My Fastest and Easiest Windows 7 Install Yet — Snow Leopard Required
I test software so much I must be crazy. There are fewer ways to guarantee hair-pulling situations than those you get from testing software. What can I say, I love to be on the bleeding edge. Too bad it often is literally the “bleeding” edge. When Windows 7 went RTM, I grabbed a copy and started installing it on every piece of hardware at Mobile Tech Manor. I had tested the beta versions of Win7 followed by the RC versions, so when it went gold I was ready to put it on some notebooks without reservations.
I must have installed it around ten times on different devices but today I went for broke and installed it on the MacBook. This was a little crazy as I only recently upgraded the Mac to Snow Leopard, and folks have been reporting software compatibility problems with the SL upgrade. To top it off, I was installing Windows 7 under Parallels Desktop on the Mac, and if any programs should show problems with Snow Leopard it should be Parallels. Windows 7 is now on my MacBook and I have to say it was the easiest and fastest install I’ve done yet.
I have been running Windows Vista for a long time using Parallels Desktop on the MacBook. There are some Windows programs I need to run from time to time and I also need an easy way to test Windows software. Vista has run well on the MacBook with Parallels and I am happy with the experience.
Today I fired up Vista in Parallels, the first time since upgrading OS X to Snow Leopard. I wanted to make sure that Parallels was still running well under SL. When I started Parallels it checked for updates and found one, so I installed that before proceeding further. I don’t know when that update had been released, but I figured it might have something to do with SL compatibility. The update was applied and Vista powered up in its own window.
I made sure Vista was working perfectly as usual, and applied updates using Windows Update. I wanted to make sure everything was running up to speed before I jumped into Windows 7. Parallels and Windows Vista were both running flawlessly, so I shut Vista down and began the Windows 7 install.
I have been installing Windows 7 on different systems via a USB stick that I created for that purpose. The stick contains all of the Windows 7 files for the install, plus I have the original ISO image on the stick. That’s the beauty of having a 16 GB memory stick.
I told Parallels to create a new virtual machine, and it told me to point to the ISO image. I did so and it promptly told me that it was to be a Windows type of install, with Windows 7 in particular. It gave me a spot to enter in the Windows 7 activation key so it wouldn’t have to be done during the Win7 install itself, and off it went.
The entire installation took only 15 minutes, far faster than any other installation I have done. It rebooted Windows 7 under Parallels when the installation was complete, and booted it the first time with no interaction on my part.
Parallels then auto-installed the Parallels Tools, the Windows utilities that mesh the Windows virtual machine with the Mac real machine. A quick Windows 7 reboot and all of my Mac folders and drives were shared with the Windows 7 environment, so I have access to all documents on both operating systems. Everything is running fast and the way it should — I am impressed with how well Parallels handles Windows 7. It’s not available commercially yet, but Parallels seems to have its house in order where Windows 7 is concerned.
OS X and Windows 7 in Expose
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
I installed Win 7 from scratch yesterday using an EXP build of VMware Fusion under SL and got a 5 minute install (Mac Pro early 2008) and working DirectX 9 Aero.
Good to see Win7 running in a protected box where it should always be run from. That is one dangerous OS – A Hackers Dream.
It must be a real comfort to know that MacOSX has your back.
Hackers dream? Please generalize and let us know what you know.
He did let us know what he knows – which is, nothing.
To paraphrase classic Gates… “That’s the stupidest f***ing thing I’ve ever heard!”
Wasn’t it the various hacker conventions for the last few years in a row that repeatedly revealed that Mac OS and Safari were actually easier to hack (by several minutes)? Oh yeah, it was.
Anyway, I’m a Windows fanboy, I realize, but I’m going against a Mac fanboy, so I guess it equalizes out in the end.
So does Aero work now under Parallels then?
No Aero. I usually disable it on netbooks anyway due to performance improvements.
Have you tried it using VirtualBox? I have a Windows 7 RC on Virtual Box in a MacBook Pro 13 and it has been great. Both are free right now which makes it even better.
I’m curious… why Parallels instead of VMware?
Simply because I have Parallels. I have tried VMWare and it works well too.
