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2011 MacBook Pro with Parallels 6/Windows 7/Office 2010 Best Bets

I will be purchasing the new 13" 2011 MacBook Pro and plan to install Parallels 6, Windows 7 and Office 2010. My research so far suggests:

- I should up to 8GB of memory and the 128GB solid state hard drive
- Windows 7 Home Premium is the correct option to enable use of of Office 2010 Home and Business 2010, and I should install the 32 Bit version of Windows 7
- Parallels 6 is a feasible alternative to using Boot Camp

Does anyone advise a different or better approach if my ultimate requirement is to be able to run Office 2010 in the Mac environment?

Does anyone recommend an existing online resource which might already address this scenario?

One post here stated that a Quad Core processor is preferable for the Parallels/Window 7/Office 2010 scenario, but the QCs are obviously only available with the 15" and 17". Is the Quad Core recommendation commonly held?

Thank you.

MacBook Pro 13" 2011, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 13, 2011 3:05 PM

26 replies

Will16 Author

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Mar 21, 2011 7:50 PM in response to MoonDogg98

Hi again. I have the MBP now, and just want to make sure I understand the sequence. I'm going to set up the PC partition in Boot Camp, and in stall Windows 7 there. But upon creating the PC partition, it will contain neither operating system nor apps. Will I be able to +buy and download+ Windows 7 via Safari in the Mac partition, but install it over in the PC partition? And of my 256GB SSD, do you have a recommendation as to what percentage I should allocate to the PC partition? I'm following your logic of setting this up such that I can change to running Office 2010 in the alternate partition, If I find one cumbersome. Thank you.

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Mar 25, 2011 11:17 AM in response to Will16

Parallels 6 may for now have an edge in being better at dynamically handling RAM (and maybe cores) rather than a fixed amount of RAM set aside.

Double what you think you need or than any minimum 'requirement' and realize no two are identical but 40GB for Windows 7 x64 will get taken, and the SP1 update used 9GB during the update. SSDs need over provisioning, and you want to keep 50% free, even if it has TRIM (SSD RAID does not) Sand Force units have background garbage collection. That helps too and OS agnostic.

Apply Windows updates natively rather than in the VM, though you should check with their FAQ, community forums, SP1 would not. And 3rd party NTFS or HFS drivers can get in the way.

In any VM (Fusion, VB) you won't have the same mouse support or graphics, they use generic VGA and mouse (unless that has changed but don't think so and can be PITA).

You can use an ISO to install and load into a VM but you need to burn electronic versions to DVD or some media in order to run the installer, unless maybe if you have Windows and adding a 2nd version (triple boot).

So install Windows natively first (what people call "Boot Camp") and dont' activate until you have Fusion Tools or Parallels.

Will16 Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 26, 2011 12:54 PM in response to MoonDogg98

The Boot Camp install/setup PDF referes to Windows XP and Vista. Should I follow the instructions for one or the other of those for installing Windows 7? I've searched for a guide specific to Windows 7 but am not finding anything. Thank you.

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,494 points

Mar 13, 2011 3:26 PM in response to Will16

Why waste money and resources on getting Parallels for MS Office. It's a much more simple solution to get MS Office for Mac.

Roger

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,494 points

Mar 14, 2011 7:18 AM in response to Will16

Office 2011 for Mac and Office 2010 for Windows are pretty similar as far as the user interface is concerned. And of course Office 2011 was designed to be fully compatible with it's Windoze brethren.

jsa725

Level 1

0 points

Mar 14, 2011 8:30 AM in response to Will16

I am in the same boat, could a 13" dual core 2011 MBP handle the load of VM Fusion or should I just suck it up and spent the extra dough for a 15"-er? 8 gb for sure

jsa725

Level 1

0 points

Mar 14, 2011 8:50 AM in response to rkaufmann87

rkaufmann87-

why then do people insist on 4 cores esp if running vm's?

Mar 14, 2011 2:02 PM in response to Will16

The apps interfaces are exactly the same whether you install in a VM or using Boot Camp Assistant. The apps are the same, installed from the same disk, have the same user interface.

Mar 14, 2011 2:11 PM in response to Will16

As Bob said the interfaces are the same if you boot camp or VM. And as of this time there is no certification for the Mac version of Office.

Will16 Author

Level 1

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Mar 18, 2011 7:58 PM in response to Will16

Thanks for everyone's helpful input & responses.

Will16 Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 27, 2011 2:08 PM in response to MoonDogg98

I've now found the instruction document for Boot Camp and Windows 7. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

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2011 MacBook Pro with Parallels 6/Windows 7/Office 2010 Best Bets