Virtue Desktops and RC Full-Screen issue

kaufman · May 19, 2006

tacit_one said:
This is a designed change. Parallels was decided to leave full-screen mode in the case of lost focus. This was designed to prevent unpredictable behaviour of application in the case of cmd+tab-like key combinations.

THat's strange, because mine doesn't do that. I just tried again. If I do:

[Control]-[Shift] (to release the input key)
[Control]-[Shift]-[Left Arrow] (to switch away from the Windows XP full screen)
[Control]-[Shift]-[Right Arrow] (to switch back to the Windows XP full screen)

Parallels stays in full screen mode.

I liked the Beta 6 handling better. If I want to assign a keystroke to some system function, it is my responsibility to remember that no Windows app will be lost without it. I would rsather get cmd-tab, etc back.

Michael

pilif · May 19, 2006

Hi,

if you can't find a way to work around the issue with virtue, make the zapping-out-of-fullscreen-on-focus-loss a toggleable setting, please. I would certainly prefer living with some rarely occurring problems with focus loss than with the Virtue thing not working.

Philip

quixos · May 19, 2006

to parallels team,

did anyone actually complain about this behavior you are fixing?

tacit_one · May 19, 2006

quixos said:
did anyone actually complain about this behavior you are fixing?

Yes, there were problems related to the full-screen focus loose.
But, Virtue was really not taken into consideration here - that's the main problem.
The best solution here will be an option in configuration that will decide the behaviour on focus loose - stay full-screen or leave it. This will make users that use Virtue feel comfortable as well as users that do not have it installed ?

Jerry · May 19, 2006

Good solution! Thanks.

quixos · May 19, 2006

options are grand! thank you.

profetes · May 19, 2006

Hi,
I can report the same problem with virtue desktops. When Paralles enters in full-screen I cannot change desktops without getting out of full-screen mode. Before, changing OS as changing desktops was very very very useful. Hope for a fix.
Thanks,
Alex

jonathan · May 19, 2006

I've not tried RC yet since I use Virtue Desktops and don't want to lose the easy switching functionality.

Since Virtue Desktops is open source, and the guy behind it has been seen lurking around here - I'm sure some integrated solution could be worked out. I know you guys (Parallels) don't want to have to code up special pleading to deal with a particular app, but in this case it seems like a lot of people here are using Virtue.

Honestly, being able to flip between OS X and Windows is the only reason I use Virtue. If you guys were able to subsume the full-screen flipping functionality fully into Parallels I'd probably stop using it. The current full-screen cube transition thing isn't a solution for me as when not full-screen I have the Windows window hanging around cluttering up my OS X desktop and I have to suffer through all that horrible desktop flickering and window resizing nonsense.

For me the ideal solution would be for Parallels to disappear out of the dock and lose any windows altogether. I'd rather have a Parallels system menu that shows me which VMs I have and which are running, allows suspending/resuming of them and full-screen-switching to them (with some hotkey combo like Virtue's ctrl-shift-left/right to make it snappier).

tomhalv · May 19, 2006

Stick with B6... I tried the RC for about 30 minutes and discovered all of the bad things (Airport IP config problem, lost Virtue switching for full screen, and unstable shared folders) and immediately went back to B6. This was definitely a step in the wrong direction IMO...

Andrew @ Parallels · May 19, 2006

We will fix this integration between Virtu and Parallels.

luz · May 19, 2006

tacit_one said:
The best solution here will be an option in configuration that will decide the behaviour on focus loose - stay full-screen or leave it.

Yes, that would be great.

But please add some more general solution to decide which global hotkeys get passed on to Mac OS X or not. Best would be a general checkbox ("pass global hotkeys to Mac OS") and an editable list of exceptions.

I have tons of helpers (like a Function key to pause iTunes e.g. when the phone rings) that worked fine with beta 6 and are all broken with RC1.

tacit_one · May 19, 2006

luz said:
I have tons of helpers (like a Function key to pause iTunes e.g. when the phone rings) that worked fine with beta 6 and are all broken with RC1.

