Need help MAC gurus

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OK - so, I am (still) relatively New to Apple as my moniker infers and after 6 mos have talked my wife into switching. BTW, as you will see throughout my post my MBA hasn;t made me a better typist!

I have a couple questions I need immediate help with so I can make the purchase before she changes her mind - one I know there are answers to here already (but triple checking) and others I'm not sure they've been addressed at all. Here we go:

She has proprietary Windows based software she must use for work. I am going to order her a 13.3 MBP and max it out with 16MB RAM and also run Win7 Pro via Parallels.

Here are the Q's:

1) She loves to use Dragon speech recognition (though it has slowed her HP seriously and is one of the reasons she's agreeing to get a Mac). She cannot Dragon directly in her work proprietary software so she currently Dragons into a word document and then copies and pastes into the work software. She wants to try Dragon for mac, but I'm not sure it will work....can she Dragon into a Mac document and then cut and past that rendered text into a Windows program which is running in Parallels? Or will the cut and past from the Mac side not carry to the Windows side?

2) I will be installing (I'm the default IT dude in the house) a handful of windows based program for her to use when necessary through Win7/Parallels - where are good tutorials on exactly how to install these programs once the disk is partitioned with Parallels

3) I have read many posts on virus protection needed/not needed on Windows side depending on what you are doing in windows..I've decide to cover the bases and install it. Has anyone had any issues using the Windows 7 built in virus protection (MS Security Essentials)? I'd rather not install a totally separate program

Thanks all!

Matt
 
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Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Very very brave man. You know whose fault it will be when things do not perform precisely as on her Windows machine? Suggest leave her be with her Windows computer as this will be a battle you will not win alas.
 
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1) Cut and paste will work within Parallels between Mac and Windows applications.

2) The disk is not partitioned with Parallels (unlike with Boot Camp). Just install Parallels, then create a virtual machine using your Windows retail or system builder OEM Win7 disk, then after that's done -- install your windows programs from within your Windows VM. It's really simple, trust me.

3) Definitely use an antivirus for your virtual machine, and MSE is a great choice. Won't slow you down too much.

Not familiar with Dragon so you might want to try all this during the 30-day free trial offered by Parallels (and VM Ware Fusion) just to make sure you can get it working for your wife before buying Parallels. You might also try Sun's VirtualBox, instead of Parallels - it's free and does the same thing minus a few features that it doesn't sound like you'll need.

Cheers and best of luck!
 

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