Parallels 7 Question: Windows 7 or Windows XP?

hi all,
have 8 gb ram on 2009 imac (3.8ghz) , purchased parallels 7 running multiple ms excel macro-intensive spreadsheets. recommend installing windows xp or windows 7?

seems recommendations “use 7 because it’s better os”, i’m not looking os better; i’m looking os enable me run ms excel 2010 while consuming least amount of computer’s resources.

lastly, should use 32- or 64-bit version?

 

if going allocate 4gb ram vm, win7 64 bit. otherwise, differences unlikely noticeable. 32bit os won't make use of more ~3gb ram anyway. don't think can buy winxp anymore, unless have copy already, should point win7. reason might want go out of way xp if needed run program won't run under win7 - excel not such program.

multiple spreadsheets, ram going limiting factor; allocate 4gb ram , go win7 64 bit.

side note: know counter-intuitive, have found better performance in vm allocating single virtual core rather multiple cores.

 

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