Time for an Upgrade from Parallels 11

[Franz H]

All,

My mid-2012 MBA running El Cap and Parallels 11 is starting to struggle. I use the installed version of Office, primarily Word and Excel.

I'm thinking about a new MBA or or Pro. Can anyone chime in on suggested memory and/or their experience with the newest version of Parallels?

Thank you,
FH

 

[Boyd01]

I'm on Parallels 15 under Catalina. I have the Pro subscription so upgrades are included and it nags me every time I start it. But I've read about a variety of issues and since everything works so well, I'm not gonna "fix something that ain't broke".

I have a 2018 6-core 3.2ghz i7 Mini with 64gb RAM and 2tb SSD and it runs great, so that's quite different from a 2012 MacBook Air! I have a 2013 i7/8gb MacBook Air with 512gb SSD (don't really use it anymore) and wouldn't even consider running Parallels on that, I'm impressed that it works well for you!

Clearly, you wouldn't want a new M1 laptop if you need to run Windows on Parallels. But not sure if I understand your usage. Do you mean you're just using Parallels to run MS Office? I use Parallels to run some demanding Windows GIS software (for making maps) and also run a couple old versions of MacOS for my very expensive legacy Mac CAD, 3d and database apps.

IF you only use Parallels for Office, have you considered Office 365? Have been using that for a couple years and it works very well. The $100 subscription allows you to share with 5 other people and each also gets 1tb OneDrive storage. Perhaps you already know somebody who could add you to their subscription for free?

 

[Franz H]

I forgot to mention that I use Outlook as well. I don't like using On-line versions of Office - I assume this is what you mean when you reference Office 365. I get a "free" version of Office for my laptop(s) with my MS Hosted Exchange package.

All Office products are opening very slowly, and are starting to freeze more frequently. I've looked at Office for Mac, but as souped up version of Entourage, it's not a robust as Outlook for Windows based machines.

Can you explain... "Clearly, you wouldn't want a new M1 laptop if you need to run Windows on Parallels"?
Thanks-