Appearance Preferences

In the Appearance pane of Parallels Desktop Preferences, you can choose the appearance of the Parallels Desktop icon and define the animation for actions you perform in Parallels Desktop.

Note: The options on this tab can be configured individually for each user of your Mac.

Dock icon

This option defines what type of icon will appear in the Dock when Parallels Desktop is open. The following types of icons are available:

• Parallels Desktop . The standard Parallels Desktop icon appears in the Dock
• Live Screenshot . If you choose this type, the Dock icon will appear as a live screenshot of the virtual machine window.

Note : Irrespective of the Dock icon appearance, clicking this icon in the Coherence mode invokes the Windows Start menu.

If you select the Use Start button icon in Coherence option, Parallels Desktop will display the Start button icon in the Dock in the Coherence mode. If you click this icon, the Windows Start menu appears.

Note: In the Crystal view mode , the Start button icon is not displayed.

Select the Bounce on notifications option if you want the Parallels Desktop icon to bounce in the Dock each time a notification appears in the virtual machine.

Transition to full screen

This option allows you to set the desired type of animation effect (or none) on switching a Parallels virtual machine to full screen and back. You can choose one of the following effects: Disabled , Fade , Zoom , Reveal , Slide , Warp , Cube , Switch , or Flip .

Animate

This group of options defines the animation behavior when you perform certain actions in Parallels Desktop:

• Virtual machine window . Select this option to animate the virtual machine window when it is open and the virtual machine is stopped or suspended. This animation may considerably decrease your computer performance.
• Transition to Coherence and Crystal . Select this option to animate the transition to the Coherence or Crystal view mode and back to the Window mode. Clear this check box if you do not want any animation on switching to the Coherence and Crystal modes.
• Transition to Modality . Select this option to animate the transition to the Modality mode and back to the Window mode. Clear this check box if you do not want any animation on switching to the Modality mode.
• Suspending and resuming . Select this option to animate the operations of suspending and resuming virtual machines. Clear the check box if you do not want any animation when performing these operations.
• Actions with snapshots . Select this option to animate the actions you perform with snapshots. Clear the check box if you do not want any animation when performing these operations.
• Closing the windows. Select this option to animate the operation of closing the virtual machine window. Clear the check box if you do not want any animation when performing this operation.

Window animation speed

Set the speed of the animation using the slider. All animations set on the tab will be affected.

Locking Parallels Desktop Preferences

If you want to prevent Parallels Desktop Preferences from further unauthorized changes, click the Lock icon at the bottom of the window. The next time anybody wants to change the settings in any pane of Parallels Desktop Preferences, an administrator's password will be required.