Wow I love parallels... so good. I just discovered that if you click the parallels icon in the dock the windows start menu comes up! I don't even need to display the explorer taskbar anymore. An idea - since an animated Mac dock sort of interferes with the start menu when you click on the Parallels icon - AND if there is an open window in the preview of the parallels icon in the dock it can be tricky to get the start menu to come up... Why not add an OSX menubar icon that looks like a Windows logo and when you click on it the Windows start menu is invoked there? Just like when you have the windows taskbar docked on top?
Well, It was decided not to show windows start menu logo cause in some cases this may be confusing... Do you really think that feature would be that great? If there will be more people on the forum that would like it, we may consider to implement it.
I personally would love to see this feature and I think it is a great idea, especially if it could also include the functions that exist when you also right click the start menu or task bar such as explore and task manager. Its great to hear that you are receptive to these suggestions.
Well it doesn't have to be the windows logo - it could be the Parallels logo, but honestly most people would recognize it more readily for what it is IMHO if it was just a windows logo. I think this is a great idea because clicking the dock icon sometimes doesn't invoke the start menu right away - or you wind up clicking multiple times. And as I said having an animated dock really gets in the way - and it shouldn't be assumed that users don't have an animated dock. Also a side benefit is taskbar balloon notifications that come from the hidden windows taskbar would be closer to the Windows/Parallels icon in the OSX menubar - almost as if they were supposed to be like that! Anyway I LOVE Parallels. I think a lot of people would like the menubar icon OPTION to invoke the startmenu. Thanks for listening.
Here are a couple mockups of what I'm suggesting - sorry for the low quality, tried to fit in the attachment limitations.
