Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion for Windows 7 RC

I'm actually testing Windows 7 RC on both VMware Fusion and Parallels (both trials) to see which of the two softwares I should get.

I had no issues installing Windows 7 on either VM software, although I didn't burn the Windows ISO file to a DVD (I just installed it via the ISO in both cases).

I have Windows 7 RC using the Windows 7 profile in Parallels and was able to install Parallels tools with no problems (I use the Windows 2008 Server profile in Fusion since there is no profile for Windows 7 in Fusion). From what I can tell Windows 7 runs the same in both Fusion and Parallels although Parallels gets a boost in speed because it supports more cores (experimental).

Both VM packages don't support Aero (I get a pathetic score of 1 for graphics using Windows Experience Index on both VM packages) so the only way to have Win7 look like how Mircrosoft intended it to is to boot it up in Boot Camp (I could be wrong but so far it seems to be the only way).

If you do decide to try it out in Fusion make sure you select it as a Windows 2008 Server but apparently using the Vista profile works to.

If you don't need Coherence/Unity or bootcamp compatibility, VirtualBox (which is free) runs Windows 7 perfectly fine.

McShizzel said:

I'm actually testing Windows 7 RC on both VMware Fusion and Parallels (both trials) to see which of the two softwares I should get. <snip good info>

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Appreciate the information.

I use both Parallels and VMware. Looks like Parallels might be the better choice until VMware is updated.

Running vmware using the windows 7 RC bootcamp partition actually works better for me than bootcamp itself lol. Driver-wise anyway. Everything works for me in vmware.

I'm running an image of Windows 7 64-bit under Fusion and it works just fine...I used the Vista option.

Cheers.

-J.-

Kilamite said:

Ah.. I wasn't aware that Parallels Desktop is officially supporting Windows 7 now..? Seeing as they have a profile for it?

I was using Windows 7 with VMWare and it was bringing my Mac to an absolute crawl..

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Yeah the profile is there but like the multi cores above 4 it's marked as "experimental".

x64 W7 RC1

Perhaps someone can help me here:

I'm trying to run x64 Windows 7 RC1 on my Unibody MBP and keep getting the error that I can't even boot (it's the W7 background and they keep checking for repairs)
Using Server 2008, it loads but it's not "officially supported" is it a good idea to go for it anyway?

Also, first post!

jeevesofRKdia said:

Perhaps someone can help me here:

I'm trying to run x64 Windows 7 RC1 on my Unibody MBP and keep getting the error that I can't even boot (it's the W7 background and they keep checking for repairs)
Using Server 2008, it loads but it's not "officially supported" is it a good idea to go for it anyway?

Also, first post!

Click to expand...

If your running VMware Fusion you can either use the Windows Server 2008 64bit or Vista 64bit profiles, it may or may not work with other profiles. In Parallels you have the option of Windows 7 or if you imported Windows 7 into Parallels then it will appear as Windows "Other".