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Chris - I feel your pain. About 10 years ago, I used bootcamp to run win WinXP/MSSQL/VS and switched to Parallels and later to Fusion on a 2006 MBP. Not much in the difference. More recently, I've been using a Macbook Air and VirtualBox (Win7 Pro with VS2015 and SQL Server) wihtout any real degredation in performance. The VM is on a thunderbolt connected external HD.
Are you able to install Parallels on your old MBAir and check how it works? Or try VirtualBox - it's free and you can import a VM.
I was thinking about upgrading to a new MBP, but your comments are making me nervous!
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Parallels on the old MB Air was pretty much the same. I was planning on trying VM Fusion today but that's been scuttled due to some server issues I need to deal with.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Chris Maunder wrote: The screen brightness constantly osculates
I hate it when my screen starts acting as a spongy vent too. 
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I have no idea how I managed to spell it that way. That's imaginative even for my creative spelling efforts.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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I remember my wifes iPhone slowing down with the latest ios.
I can't help wondering if it's related.
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Chris Maunder wrote: My conclusions is: No, parallels will not let you run Visual Studio in a usable manner.
That was my conclusion about 2 years ago - so I gave my Macbook air away to me niece who is studying an arts degree. I simply could not get it to work acceptably and my time is too valuable to waste any more on it.
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As others have mentioned, you may want to consider going with standard Windows laptop for your Microsoft stack development, etc, and use the Mac for other stuff.
I think you are only going to become more frustrated trying to make MS and Apple work together, especially with mission critical tools/apps.
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I have been working with a Macbook Pro & Parallels desktop since 2011 (16 Mb) without to many problems with Visual Studio. Definitely not the issues you mention. I am using the same configuration on a Mac Pro now. I have had some issues with the allocation of memory but the technical support of Parallels has been helpful in solving these problems either by email or remote session.
Best of luck,
Aad Brugman
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So there we go: it's possible!
The thing that's bothering me is: what's the difference in setups between you and I?
I had parallels import my Bootcamp partition. Did you start from scratch or import bootcamp?
With Visual Studio are you working on big projects or small? What about services such as SQL Server or IIS?
cheers
Chris Maunder
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In 2011 I changed from Windows PC to Mac and bought and installed Parallels desktop on my Macbook Pro. I made an image of my Windows PC with Parallels Transporter Agent. The image also included the Visual Studio version (2010). Transferred image to Mac, opened it in Parallels and started using it.
So I did not use any Bootcamp partition. And I realize (now) that your situation/set up is different because you are not migrating from Windows.
The VS projects I have worked on are not huge but also not small and I also use SQL server.
Over the years I have evolved to Parallels 12, VS 2017, SQL server 2016.
With Parallels 12 I had a problem and had to reach out to Parallels technical support. I had already migrated to Mac Pro with 32 Mb and assigned 20 Mb to my Parallels VM. In the online session the helpdesk also looked at my settings and told me to assign only 4 Mb to the VM. So far everything is working fast enough for me.
So I still think that creating a support ticket could help you.
Happy new year.
Aad Brugman
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I used a MacBook Pro about four years ago after my Windows computer died. I installed Parallels and then a Windows 7 Pro instance inside Parallels, and VS, SQL Server, misc tools inside Windows 7. No problems at all. Ran great. In fact, it was better and faster than my Windows machine (which was Alienware), which I thought was really weird since the Windows 7 via Parallels shared resources with the Mac OS. Both machines had 8GB RAM, but the Mac had a great SSD where the Windows machine had a 7200 RPM hard disk. I have not had to use Parallels recently.
Mike
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The SSD is one of the reasons I originally switched to the Macbook. Performance is outstanding.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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As an alternate approach, try Visual Studio for Mac which I believe was released over the summer. No need to use Parallels unless of course you are trying to use other windows related tools.
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I'm using that on my other Mac but I need IIS and SQL too.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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I used a 2011 MacBook Pro with BootCamp and didn't really have any issues. I then upgraded to a 2013 MacBook Pro and used VMware Fusion to run Windows 7 and Visual Studio (then Windows 10 and VS). I will say that the move to HiDPI/Retina caused some issues, but I was able to get them resolved through different settings adjustments.
However, over the course of several macOS releases, things change and it became too much of a hassle to keep things working well.
I recently switched to the new Microsoft Surface Book 2 (used Surface Pro 3/4 some too) and have to say that it is hands-down the best laptop I have ever used.
If you primarily develop software using Visual Studio, I'd recommend getting the Surface Book 2 (or even an upper-end Surface Laptop or Surface Pro). Keep the MacBook Air in order to compile Xamarin Forms apps for Mac or iOS. Return the MacBook Pro if you can. Not worth the hassle when such good hardware is available.
Hope that helps...
Kelly.
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In truth I'm holding out for a Surface Laptop with USB-C and 10hr battery life.
However, all this talk of ARM based Windows is interesting, too...
cheers
Chris Maunder
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No doubt the Surface Laptop is a good option. I've been able to get essentially all day use from the new Surface Book 2. Not playing games or watching the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Trilogy, granted. But getting real development work done using Visual Studio along with Internet research and email.
Plus this thing has to drive a 15" HiDPI display, a discrete GPU, and a quad-core i7. I'd say that is a huge accomplishment in battery tech by the Microsoft Surface team.
Kelly.
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Most likely is still a drivers issue, also i recommend you to verify how many cores your virtual machine has, given that, since Windows Vista, Windows is not happy with anything less than 2 cores.
To be honest, i would try doing a clean install from within Parallels in a Virtual Hard Drive.
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RafagaX wrote: To be honest, i would try doing a clean install from within Parallels in a Virtual Hard Drive
I will give that a try.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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This may be a dumb comment since I haven’t read the whole thread but why aren’t you using vmware fusion to run windows. It has a few quirks, but nothing like what you describe and its speed is quite good. On my 2-monitor macpro, windows nicely fills one and I can still do mac stuff on the other. There are usb-c adapters that would let you connect your ext monitor and still be able to use the macbook screen.
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Fusion has definitely been mentioned and I was actually planning on giving it a try today (though at this point I won't get to it till the weekend).
I appreciate the suggestion.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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No sympathy.
As a "working pro", I have a dedicated "work station" with all the whistles; and that ties me into the rest of the world and the entire MS stack.
You complain because your "Benz" parts won't work with your "Ford"...
Get a Dodge (Demon). 
(I think the "gaming rigs" provide some of the best value ... and device options).
"(I) am amazed to see myself here rather than there ... now rather than then".
― Blaise Pascal
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I'd rather catch a bus than drive a dodge 
But seriously: I travel. I used to have a workstation but it's simply impractical.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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TeamViewer.
Even "remote desktop" is a lot more useable than it used to be.
I "remote" from my LR into my developer machine when I'm being "social" (LOL).
Only thing I miss in this case is multiple monitors; though I haven't tried.
"(I) am amazed to see myself here rather than there ... now rather than then".
― Blaise Pascal
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I spent about 10 years doing remote desktop to a main desktop and finally simply couldn't take it anymore. It's OK when you have a good connection (and mutli-monitor works fine with Remote Desktop) but no good when on a plane, or at a cafe with limited connection, or overseas, or in a place with poor and/or expensive internet.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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