I don’t know how it got this way but now when I press vo+m and try to find the menu bar with devices and actions on windows 11 it shows only parallels desktop instead. This is when I am in the windows 11 window of parallels. How can I see the windows 11 menu bar again?
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Make sure you are in the correct window
Parallels Desktop uses two application windows that appear in the app switcher (Cmd+Tab) and on the Dock when a virtual machine is running. The first is always named "Parallels Desktop" and essentially contains the Control Center that displays a list of your virtual machines along with other related controls. The name of the application menu in the menu bar (to the immediate right of the Apple menu) will also always be Parallels Desktop.
The second window, on the other hand, is where your virtual machine lives and is named the same as whatever you named your virtual machine. For example, if your virtual machine is named "Windows 11," then the window will be named "Windows 11." Menus like Devices, Actions, and others related to the virtual machine are contained in this window, and the name of the application menu in the menu bar (to the immediate right of the Apple menu) also reflects the name of your virtual machine.
So, if you wish to find the Devices menu or Actions menu, you'll need to use the app switcher or the Dock to get to) the open virtual machine window, not the Parallels Desktop window.
This is one of the significant differences between VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop; VMware Fusion uses only one window for everything, whereas Parallels Desktop splits your virtual machine and its Control Center out into separate windows. The latest version of VMware Fusion, released just a few months ago, introduces official support for Windows 11 on Apple Silicon Macs and provides improvements to Windows 11 on Intel Macs as well, and a free non-commercial use license is available. If you continue to find you are experiencing issues with Parallels Desktop, it may be worth giving VMware Fusion a try.
I'm in the windows 11 window.
I command tabbed into the windows 11 window and in the menu bar has parallels desktop. Also when I move around on the windows vm my mac is saying things like system needs attention then going to the finder. Voiceover also keeps making the alert sound.
I fixed it.
I went to windows 11 in the dock and did control and trackpad click. Went to view menu and exit coherence.
Just curious
What laptop are you on? and are you getting a sound lag when using windows?
Ah, yes, Coherence
I thought for a second that perhaps Coherence was to blame here. I usually keep it disabled when running Parallels Desktop. Glad you were able to resolve your issue though.
For future reference, if VoiceOver continues to make an alert sound every few seconds that means there is an alert window open in the background, often referred to as a "system dialog." You can use the window chooser menu (VO keys+Fn+2) to switch to it and review the information it contains.