parallels Tools is installed successfully and shutdown Windows.

8. Now again navigate to Virtual Machine in the Mac menu bar to Configure.

9. In the options tab-> Applications.

Check Mark-> Share Windows applications with Mac.
Check Mark-> Show Windows Applications folder in Dock
Un-check-> Show Dock icons in Coherence only.
un-check-> Pause Windows when no applications are open

10. Also check-> Share Mac applications with Windows.

Click on okay and check for the issue.
 
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