Hide Windows Taskbar is greyed out

Symptoms

Unable to hide the taskbar in Windows when the Virtual Machine is running in Coherence mode.

Show / Hide Windows Taskbar option is greyed out under View menu.

Cause

One of Parallels Tools components (prl_cc.exe, Parallels Control Center) hasn't been launched with Windows start or DesktopUtilities.dll was not loaded.

Resolution

1. Reinstall Parallels Tools:

   • In Windows, right-click on Start Menu (bottom left of the screen) -> Apps & features (in Windows 7: Start Menu -> Control Panel ->  Programs & features)
   • Locate Parallels Tools in the list of installed programs.
   • Click Uninstall Button to uninstall Parallels Tools.
      

   

   • Once the uninstallation is complete, please, reboot your Windows virtual machine.
   • Once Windows is rebooted install Parallels Tools.

    

   If the issue still persists:

2. Check that Parallels Tools are not blocked by an antivirus or firewall software installed in Windows (if any). Add Parallels Tools to the "white list" of your antivirus/ firewall.

3. Make sure prl_cc.exe is started and works properly:

   • Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Parallels\Parallels Tools and start prl_cc.exe (right-click on the file -> run as administrator).
     
     

   • Check that is was started by executing tasklist | findstr prl_cc.exe in command line:
     
     Go to Start -> in the search type in CMD -> start CMD (command line) -> type the following and hit Enter/Return:
     
     tasklist | findstr prl_cc.exe
     
     The output should look like this:
     
     

4. Reboot your Virtual Machine and check the issue.

   If the issue still persists:

5. Make sure that Parallels Control Center (prl_cc.exe) is loaded on Windows startup:

   • create a shortcut of the prl_cc.exe (located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Parallels\Parallels Tools)
   • copy created shortcut to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup directory

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