Parallels noob...the basics?

OK now Ive bought V3 and read the manuals Im a little bombarded with virtual this and virtual that and odd problems posted in these forums Im a little concerned over.

Let me start by telling you what Ive got:

Macbook Pro 17"
Apples Bootcamp installed
Win XP

Right, basically, now what happens with Parallels?, do I have to remove bootcamp and reinstall windows? or do anything special?

I just tried running Parallels and got a windows activation message and my XP partition of my hard drive vanished from the desktop, is that good or bad?

Anyone care to fill me in?

Thanks

 

If you have Bootcamp, and want to use your Bootcamp partition for virtualization, I'd recommend doing VMWare instead of Parallels. Parallels alters critical Windows files for optimal performance in Parallels, but it can cause extremely erratic behavior when you reboot into Bootcamp.

 

Cheers Vigilant,

Ive just uninstalled Bootcamp now and running straight as Parallels, working OK so far except Ive lost the @ key?!, shift 2 dont work?!

 

Try updating to the release that just came out today, then reinstall the Parallels Tools.

 

mmm just checked for latest version and it says it is the latest, soz to be thick but how do I install the Tools?

 

aha...found it!