Changing View Modes

Parallels Desktop provides a number of view modes to make your work with virtual machines more comfortable and efficient:

• Window mode . In this mode the virtual machine screen is displayed as a separate window. This is the default view mode.
• Full Screen mode . In this mode the virtual machine screen is expanded to occupy the whole of your physical computer's screen.
• Coherence mode . In this mode the virtual machine's desktop is invisible so that you can see the virtual machine's application windows in Mac OS X and work with them side by side with your Mac OS X applications.
• Crystal mode . This mode is similar to the Coherence mode with a few additions -- all Parallels Desktop control elements, icons, and menus are hidden except for the Parallels Status icon in the Mac menu bar.
• Modality mode . In this mode you can view the virtual machine and the programs running inside it in a transparent scaled window while working in Mac OS X. By default, this window appears on top of all opened windows, so you can supervise your virtual machine during your work in Mac OS X.

For switching between these modes, you can use the View menu commands or toolbar buttons.

Note: You can change the virtual machine view mode only when the virtual machine is running.

Switching to the Full Screen Mode

You can run a guest operating system in the Full Screen mode when the guest operating system window occupies the whole screen and all Mac OS X and Parallels Desktop controls are hidden. To see the Mac OS X Dock and the Parallels Desktop menus while working in the Full Screen mode, press Ctrl+Alt.

To switch to the Full Screen mode, do one of the following:

• Click the Full Screen button in the Parallels Desktop toolbar.
• Choose Full Screen from the View menu.
• Use the appropriate hot key combination (Alt+Cmd+Return by default).
• Click the down arrow button near the Coherence button in the virtual machine status bar , and select Full Screen from the menu.

  Note: The default hot key combinations can be configured on the Keyboard and Mouse pane of the Preferences dialog.

You may also choose the type of animation that will be displayed when switching to the Full Screen mode and back. For details, please refer to Appearance Preferences .

To return to the Window mode:

• press the appropriate hot key combination (Alt+Cmd+Return by default) or
• press Ctrl+Alt to display the Parallels Desktop menus and choose Window from the View menu.

Switching to the Coherence Mode

The Coherence mode provides high level of integration between Mac OS X and your guest operating system. In this mode, you can have the Mac OS X Dock, Windows taskbar, and any applications running under these operating systems on one desktop. For more information on the Coherence mode, see Working in the Coherence Mode .

To switch a running virtual machine to operate in the Coherence mode, do one of the following:

• Click the Coherence button in the Parallels Desktop toolbar.
• Click the Coherence button in the virtual machine status bar .
• Choose Coherence from the View menu.
• Use the appropriate hot key combination (Ctrl+Cmd+Return by default).

  Note: The default hot key combinations can be configured on the Keyboard and Mouse pane of the Preferences dialog.

To switch the virtual machine from Coherence to another mode:

• choose the Window or Full Screen option from the View menu or
• use the appropriate hot key combination (Ctrl+Cmd+Return by default).

Switching to the Crystal Mode

The Crystal mode is similar to Coherence but provides even higher level of integration between the host and the guest operating systems. In this mode all Parallels Desktop control elements, icons, and menus are hidden except for the Parallels Status icon in the Mac menu bar. For more information on the Crystal mode, see Working in the Crystal View Mode .

To switch a running virtual machine to operate in the Crystal mode, do one of the following:

• Click the Crystal button in the Parallels Desktop toolbar.
• Choose Crystal from the virtual machine View menu.
• Click the down arrow button near the Coherence button in the virtual machine status bar , and select Crystal .

To switch the virtual machine from Crystal to the Window mode, click the Parallels Status icon in the Mac menu bar and choose Exit Crystal option.

Note: You can switch from Crystal to the Window mode only. You can then switch from Window to any other mode.

Switching to the Modality Mode

When you switch to Modality, you can resize the virtual machine windows and place them side by side with your Mac's applications. A Modality window can be scaled to any size, and its content will still be active, which allows you to monitor the tasks running inside the virtual machine while you are working on the Mac's side.

In the Modality mode, you can:

• Simply resize the virtual machine window by dragging its right corner.
• Resize the virtual machine window and change the ratio of its sides by pressing and holding Alt and dragging the window right corner.
• Resize the virtual machine window and dynamically adjust the screen resolution by pressing and holding Shift and dragging the window right corner.

To switch a running virtual machine to the Modality mode, do one of the following:

• Choose Modality from the View menu.
• Click the Modality button in the Parallels Desktop toolbar.
• Use the appropriate hot key combination (Ctrl+Alt+Cmd+Return by default).
• Click the down arrow button near the Coherence button in the virtual machine status bar , and select Modality from the menu.

  Note: The default hot key combinations can be configured on the Keyboard and Mouse pane of the Preferences dialog.

To switch the virtual machine from Modality to another view mode:

• Choose Window , Full Screen, or Coherence from the View menu.
• Use the appropriate hot key combination (Ctrl+Alt+Cmd+Return by default).

When you switch back from Modality to the Window view mode, the toolbar is hidden. If you want to add it back to the virtual machine window, choose Show Toolbar from the View menu.

To customize the Modality settings, refer to the Modality pane of Virtual Machine Configuration.