How does the speed of Windows 7 in Parallels compare to XP? Any reservations about stability or compatibility for someone moving from XP?
It would be good to hear from James, or anyone with experience.
No stability issues at all.
Also, any perspective on *reasons* to upgrade would be appreciated.
Windows 7 has a much improved interface over Windows XP.
Despite Apple’s warning not to try this, I successfully upgraded my older iMac from OS/X 10.4.11 to 10.6. No problems, no requests to insert the original OS/X disc, nothing.
I made a backup of my files before I started, but it was not necessary. All the files, and configuration information like which programs to launch on startup, position of the dock, and so on, were preserved.
Thanks, Apple!
You never say which version of Parallels you are using. Assuming it’s Parallels Desktop for Mac 4.0, I’m curious to know the exact build number. If it’s the very latest, 4.0.3846 according the manufacturer (see http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/snowleopard), then you might consider contributing your information to the popular SL compatibility site, http://snowleopard.wikidot.com/. Thanks.
I’ve just uninstalled Win7 from Parallels on SnowLeopard. I don’t certainly sure about why the performance was kind of slow. I have a Macbook of 2.0 GHz Core2duo, 2 GB RAM. I installed the x64 version. Tomorrow I will try the x86. I would appreciate any help, thanks.
What experiences have people encountered thus far in installing Win7 into Bootcamp with OSX 10.6? I’m trying it right now using the 64bit clean install onto a 2.26Ghz 2GB MbPro and it seems problem free at present, but I’m only half way through…
i downloaded win 7 from digital river,via the student dowload. I want to upgrade my macbook to win 7 with parallels. the problem is the version i downloaded is not bootable or an .iso file. How can i make this download work with parallels? the download is three files, one being a .exe file
An EXE file requires Windows to run, so I’m not sure you can make that bootable. Someone would have to create a utility that extracts everything from those 3 files and create an ISO image.
Did you ever figure this out? I’m having the same problem (downloaded Windows 7)
On the site where you downloaded your DR files is an instruction link that tells you the command line you have to use to create the bootable ISO to move to the CD. You can’t simply copy over the files (though I read one article somewhere that said the writer used the Windows XCOPY command to move the files to the DVD — don’t know how that worked, though!); you have to use the command line or it won’t work.
In the process of installing Windows 7 on Parallels virtual machine. I have a 3 week old MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM. What CPU number should I allocate? 1 or 2? And what about amount of RAM? 1024? 2048? More than that? Please help! I don’t know what to do here…
On mine, I allocated 4GB RAM (1/2 for OS X and 1/2 for the VM) and assigned it to 2 processors. Seems to work fine for me…..
Oh, I forgot. I have the Windows 7 64-bit version. If you have the 32-bit version, only allocate 3GB RAM to the Windows OS because that’s all it can use.
sorry to all you advanced techies here, but i am newbie to mac and so far LOVE it, but /MUST run windows programs…(some CAD/CAM stuff i have the new parallels 5.0 but have no idea how to start and don’t want to f**k anything up. i got the 27″ quad core mac and can’t wait to use it to its full potential… any advice on where to find EASY way to do this??
i was told that i can take an image of my XP PC and simply load it on the mac…is this true??
someone PLEASE help
thank you
Yes, the mac works. I have purchased “parallels”, and installed windows 7, and windows 7 works better on the mac than it ever did on the windows computer. It sure installed a lot easier, also.
Also, I forgot to say that I have had 15 “windows” computers since 1984. And I have purchased at least 3000 dollars of OS upgrades. I love this mac!
Can you use the win 7 pro upgrade to create the VM with parallels 5 on a Mac Pro laptop, or do you need full version?
I intend to install Parallels 5 on my 2009 MacBook Pro (2.26 Ghz/4MB RAM) and run Windows 7. My question is whether I should run the 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Windows 7. From what I’ve read, the biggest difference seems to be the ability of the 64-bit version to address more than 3MB of RAM. Are there any other considerations? Would the 64-bit version run as well on 2MB as the 32-bit version would? If so, I’d probably go with the 64-bit version in anticipation of eventually upgrading the MB Pro to 8MB. Your thought? Thanks!