Optimal setup for running Windows XP?

[JoeBlue]

With Parallels Desktop v9.0 and its default configurations:

• Mid-2009 13" Macbook Pro
• OSX 10.9.1 (Mavericks)
• 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 8 GB RAM (7 GB dedicated)
• 160 GB Hard Drive with 100 GB currently free

• Windows XP Home SP3
• 1 CPU dedicated
• 1 GB RAM dedicated
• About 60 GB Memory

So everything has been installed and running smoothly for both XP and my regular OSX, without having run any programs in XP besides Firefox however. The first thing I noticed was 100% CPU usage in Task Manager in XP (same for Activity Monitor in MBP). Also, the CPU temperature reached 82ºC (180ºF) which I believe can be dangerous if kept at this for an extended time, although the laptop itself doesn't feel hot nor is the fan running wild. Finally, the amount of free memory for my laptop dropped to about 250 MB.

I plan to use the Windows XP only for certain programs that can't run on a Mac, nothing too big. Is my current setup enough or even safe for my laptop? Are there settings I can adjust (such as giving 2 GB ram to XP)? As of now, I'm not planning on buying more RAM, I'm more worried about not overloading my laptop to the point of damaging it.

Thanks for any advice/suggestions!

 

[Parallels User]

* 2 GB for XP is a good idea considering you have 8 GB total
* 82 ºC is nothing to worry about, at all, it's not dangerous or damaging even for prolonged times, these CPUs can run fine at 100 ºC. Also they have mechanisms built-in to them to shut them down if they reach a temperature that might cause damage.
* As for the 100% CPU usage can be for a lot of reasons, I suggest that you reinstall Parallels Tools to start with, secondly you'll need to identify what process is taking so much CPU in the Task Manager, most likely it's Windows Update (wuauclt.exe) doing its thing, it goes back to normal once is over.
* When we use the word memory we are referring to RAM (your 8 GB), we don't use that word for (virtual or real) disk space (your 160 or 60 GB), using 'memory' to refer to disk space may cause confusion (might be unclear if you are referring to RAM but got the numbers wrong, or referring to disk space but using the term memory, in your case I assume 60 are the virtual disk space as the macbook can't have 60 GB of RAM).