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totom_

macrumors member
Original poster
May 5, 2020
76
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Hi, I am thinking about buying a license for Parallels 16 without the updates. However, will that mean that I just don't get the update to version 17 and beyond or will I also not get any updates in the coming months? Basically, I will still get updates to 16.1 or whatever it is called right?
 
You won't get a free update to version 17, but you'll get all of the updates to Parallels 16. If you want Parallels 17, you'll have to pay to upgrade, usually about $50.
 
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Also realize that the regular version of Parallels only allows a max of 8gb RAM and two processors. I wanted to use a 16gb Windows VM (may want even more in the future) so I went with the pro version. It happened that they were having a 20% off sale when I bought, so that made the cost the same as the standard version for the first year.
 
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For most uses, I doubt anyone wants to give a VM more than 8GB. I run basic office apps and browsers in a 2GB Windows 10 VM. But yes, certainly some people with demanding virtualization needs will have to assign more RAM.
 
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I'm running a demanding Windows GIS package in Parallels and it is considerably faster in the 16gb VM than my old 8gb Windows PC. However, it's not clear how much the additional RAM has to do with that. But I agree, many people would be fine with 8gb, just wanted to point out that distinction between the two versions.
 
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Just to add to the discussion, I think people don't realize that the more RAM you throw at the VM, the bigger hit it takes to Mac performance. Honestly, I'm still surprised at how well Windows 10 runs with just 2GB allocated to it.
 
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Isn't that related to how much RAM you have in your Mac? I have a 2018 i7 Mini with 64gb RAM. The most I have ever seen in use so far is about 42gb. Have never noticed any impact on Mac performance while running a VM, although the Mini does get a bit warm at times. :)
 
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Isn't that related to how much RAM you have in your Mac?
Probably. I have 8GB. The last time I tried assigning more than 2GB of RAM to Parallels was probably years ago when I had a spinning hard drive and swapping made a difference. I might not notice so much now with an SSD.
 
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Thanks guys, I will use it mostly for office work and similar stuff and want the function to virtualize a Bootcamp partition. For heavy work I will simply boot into Bootcamp.
 
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For heavy work I will simply boot into Bootcamp.

Have you looked into the licensing issues for that? Not sure what may have changed, but I tried doing this many years ago with Windows XP on Parallels and Bootcamp with my 2008 MacBook Pro. Everything was working fine in Bootcamp, but when I used the same installation with Parallels, Windows nagged me that it wasn't licensed and would not activate. From Microsoft's viewpoint, a virtual machine is a different "computer" than bootcamp, even though both are installed on the same Mac. I finally gave up on Bootcamp and moved my Windows license to the virtual machine.
 
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Have you looked into the licensing issues for that? Not sure what may have changed, but I tried doing this many years ago with Windows XP on Parallels and Bootcamp with my 2008 MacBook Pro. Everything was working fine in Bootcamp, but when I used the same installation with Parallels, Windows nagged me that it wasn't licensed and would not activate. From Microsoft's viewpoint, a virtual machine is a different "computer" than bootcamp, even though both are installed on the same Mac. I finally gave up on Bootcamp and moved my Windows license to the virtual machine.

Huh, I had no idea. I have set up Windows 10 with a genuine key as a second partition but didn't buy Parallels yet. I assumed it would just work fine. Thanks tho, I will look into it before buying.
 
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I think it will work fine, but it will nag you to register and eventually some things will stop working with the unregistered version. That's what happened with Win XP anyway.
 
I know that W10, even if not registered, won't make many problems. It will tell you to register, you have a watermark and can't do some things like changing the background picture. However, all necessary things will work fine. Still weird it makes this differentiation between VM or not.
 
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