Parallels Issue

[Quincannon]

I am using High Sierra and have tried twice to install Windows; once over a year ago when I purchased Parallels and again last week but it makes the Mac go so sluggish it is unusable.

My Mac is 6 1/2 years old and I am using High Sierra. It is running extremely well at present so why the problem with Parallels?


Any advice please?

Peter

 

[honestone]

First, what exact Mac model do you have?

Secondly, do you have a traditional Hard Disk Drive (HDD) inside the machine, or a Solid State Drive (SSD)? An SSD would be better. If you have an HDD, what exact model is it? And do you happen to know it it spins at 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm?

Third, how much free space is available on either the HDD or SSD?

Fourth, how much memory does the machine have? The more the better, especially given you need to also run Parallels/Windows?

Lastly, Have you ever done any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, from a software perspective? You can actually do quite a lot of disk cleanup on your own, and there are some excellent products available (both free and commercial) that can help you with that.

Some folks are reporting that Mojave is "somewhat" faster than High Sierra, but you might want to wait until at least the next version of it, OS 10.14.1, comes out. That should be soon, as OS 10.14.1 is in the 3rd phase of b eta testing. However, it seems that Parallels has not been updated yet for Mojave compatibility.

 

[Quincannon]

I had an SSD installed earlier this year. I have 884 GB available of 1TB. I have 16 GB RAM.

A couple of months ago I did a clean reboot to factory setting and used CCleaner just the other day.

 

[honestone]

Hmm, sounds like you have a powerful machine. I know that High Sierra is somewhat of a resource hog, and that Mojave is faster (not sure about use of resources, though).

Maybe you should consider upgrading to Mojave (assuming all the third party application s (besides Parallels) are compatible with that new OS). Myself, I am just waiting for Micromat to come out with an upgrade for Tech Tool Pro. That should happen by early December, and most likely OS 10.14.2 will be out by then.

If you do upgrade, it might be best if you do a clean, fresh, "virgin" installation of OS 10.14.x, and then "migrate"/copy needed "stuff" from your backup. (I assume you are making backups to an external device, but not sure how Parallels/Windows "fits" into such a Mac backup). What software are you using for backups?

Finally, I am certainly a novice about this, but is there any "tweaking" you can do with the Windows OS to make it faster?

 

[honestone]

I forgot to ask one other question: when you are using Parallels/Windows, except for High Sierra, are you running any other "Mac" programs on your Mac?

 

[Quincannon]

I have two backups. Cloud Storage and an external hard drive.

I have AVG AntiVirus running but that's all.

I don't know about the tweaking of windows as it's not installed yet. I may try again.

 

[honestone]

Maybe this is the time to do a clean installation of OS 10.13.6, then "migrate"/copy needed stuff from your most recent backup. Once you get your machine back up and running, you could then install Parallels, and then Windows.

Is there a reason why you have AVG AntiVirus running, and is that all the time? If one is careful, there is really no need to have it running all the time. You can run Malewarebytes every so often. It is excellent at catching adware. It is available from here:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

-Which version of Parallels?
-Which version of Windows?
-Have you tried disabling AVG? You will probably see a noticeable speed improvement on everything.

C

 

[honestone]

Hello,

-Which version of Parallels?
-Which version of Windows?
-Have you tried disabling AVG? You will probably see a noticeable speed improvement on everything.

C

As usual, excellent questions, Cory! Hopefully he has the latest version of Parallels, V14. It looks like that version just came out, and it is compatible with Mojave:

https://www.parallels.com/landingpa...MI2uLo_KKE3gIV03J-Ch320whCEAAYASAAEgIGpfD_BwE

https://download.parallels.com/desktop/v14/docs/en_US/Getting Started With Parallels Desktop.pdf

 

[honestone]

Quincannon,

As you can see, Parallels 14 is compatible with Mojave, so maybe you should 1) upgrade to V14 of Parallels, and 2) Mojave. However, V10.14.1 of Mojave is currently in beta testing, so maybe wait until that version is released. Also, you will need to make sure that any other third party software you use is compatible with Mojave. This site is helpful in that regard:

https://roaringapps.com/apps

Finally, Cory is "right on the money" regarding AVG. In fact (again, I am a novice about this), it is best to have as few applications running on the Mac side (maybe none at all, except of course the OS) while using Windows.

 

[honestone]

Quincannon,

Just saw there is a new version of Parallels, V14.0.1:

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/21252/parallels-desktop

 

[Quincannon]

I have Parallels 12 and Windows 10. Perhaps I should upgrade to the latest version.

With regards to AVG I thought the whole idea was to leave it running in the background to catch any viruses.

I will try installing them again and this time disable AVG and see if that makes a difference. Or I may uninstall it and download malware bytes instead.

I'll let you know how I get one.

Many thanks.

 

[honestone]

It might be good to first download and run Malewarebytes.

Next, you probably should download the latest version of Parallels, especially given that it is compatible with Mojave.

For the next step, it guess it depends if and when you plan on upgrading to Mojave. If you want to wait (as I mentioned above, V10.14.1 is in phase 3 of beta testing), then maybe do a fresh installation of High Sierra, OS 10.13.6,, then "migrate"/copy needed stuff from your backup. Finally, do a fresh installation of the new version of Parallels, and finally Windows 10.

Just out of curiosity, what Windows-specific software do you run?

If instead you want to "upgrade" to Mojave, you would just need to download the Mojave installation file from the App Store, do a fresh, clean installation of Mojave, and finally follow the remaining steps above (I assume you re verifying that any third party software you have is compatible with Mojave, either "as is", of which need (and have) an upgrade).

 

[Quincannon]

I shall wait until December to upgrade to Mojave.

All I want Windows for is Microsoft Office because I'm studying ECDL (IT) in college and Office on Windows is different to Office on the Mac.

When I am ready I will do all you recommended so thank you again.

Peter

 

[honestone]

Although I have not used Office 2016 modules that "deeply", I was under the impression that the differences between Office 2016 for Windows and Office 2016 for the Mac were very few. Also, Office 2019 for both platforms has recently been released.

Again, my experience with this is with using Word and Excel (and somewhat recently Outlook, but that program "hosed" its database on my Mac Mini, so I subsequently switched to another EMail program, Thunderbird). What differences are crucial for you?