Parallels question

Hi, I'm new so be gentle please... Think this is in the right place.

So I've ordered my new imac to the spec below:
27inch
2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x2GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB GDDR5 SDRAM
8x double-layer SuperDrive

Also ordered Parallels Desktop 6 swith to Mac because I have 3 pieces of specialist software that only run on Windows.

My question is though, which version of Windows should I buy to run on Parallels. The machine the imac is replacing runs XP which to be fair has been ok. Both Vista and 7 have skipped me by. Ideally my old XP machine will be stripped down to run some business accounts software so it would be ideal if that machine could then talk to the Windows on the Mac as well, but its not essential.

Any pointers please.

Hi and welcome to M-F leemsutton . . .

I think this will come down to a personal choice by you. The specs of the iMac you have posted will have no problems with running whatever .V of windows you want.

I have only just in the last 3 hrs, installed Parallels 6 and Windows 7 on my 13" MBP. Runs smooth with no lag. Havnt done anything to intensive as yet though.

I think you would be happy with the latest and greatest windows on your iMac . . . . . You dont give us much to go on other than maybe the old machine seeing the Mac. Maybe post what 3 Windows only software you ill be using and someone else might pop in with something a little more solid than my 2c

If you need to know anything more specific, be sure to post again.

Cheers

I'd say run the OS you are familiar with, unless you want to upgrade. As with my esteemed colleague, I run Windows 7 and have had no issues either.

I use Parallels 6 on my iMac 24. I originally updated to V6 with XP and found it to not be the "best" combination as I had small issues finding and holding IP addresses on static IP printer addresses. Upgrading to W7 solved everything. One thing I did find, older version Windows software is looking for help files for example in different places than W7 is storing it (when installing older software it will make a folder/directory based on the OD coding of the day).