I just purchased Parallels for Mac in order to use a program that requires Windows. Are there any free versions of Windows (7 or higher) and where safe places to download them from?
closed as off-topic by Ramhound, Xavierjazz, fixer1234, DavidPostill♦, karelSep 7 '16 at 10:57
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Parallels Desktop for Mac is a hardware emulation virtualization software, using hypervisor technology that works by mapping the host computer’s hardware resources. Parallels released Parallels Desktop 13 – a popular solution for virtualization on a Mac.New features of all versions of Parallels Desktop 13 for Mac: increased speed the launch of Windows 8, and 10 to 50%, a mode of travel that extends the battery life of laptop up to 25% support Windows 10 and OS X El Capitan, as well as many other new features.
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- 'This question is not about computer hardware or software, within the scope defined in the help center.' – Ramhound, karel
- 'Questions seeking product, service, or learning material recommendations are off-topic because they become outdated quickly and attract opinion-based answers. Instead, describe your situation and the specific problem you're trying to solve. Share your research. Here are a few suggestions on how to properly ask this type of question.' – Xavierjazz, fixer1234, DavidPostill
2 Answers
As mentioned in the comments, Windows is not a free product and so if you want to use Parallels for Mac you will have to buy a genuine copy of Windows as well.
As an alternative, in order to run a windows program on a Mac (depending on the Mac version and the program you are trying to run) you could always have a look into WineHQ:
There are a few decent references in the following links:
Hopefully this is a reasonable answer for you.
The closest thing you will get to a free, legitimate copy of Windows is going to be a 90-day evaluation. The Microsoft Evaluation Center currently offers 90-day eval copies of Windows 8 Enterprise, Windows 8.1 Enterprise and Windows 10 Enterprise. These resources are usually for students, or IT personnel looking into upgrading and not meant for long-term personal use.
The only other legal way I know of is if you are a student at a college/university that has a DreamSpark Premium membership with Microsoft. All students with an edu email can get the basic DreamSpark account and get access to full versions of Windows Server, SQL Server, etc. However, the premium account grants access to full copies of client Windows operating systems.
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