Windows 10 in Parallels or not?

A

AndrewJohn

Bit poster
Is installing Windows 10 in Parallels best avoided, at least in the short term? I am very content with Windows 7. It runs very stably on my MacBook. As far as I can tell I have no pressing need to update, apart from the one year deadline for free upgrade. Any thoughts?
 
As you can see from some of the threads, there have been installation issues for some users. Having said that, when I tried - including several calls to MS Tech - to upgrade my Windows 7 (under Bootcamp not Parallels) to Windows 10, and the tech several times had to restart the installation process as an upgrade, eventually using the MS Media Creation Tool - but eliminating everything I had installed. That "worked" but the issues (non-Parallels related, had to do with the MS VSS Service that is used for backups and system restore points) that I had still existed.
I ended up putting back my Windows 8.1 Parallels VM setup and did the upgrade from that install using the MS Media Creation Tool, and even though the install "stalled" several times - two of which were VERY long stalls where I thought the installation had frozen up - everything installed properly. Had no issues re-installing Parallels Tools and so far everything works great. But as they say Your Mileage May Vary. I would definitely make sure you have a backup/clone of your Windows VM file BEFORE doing the upgrade just in case you want to/need to go back.
 
Thanks for your response. Having now read more of the issues on this forum I have decided not to install Windows 10.
I appreciate that forums tend to self select those with problems. Nevertheless the fraction of upgrade problems here seems much higher than on other forums where many non-Parallels users are reporting succesful upgrades.

It makes me wonder whether Parallels is not ready for Windows 10. I will stay with Windows 7 for the time being.
 
Do not upgrade. It is unstable with constant issues that are discussed in the forums and I am experiencing them as well.
 
It's really a huge disappointment that Parallels doesn't seem to be able to offer a hassle free upgrade process to Windows 10. I would expect that they had enough lead time to thoroughly test this between the announcement and launch date. We shouldn't have to go through all the hoops that have been posted all over the forum to make this work! Also, the responses from support with links to KB items that clearly don't address the issues raised is another disappointment. Get your act together Parallels!
 
jebworks said:
It's really a huge disappointment that Parallels doesn't seem to be able to offer a hassle free upgrade process to Windows 10. I would expect that they had enough lead time to thoroughly test this between the announcement and launch date. We shouldn't have to go through all the hoops that have been posted all over the forum to make this work! Also, the responses from support with links to KB items that clearly don't address the issues raised is another disappointment. Get your act together Parallels!
Click to expand...
All the blame cannot be placed on Parallels in this instance, Microsloth deserves the lion'e share.
A very large percentage of the issues being encountered on this forum are also being posted
all over in forums with people using real PCs, including the display adapter issue even on new PCs.
The whole "reservation scheme" was hokey from the start. Basically their whole update process
is very buggy and even with all the time in the making, it still wasn't really ready for prime time!

As for me, I had clean installed Win10 on a VM on my iMac without a hitch, but took 3 attempts
to get installed on my MBP.

As to the OP's original question, if you have no interest in any of the new features in win10
and are happy with how Win7 is working, don't update. However, eventually you will need to
update to some new Windows OS in the future because Microsloth will be dropping Win7 support,
i.e. no security updates.
 
EllwoodN - re. last para ... My thoughts exactly.
I partly saw Parallels as a sort of stepping stone to doing all my computing within the Mac operating system anyway. If MS support Win7 to 2020 as promised that'll suit me fine.
 
I have read issues in the MS Community Forums and the Windows 10 Forum, but thankfully - aside from the old MS Links 2003 not displaying properly - have had no issues ONCE it was installed, which admittedly did take a few tries using the MS Media Creation Tool. Actually had less issues under Parallels than Bootcamp. Under Bootcamp I was not able to set a System Restore Point and under Parallels I have no problems with that. (Though since I use Carbon Copy Cloner to just copy the VM file, that is not a big issue anyways.) All my apps from Win 8.1 were easily downloaded and reinstalled, including Office 2013. And all the other programs that I was using - including Lotus Approach which has not been updated for quite a few years - run fine - aside from MS Links 2003.
 
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