This should be because of option "System Preferences->Universal Access->Enable Access for assistive devices" that let's Parallels to handle these keys. Try to uncheck this option.

ronniech · May 19, 2006

tomhalv said:
Stick with B6... I tried the RC for about 30 minutes and discovered all of the bad things (Airport IP config problem, lost Virtue switching for full screen, and unstable shared folders) and immediately went back to B6. This was definitely a step in the wrong direction IMO...

that's a good advise and I've switched back to B6 and now it works much better.

pilif · May 19, 2006

Hi there,

tacit_one said:
Yes, there were problems related to the full-screen focus loose.
But, Virtue was really not taken into consideration here - that's the main problem.
The best solution here will be an option in configuration that will decide the behaviour on focus loose - stay full-screen or leave it. This will make users that use Virtue feel comfortable as well as users that do not have it installed ?

I love that (and I posted about it just a bit earlier). Make it the default to leave full screen mode, but give us Virtue users the possibility to turn it off.

Is it just me or has the RC gotten much faster compared to beta 6?

Phiip

lasse@christiansens.net · May 19, 2006

I can understand the reasons for leaving out the virtue compatibility. But that feature alone (the switching from a Parallels screen running Windows to a MAC Screen by clicking ctrl+shift+arrow) will sell Parallels versions and will make more mac users buy the product. So getting compatibility with virtue desktop back in, is really important.

Keep up the amazing work,

knippers · May 19, 2006

I can't hardly wait for the Virtue fullscreen fix (has to my opinion almost the same priority as the wireless hotfix for beta 6).
Also I would like to point out that in beta 6 the virtual machine "start fullscreen" option did not (temporary) resize my Mac OS X screen size (cropping all open applications). Instead the bios and windows startup screen where nicely centered to the (virtue) screen. I would like this behaviour back. The workaround is simple, just uncheck "start fullscreen" and when windows is fully started and it's resolution is set to match the native mac os x resolution switch to fullscreen.

chrismasto · May 19, 2006

tacit_one said:
Yes, there were problems related to the full-screen focus loose.
But, Virtue was really not taken into consideration here - that's the main problem.
The best solution here will be an option in configuration that will decide the behaviour on focus loose - stay full-screen or leave it. This will make users that use Virtue feel comfortable as well as users that do not have it installed ?

The best solution is to drop the "always on top" behavior. Then you can leave it full screen and also not have to worry about other windows being obscured. Why can't you just do that? It seems like you're putting a lot of engineering into workarounds when all it would take is changing one flag.

maverick808 · May 19, 2006

chrismasto said:
The best solution is to drop the "always on top" behavior. Then you can leave it full screen and also not have to worry about other windows being obscured. Why can't you just do that? It seems like you're putting a lot of engineering into workarounds when all it would take is changing one flag.

I don't agree. I either want XP full screen or OS X full screen. I don't want OS X with and XP background. For me all they need to fix is make the hide command (Apple-H) actually hide instead of resizing the window.

Tony Arnold · May 19, 2006

jonathan said:
Since Virtue Desktops is open source, and the guy behind it has been seen lurking around here...

'Lurking' is a bit strong. I believe I loiter with purpose

Parallels - if there's anything I can do from the VirtueDesktops end, let me know (as always).

nhand42 · May 19, 2006

Tony Arnold said:
'Lurking' is a bit strong. I believe I loiter with purpose

Parallels - if there's anything I can do from the VirtueDesktops end, let me know (as always).

Tony, your VirtueDesktops software is awesome.

Parallels Team, I'd like to see the Beta6 behaviour restored, where you could have Parallels fullscreen on one Virtue desktop and ctrl-shift-arrow between Mac and Parallels. It gave a great illusion of having your Mac "morph" into another OS. The new behaviour, where Parallels drops out of fullscreen when it loses focus, is not so good because it breaks the illusion.

Other improvements in the RC are fantastic. The suspend/resume time is significantly improved and the handling of video resolution in fullscreen mode is much better. The interface looks much better too (more Mac like). Great work guys. You're doing a top job.