Stop prl_naptd service from starting in managed user accounts

Hello,

I have been pulling my hair out for months trying to figure out how to stop the prl_naptd daemon from starting. I have two children who use a privileged account. It is great for damage control, but the stupid prl_naptd insists that it needs to run and I can not figure out how to stop it from starting. One option is to allow it to run all the time, but if it does then their is an app link to the prl_naptd app.

My children have no need to run parallels and the networking access is not wanted under these accounts. But I do not want to make things impossible to start for the other users just to get this functionality.

 

I do not understand the necessity to stop the daemon. You can
- remove network card from VMs and you will not have a networking in this case at all
- switch to host-only networking and the Internet will not be available
- turn on parental control in Mac for these accounts

 

Thanks for your reply.

Completely removing the network card from the VM is not an option. If I remove the network card then my wife would no longer be able to user the network for her programs in the VM. The VM is only turned on in my Wife's account or mine. The children have parental controls turned on in their accounts, but this creates a problem, i.e. The prl_naptd daemon can not start and requests permission to start every 2-5 seconds.

Parental controls will not allow the prl_naptd daemon to start. But if you don't allow prl_naptd to start it nags you with a message every 5 seconds requesting permission to start. I do not want to have prl_naptd running for my kid to find and play with. My kid has no need to access Parallels. Therefore I do not want the daemon running under his account.

Why can't I change a setting so that parallels will not start at all under the managed accounts.

 

Hi,
you can prevent start of prl_naptd for managed-accounts with the following steps. Note: after this you will be able to access networking only in normal accounts:

1. Start the /Application/Utilities/Terminal.app.

2. Execute command "sudo mv /Library/LaunchAgents/com.parallels.vm.prl_pcproxy.plist ." without quotes. Note: this command will ask for your password and it will not be displayed while typing

 

Hi Eric,

Thanks so much. I think this is exactly what I have been looking for. I have a degree in CS and it took me forever to be able to solve this issue. I wonder how many other parents have this same problem. Maybe parallels could provide a standardized method through system configuration that will allow parents to have control over this feature.

In the mean time. kudos for this.

 

Indeed

I also believe there should be an easy setting to prevent this most annoying behaviour on computers with managed account.

 

whose computer is it, anyway...?

i consider this pretty invasive behavior. i typically need to run parallels only every couple months or so, when debugging websites to support microsoft's inferior web browser. in the intervening time, i do not want a single parallels service using up any resources, no matter how small. i do not want it communicating with any server without my permission.

 

Elric,
Since installing the trial version of Parallels, I have also had the problem of the prl_naptd process starting randomly, taking up massive amounts of virtual memory, and being impossible to kill (restarts immediately when stopped). This happens on my primary/home/only account, not on a managed account system, and it's extremely frustrating. It's even more absurd because since my trial ran out months ago, I can't actually even use Parallels. Someone mentioned the word "invasive" - I think it's very apt. Uninstalling Parallels now.
~E

 

How can I open a bug to have this behavior fixed? It seems like this is a long standing issue.

I have a MacBook Pro and my son cannot play Apple's version of Chess with his managed account b/c of this application. I run Parallels once a month from my account and my wife runs it from her's about the same. I have tried to "always allow" access to make the issue go away but that does not work.

My son is learning about computers and has no need of Parallels.

I develop software for a living and don't really want to clutter up my own home directory with crappy software, plus that's not a very maintainable soln. for my wife. Actually I want to know why this software even needs to run at all when I have not started Parallels.

Please post a better workaround and notify this thread of the issue number and expected fix date.

 

Could you please describe how you discovered that it is parallels prevents this? So far I don't see how this could happen.

 

Parallels causes Mac to display a popup every 5 seconds which makes interacting with the game nearly impossible. In other words the popup is continuously reopened regardless of how I close it.