Upgrading to Win 7 in my Parallels machine. Some thoughts.

[Stinky The Clown]

First off, I have a 64 bit dual Intel Xeon Mac Pro. Lots of horsepower.

The Parallels installation started out on Parallels 4, then went to 5, 6, and now 7. The WinOS started with XP (whatever Service Pack? 2? 3? I dunno). Then I went to Vista, still 32 bit.

The only two programs I run under Windows (or I would ditch it) is an industry-specific program that works with AutoCAD, and AutoCAD itself. I have an old 2008 version that still works okay for me.

So now I want to upgrade my Win program since, after upgrading to Parallels 7, Vista and the industry-specific program have been crashing. Not sure what the cause is, and I have no desire to troubleshoot it.

So I went out to but an upgrade to Win7. The upgrade version of the cheapest flavor is $119 plus tax.

Why is that?

Mac upgrades are cheap for a better OS. What was Lion? $29?

Lion upgraded in under an hour. Windows has been cranking for a few hours now and still isn't done.

[NV Whino]

1. The price for Lion is the first low cost OS in a while

Pre Lion, recent systems cost about $125 if I remember correctly. Older systems were actually free, I think. I could be wrong about this. The old memory ain't what it used to be.

[REP]

2. I use vCAD on OS X, but for my own amusement; no idea if it's good enough for prime time

There's only one Windows-only program I'm vaguely interested in, but it's not worth ruining a perfectly good iMac over. Plus we seem to have an extra PC now.

[rocktivity]

3. Windows: Cheap hardware, expensive OS. Mac: expensive hardware, cheap OS.

Last edited Thu May 10, 2012, 10:51 AM - Edit history (5)

But seriously, folks, I was in the same boat -- I just finished getting my new Mac Mini ready for installation of a Windows program. I'd been using an OEM of Parallels 5 on Snow Leopard to run my (32-bit) Windows 7, but I wouldn't have tried to upgrade my Parallels even if I'd "qualified."

Instead, I got an OEM of Parallels 7 from Otherworld Computing ($39 with a $65+ purchase). They also offer a Parallels7/64-bit Win7 bundle. I think you should buy one, uninstall everything, start from scratch -- and hope that your CAD programs are Windows 7 compatible.

http://eshop.macsales.com/search/windows+7


rocktivity

[Stinky The Clown]

4. I "built" a new machine. So far it seems successful.

The last machine was an upgrade from a 32 bit Vista install to Win 7. The whole thing got pretty screwed up.

The new machine is a clean 64 bit install. I have yet to install my own software, but the basic stuff works fine. The machine seems a lot faster and more "native" than the last machine, even when it was a fresh Vista under Parallels 5 then 6. I am told Win 7 is better, but that Parallels 7 is a big part of it, too.

Tomorrow or over the weekend I'll try getting my stuff installed. Fortunately, I use AutoCAD only very occasionally and then for only one specific task, and even that has a workaround.