Please help with Parallels Desktop

I've recently switched from Windows to Mac. Today I installed Parallels 8 and added my bootcamp Windows 8 partition as a VM host. I'm having the following two problems with Parallels and I'd surely appreciate your input.

1. After creating the virtual host (added from the bootcamp installation) and booting it (either in VM mode or in clean bootcamp mode), I noticed that the bootcamp icon in the Windows taskbar has now disappeared. The only way to access the bootcamp options in Windows is through Control Panel. Is there a way to get the bootcamp icon back on the Windows task bar?

2. Upon switching from VM mode to Bootcamp and then back, each time I open a Microsoft Office application, it asks me to activate the product yet again. I'm afraid that if i keep activating, Microsoft will blacklist my key eventually. Is there a workaround for this?

I've logged support cases with Parallels for both of these issues but have yet to receive a reply, so I thought to post in here as well in case someone has encountered these issues before.

Thanks for your time.

WesCole said:

You might check to make sure the date and time in Win 8 doesn't change when switching from Bootcamp to Parallels...that happened to me with Win 7 a while back and it caused a bunch of issues.

Click to expand...

They seem consistent in either mode, but thanks for your suggestion WesCole.

Flyinb said:

First of all why are you booting in bootcamp or VM. I run parallels simultaneously with Mountain Lion.

I would recommend calling Parallels as their tech support is pretty good

Click to expand...

Well, to run Windows, I have to run either in VM mode (Parallels) or BootCamp, is there another way?

I have heard back from Parallels Support and I don't like what i'm hearing. Unless I've misunderstood, there is no way to just link Parallels to your existing BootCamp partition and NOT have to activate Office everytime I switch modes. They have suggested instead to import BootCamp to Parallels Desktop, but this will create an additional, separate Windows installation on my Mac partition the size of the BootCamp one.

I will wait for clarifications just in case I've misunderstood, but if this is really the case, I'll probably scrap Parallels and go back to pure BootCamp mode since the hassle of maintaining multiple Windows installations and the size requirements is simply not worth it for me.

Not a happy camper...

Well, it seems I have a solution. After a couple of initial emails just stating the facts, Parallels support were very helpful and asked me to check whether the Network MAC address of the VM was the same as the Physical (Bootcamp) partition. It wasn't and I changed it to match the physical one, but still no luck. This however led me to remember that I had created the VM partition with only half the CPU cores (4) whereas the physical one utilises obviously all 8. After changing the resources of the VM to match the bootcamp installation, all is well. Just posting this in case someone else experiences the same issue since it was driving me mad!

Regarding the issue of the bootcamp icon missing from the Windows taskbar, Parallels have informed me that they can't help since Windows 8 is still considered to be unsupported by both Apple and Parallels.

I tried everything, including phone activation in Parallels, but no matter what, Office kept asking for Activation when switching from physical to virtual and back. Parallel Tools was installed as well.

The only thing that solved the issue for me, was making sure that the hardware resources in physical and virtual were identical.

KPOM said:

Do you have your Boot Camp partition on an external drive? I've noticed some issues with Microsoft products regarding activation when they are installed on external drives. Sometimes they will mistakenly think the configuration has changed. It was even an issue with early versions of Office 2011 for Mac (plugging in a Thunderbolt drive would confuse the heck out of it and ask for an activation code).

Click to expand...

Nope, the Boot Camp partition is located in the same internal SSD drive as my Mac OS installation.