Should I install Windows 7, 8 or 10?

Hi Everyone.

I have a MacBook Pro (2013-2014 model) and looking at installing parallels so I can run windows on my Mac.
I am unsure if I should install windows 7, 8, or 10 would be super grateful for help please.

I plan to run: 1. Storyline 360 (It says minimum requirements include Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8 or Windows 10) . 2. A windows application made by a company that is quite light on performance and works with computers as old as windows 7.

The main thing is I thought the older the Windows, the better the performance, so if my main goal is everything runs fast, would it make sense to install Windows 7 SP1?

I do not do any video editing or gaming.

Also wondering how each option would affect disk space.

Thanks so much everyone.

 

Hi ArtyP. Please let us know the total disk space (Apple Icon -> About This Mac -> Storage) and the total RAM available on your Mac (Apple Icon -> About This Mac -> Overview).

 

Hi.Ram: 8GB 1600 mhz DDr3
Processor: 2.8GHZ Intel Core i5
Total disk space: 500gb. Currently used 450gb, 50gb is free.
Thank you

 

Can I please get a reply?

 

Hi @ArtyP , you can check with the software vendor regarding which Windows version is best to work with , as all the 3 version are compatible to work with Parallels Desktop 13 for Mac.

 

Hello. I am not happy with this response. It works with any version - so what version of Windows will run the fastest? The oldest?

 

Hi @ArtyP , all the versions will run exceptionally well as you have enough space on Windows or Mac (50-60 GB recommended) . If you experience any issues, please let us know , We will check and help you out.

 

Thank you. Can you please tell me how much disk space I need for Parallels.. for Windows 7 vs 8 vs 10? So I can try see what is best?

 

Hello, Appreciate further advice relative to this thread. I have a Windows 7 (32 bit) VM that has outstanding performance. I recently installed 64 bit Windows 10 on the same MacBook Pro (16 GB RAM with 1TB Hard drive that is about half full). The performance of the Windows 10 VM is unacceptable. I'm not sure if this is due to the OS itself, my choice of 64-bit versus 32-bit. Arun, could you comment further on whether the performance can be optimized? In the Activity monitor, the Windows 10 is very CPU hungry compared to the Windows 7 one. How many processors is advisable in the Configuration (I currently have it set to 2, which says it is "Recommended"). Thanks for the advice

 

Hi @ArtyP , please go through this blog to know about the system requirements for Parallels Desktop 13 for Mac.

 

Wow. What an upsettingly poor answer from Parallels' support team. Not even a link to a relevant article in the blog.
This is surely one of the first - and most time consuming to answer - questions many new customers have!
Frankly I would like to see a Recommended Windows Versions and Compatibility guide on the front page of your website.
I heard Windows 10 runs slowly and Windows 7 can be hard to buy.
Can we please have a summary answer here. It will take hours for your new users to understand the ideal setup. I might still be trying to figure out the best setup by the time my two week trial expires...
So disappointed this is not covered in a guide and linked to from this thread.

 

Hi @Ryan 1 , please check this article which lists out the operating system supported by Parallels Desktop 13 for Mac. Both Windows 10 and Windows 7 will run seamlessly if your Mac has met the system requirements and if there are still any slow performance issues, that might be due to some applications installed inside Windows virtual machine. Microsoft has stopped manufacturing Windows 7 however, the Windows 7 license is still available with some re sellers online. If you looking for pre configured setup for Windows, you can try using modern IE test environment. Please check this article to know more about Modern IE test environment. We will forward your request to our marketing team to have the recommended Windows version and compatibility guide on the front page of our website.

 

It all seems to be handled very nicely once you get in to the "Install Demo" path. With Windows 10 installed for you - which is obviously the recommendation / main supported version.
I would agree with what I read somewhere that Windows 10 doesn't seem all that fast. I usually have to wait ~10 seconds for IE to react to clicking links.
I can appreciate that your team probably wants to focus on supporting just one main version of Windows. It would also be good if we as consumers were presented with concise QUALITATIVE information on our options. i.e having N versions of Windows on the supported list is somewhat lacking. How about the Windows 10 entry on that list you pointed me to be a hyperlink with the pros/cons/issues for that OS.
The parallels client could even alert me to potential issues, as it knows what my hardware is.
In summary I'd say you've oversimplified things in presenting the situation as if OS support was a binary yes/no thing.

 

For feedback to the marketing team I'd say that they have a nice user experience flow with the auto installing of Windows 10. But I wasn't aware that was going to happen. So I was searching about for an OS to install on the VM. You could mention this somewhere prominent so others don't waste time in a similar fashion.

 

I empathize with ArtyP and second what Ryan 1 is requesting. Although there are 3rd party forums where users give great feedback about laptop or practical use and speed limitations, the actual responses from Parallels are pretty insulting. Not knowing with certainty the performance of the most common OS's (which are expensive) and the idea of just toying with installations and purchasing stuff to see it works is pretty BAD. That is exactly what keeps people from trying this product and what keeps it from being more mainstream. Any time I want help with Parallels--which seems like it should be on anyone's machine who has an common sense--I find that we are very few.

Anyway, I too would love to know more about which OS versions can be the most streamlined and efficient for my setup. I don't like the responses from the company asking me to "just be happy: it works." All the other responses I hear/plus my own experience of using and quitting the product point the fact that it bogs down and is more like a novelty and less something I want to work on and depend on every day. But I suspect it doesn't have to be that way. I just haven't found the right formula and the time to make it work.

 

Hey Robert - did you ever figure out if Windows 7 vs. Windows 10 was better?

 

Hey Ryan - did you ever figure out if Windows 7 vs. Windows 10 was better?

 

You should install windows 10 as it is advanced and more secure.