Where is Parallels Tools in Version 4.0?

A

abrasha

Member
I need to disable my mouse synchronization in PD 4.0, which worked just fine in PD 3.0.

Even though I installed Parallels Tools in version 4.0, I cannot find it anywhere, and the tech support people in India I have been talking to, all have no clue what i am talking about. They are so obviously unfamiliar with the program. Nice job Parallels!

I have now been on hold for 45 minutes waiting for a "tech support supervisor", after having spent two and a half hours trying to install this monstrosity. I also had to try to connect to Microsoft because I had to reactivate my XP.

So now I have spent more than 3 wasted hours, and I cannot get my work done.

"We'll be with you shortly", "We'll be with you soon"! I don't think so!

Does anybody know where I can find Parallels Tools in Windows XP in my VM?
 
abrasha said:
I need to disable my mouse synchronization in PD 4.0, which worked just fine in PD 3.0.

Even though I installed Parallels Tools in version 4.0, I cannot find it anywhere, and the tech support people in India I have been talking to, all have no clue what i am talking about. They are so obviously unfamiliar with the program. Nice job Parallels!

I have now been on hold for 45 minutes waiting for a "tech support supervisor", after having spent two and a half hours trying to install this monstrosity. I also had to try to connect to Microsoft because I had to reactivate my XP.

So now I have spent more than 3 wasted hours, and I cannot get my work done.

"We'll be with you shortly", "We'll be with you soon"! I don't think so!

Does anybody know where I can find Parallels Tools in Windows XP in my VM?
Click to expand...

Great question - the Windows VMs don't have a system tray icon, nor a "parallelstoolscenter.exe". Seems like a strange omission without an obvious replacement.
 
Seems weird, i found "ParallelsToolsCenter" in my C:/Program Files/Parallels/Parallels Tools/

however that file doesnt do anything when double click. The Parallels Tools Install Agent (also in that directory) tells me my tools is up to date and asks if i want to reinstall., but my VM is working fine so I'm not gonna mess around.

see if yours is in that folder too (mine is win xp sp3)

kevin.

edit: woops my toolscenter is from 3.0, install agent is from 4.0

As a last resort i went to the help file and found this golden nugget:

"To edit the settings of Parallels Tools installed in your virtual machine, use the Services pane of the Virtual Machine Configuration dialog.

If you are not sure that Parallels Tools are installed, you can easily check this. Start your virtual machine and look at the status bar of its window: if the tip "Press Ctrl + Alt to release the mouse and keyboard" appears in the status bar of the virtual machine's window, this means that Parallels Tools are not installed. When Parallels Tools are installed, you do not need to press any key to release the mouse and keyboard - they are released automatically."

so you know use parallels tools thru the VM config dialog in the "Services" pane.

welcome.
 
Last edited:
teknics said:
Seems weird, i found "ParallelsToolsCenter" in my C:/Program Files/Parallels/Parallels Tools/

however that file doesnt do anything when double click. The Parallels Tools Install Agent (also in that directory) tells me my tools is up to date and asks if i want to reinstall., but my VM is working fine so I'm not gonna mess around.

see if yours is in that folder too (mine is win xp sp3)

kevin.
Click to expand...

Hey,

If you did an upgrade, that is probably the ParallelsToolsCenter from version 3 - that's is how I figured out where the tools center is actually located - my "production system" is still at version 3.

I am trialling version 4. I have taken a clean bootcamp/mac os x and installed PD4 (never had PD3 on it). I don't have a parallelstoolscenter.exe on the clean PD4 install.

However, the clean PD4 with BootCamp (no upgrade) is working really well - no performance issues like I found at home (where I did a PD3->4 upgrade).
 
From what I've been told previously, Parallels Tools will attempt to install itself any time it is not installed or an update is present. There is no longer a desktray icon for it. You install it from the VM menu in PD app.
 
yup you were right my toolscenter is from 3.0, install agent is from 4.0

As a last resort i went to the help file and found this golden nugget:

"To edit the settings of Parallels Tools installed in your virtual machine, use the Services pane of the Virtual Machine Configuration dialog.

If you are not sure that Parallels Tools are installed, you can easily check this. Start your virtual machine and look at the status bar of its window: if the tip "Press Ctrl + Alt to release the mouse and keyboard" appears in the status bar of the virtual machine's window, this means that Parallels Tools are not installed. When Parallels Tools are installed, you do not need to press any key to release the mouse and keyboard - they are released automatically."

so you know use parallels tools thru the VM config dialog in the "Services" pane.

welcome. (reposted this in case anyone missed my "edit")
 
Disabling mouse synchronization can be done from the VM configuration, while the VM isn't running. Just go to the "Virtual Machine" menu, select "Configure...", then select "Services" (under "Features") from the list on the left. You should see a checkbox that says "Automatically capture and release mouse pointer", just uncheck that. If you need to disable mouse synchronization without exiting your VM, you can do so by going to the "Display" Control Panel, selecting the "Settings" tab, clicking the "Advanced" button, selecting the "Troubleshoot" tab, and setting the hardware acceleration to disable cursor and bitmap acceleration.

