How do Parallels and Bootcamp interact?

I assume both Parallels and Bootcamp require a valid Windows install. Can they be configured to share the same Windows OS install and same Windows file system, or are they totally separate beasts?

Thanks!

 

Legally, Microsoft' would not permit two installs of the same OS license on two machines, even if one is virtual. Moreover, the licensing of the second install would fail.

If you really want two separate Windows installations, buy two copies.

 

You can access your Boot Camp installation through Parallels, so technically it's not a separate installation. If this were a problem, MS would no doubt be putting pressure on/suing anyone who makes virtual machine software for Mac (Parallels, VMWare, etc).

 

Thanks, SP Forsythe and Saturnotaku!

To be clear, my main concern is the disk space required to install Windows twice. Glad to hear it's not necessary.

 

yes, you can install bootcamp and parallels and use parallels to boot your windows installation.

you can do the same thing with vmware fusion.

 

make sure you set up Bootcamped install first, then you can just set Parallels to use the Bootcamp install. Some features won't fully work, and you need to make sure you fully shut down Windows in Parallels before trying to reboot into Windows directly.

 

You'll also need to reactivate Windows and Office (if installed) when running your Boot Camp install via virtual machine. It's a one time only thing so you won't get prompted every time you load the VM or Windows directly.


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