Parallels

I've got a Core i7 Mac Mini, I installed Parallels on it and Windows 8.1 from Bootcamp. I installed Chrome on Parallels but would also like to try Windows 10 on it. Would that interfere with 8.1 or are they completely separate, does anyone know. I don't want to trash 8.1 if I can help it.

I've already got Windows 10 running on another couple of PCs but thought I'd like to see how it goes on my little Mac.

Parallels is a virtualization platform. You should be able to create a VM for Win 10 that is completely separate from the VM for Win 8.1 or Chrome. You may not be able to run all of them at the same time but you should be able to set them up and run them individually.

Right, as you have noted in your use Parallels is opened first then any OS can be installed within that window. Not opening a particular OS shouldn't affect opening a different one. I have VMWare Fusion on my MacBook Pro.

Thanks guys, I'll give it a go, I just want to see which runs better in a VM, 8.1 or 10.

I installed TP in my bootcamp partition with no issues (upgraded 8.1 actually).

You could install TP in parallels or (depending which partition you have space in) install it as a Hyper-V VM running under 8.1. There is a good tutorial here which will work at 8.1 as well Hyper-V virtualization - Setup and Use in Windows 10

I installed TP in my bootcamp partition with no issues (upgraded 8.1 actually).

You could install TP in parallels or (depending which partition you have space in) install it as a Hyper-V VM running under 8.1. There is a good tutorial here which will work at 8.1 as well Hyper-V virtualization - Setup and Use in Windows 10

Hi, I've got 8.1 in Bootcamp and used that in Parallels as well, I didn't really want to risk upgrading it to 10, so I just downloaded and installed through parallels. So now I've got 8.1 in Bootcamp and 8.1, TP and Crome in Parallels, the poor little Mac is struggling a bit, but it's all working.
I might give Hyper V a shot later, thanks for the link.

I wouldn't try running Hyper-V from your TP running in Parallels. That's running a VM from within a VM. The mini would definitely struggle with that.

I wouldn't try running Hyper-V from your TP running in Parallels. That's running a VM from within a VM. The mini would definitely struggle with that.

Fair enough, the poor little thing is already struggling, but I've got a couple of other PCs I can try it on, I'm starting to like this virtualisation thing, don't know why I haven't tried it before.

Just for the records, I'm running Windows XP Mode in Virtual PC on a Windows 7 Ultimate vm running in Hyper-V on Windows 10 laptop, no issues as long as the RAM is correctly assigned. I gave the Hyper-V Windows 7 vm 3 GB and from that 1 GB to XP Mode in Windows 7, leaving 3 of my total 6 GB for host itself .