upgrade from 4 to 7

i am using OSX snow leopard with parallels 4 and have some vital information that must transfer to the upgraded windows. does parallels fresh install 7 from 4 or is it an upgrade that maintains the current content?

slightly concerned!

 

Well, considering your assumptions the short answer is that it is *like* an upgrade and you won't lose any information inside Windows.

The reason I said it's *like* an upgrade is that, in terms of:

* Licensing, you have to buy a full license and not an upgrade license (upgrade licenses are only for 5 and 6).
* Program Installation (follow: http://kb.parallels.com/111871 ), you should uninstall Parallels Tools from the VM(s) prior to installing Parallels 7 on the Mac (when you upgrade from 6 you don't need to do that).

Don't forget that uninstalling and installing Parallels Desktop on the Mac does not alter or interfere with the information inside Virtual Machines (in Windows). Parallels doesn't make any modification to Windows, it only installs Parallels Tools which are basically hardware drivers, you are running a full, independent copy of Windows in the Virtual Machine, and Parallels Desktop is an application that provides access to it.