Fusion and Boot Camp: same files?

[stevol]

I am considering the purchase of a new iMac, and thinking of setting up both Boot Camp and Fusion, with the latter installed on the Boot Camp partition. Maybe this is a silly question, but if I install a program or save a file in Windows while using Boot Camp, does this program or file show up when I use Fusion? What about vice versa? Are all of my Boot Camp settings and files the same as those on Fusion (and vice versa), or are these truly two different Windows machines / experiences? If these are separate worlds so to speak, do they see eachother? I might want to occasionally use one or the other, but it would be nice if my files or work in one "world" is seamless with the other (and I am not talking Mac and Windows as the two worlds, I am talking Boot Camp and Fusion). This is a potentially confusing journey, although it is nice to have these options. Thanks in advance.

 

[MacDawg]

Install Windows under Boot Camp first
Then install Fusion

Fusion will read your Boot Camp partition and it will be the same

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[pacmania1982]

Use Bootcamp to partition your drive, go through the whole Windows install etc, then go back into OS X and install Fusion. There is an option to boot Windows from the Bootcamp partition, so yes if you make a document and save it on the desktop while booted in to Windows, then reboot into OS X you should see the file on the desktop in Fusion.

pac

 

[mossmaal]

does doing this cause any wga problems with vista?

 

[VideoFreek]

does doing this cause any wga problems with vista?

Sometimes. At best, you activate first on bootcamp, then install the virtual machine and then VMWare Tools. You'll then be asked to activate once more on the virtual machine, and after that VMWare Tools will handle the switching back and forth between native and virtual modes.

This is the best case scenario. Many people report problems with activation, and one known issue discussed at the VMWare forums and acknowledged by the company is that Vista SP1 breaks VMWare's ability to manage activations, since SP1 introduces changes in Vista's activation model. The company is working on the issue, but the only workaround now is to not install (or to uninstall) SP1.