Note that you can easily find out where options were moved to if you do a search in the "Help" menu (well I suppose in this case the name of the option was changed so you might have trouble finding it, but searching up other options should usually work).
 
Add or Remove Programs Control Panel will show Parallels Tools. Click the support info link in the listing and the version number will be shown in the pop-up window. You can un-install from Windows to force re-install from Parallels.

Teknics- this should rid your system of v.3. I haven't tested, but that's the obvious conclusion. Best wishes.
 
doesnt seem to be bothering anything so ill leave it alone for now, plenty of hd space :)

have to say compared to everyone's reported problems my upgrade has been troublefree, install was quirky but no problems really. had to reactivate windows but saw that one coming before i even downloaded the update.

kevin.
 
no no, parallels tools center 3.0 doesnt run in my 4.0, doesnt do anything when i double click it, just sits there. Leftover from 3.0 obviously and no longer connected to anything i guess.

kevin.
 
Seems weird, i found "ParallelsToolsCenter" in my C:/Program Files/Parallels/Parallels Tools/

however that file doesnt do anything when double click. The Parallels Tools Install Agent (also in that directory) tells me my tools is up to date and asks if i want to reinstall., but my VM is working fine so I'm not gonna mess around.

see if yours is in that folder too (mine is win xp sp3)
Click to expand...

I have that folder also, however, there is no executable Parallels Tools program in that folder. The only executable application I have in that folder is "Parallels Tools Installation Agent" (PTIAgent.exe). That program runs the installation program for Parallels Tools. I have run that program several times.

As a last resort i went to the help file and found this golden nugget:

"To edit the settings of Parallels Tools installed in your virtual machine, use the Services pane of the Virtual Machine Configuration dialog.
Click to expand...

I found that also. This does not do me any good, because here I cannot disable my mouse synchronization as I could in Parallels Tools in PD 3.0.

When I go to Configure/Features/Services, the function "Automatically capture and release the mouse pointer" is checked and grayed out, so I cannot change it. But this is exactly what I need to do.

If you are not sure that Parallels Tools are installed, you can easily check this. Start your virtual machine and look at the status bar of its window: if the tip "Press Ctrl + Alt to release the mouse and keyboard" appears in the status bar of the virtual machine's window, this means that Parallels Tools are not installed. When Parallels Tools are installed, you do not need to press any key to release the mouse and keyboard - they are released automatically."
Click to expand...

PT is installed alright, because when I go to "Virtual Machine" in the PD menu bar, one of the options is "Reinstall Parallels Tools". And when I go to the Windows Control Panel/Add or Remove Programs, Parallels Tools is one of the listed programs.

so you know use parallels tools thru the VM config dialog in the "Services" pane.

welcome.
Click to expand...

That may be true, but I have not been able to find a way to disable my mouse synchronization. I have to do this, as I did in PD 3.0, because in my 3D modeling programs the mouse behaves totally erratic and the programs cannot be used. Without the ability to disable my mouse synchronization I cannot use PD 4.0
 
brkirch said:
Disabling mouse synchronization can be done from the VM configuration, while the VM isn't running. Just go to the "Virtual Machine" menu, select "Configure...", then select "Services" (under "Features") from the list on the left. You should see a checkbox that says "Automatically capture and release mouse pointer", just uncheck that.
Click to expand...

That did the trick. Thank you!

brkirch said:
If you need to disable mouse synchronization without exiting your VM, you can do so by going to the "Display" Control Panel, selecting the "Settings" tab, clicking the "Advanced" button, selecting the "Troubleshoot" tab, and setting the hardware acceleration to disable cursor and bitmap acceleration.
Click to expand...

In PD 3.0 I could in fact disable mouse synchronization without exiting the VM. In PD 4.0 this seems no longer possible. I do not understand the steps you describe here. These steps for the Windows Control Panel settings are for display issues, not mouse issues.

brkirch said:
Note that you can easily find out where options were moved to if you do a search in the "Help" menu (well I suppose in this case the name of the option was changed so you might have trouble finding it, but searching up other options should usually work).
Click to expand...

I did spend quite a bit of time in the Help files, without much success.
 
Keyboard Lock Out

I am having the same problem with Parallels Tools, but I can't use my keyboard. Everything in the VM seems okay until I try using the keyboard. Nothing is entered and then the mouse won't work in the VM either. I am forced to shut it down and reboot. How do I get the keyboard to be shared? It used to be done through the Parallels Tools, but it doesn't seem to be now. FWIW, I checked and it says I have Parallels Tools 4 installed. Thanks.
 
I have re-installed it a dozen times. I even made a clone of my virtual machine and tried running that. When it ran the first time, it automatically launched the Parallels Tools installer (which the original was supposed to do, but didn't). Even after that, I still have the same problem. The only way to get the keyboard to work in Windows is to select it from the Parallels USB menu, which then disables it in the Mac until I go back to the menu and switch it off.

Not acceptable.
 
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