Windows 7 VM save to HD

Scince noone replied to my other thread and I have learned a bit more about Parallels Desktop I feel I should start this thread.

I am going to move to a Mac after so many years but I still wish to use Windows 7 to run my PC programs that I can't have on OS X. I wish to use Boot Camp so that I am able to run some of my PC only games and programs at native speeds.

I know that Parallels Desktop can load a Boot Camp partition but if I install a program in Parallels Desktop on Windows 7 will I still be able to use the program I installed earlier in Parallels Desktop using the Boot Camp partition at startup or do I have to install the program again in Boot Camp and vice versa? Same question again with files e.g. .doc, .xls.

 

As far as I know you'll only need to install programs once. Whether you do this in BootCamp or while the Parallels VM is using the BootCamp partition as the VM's hard disk shouldn't matter. To Windows it looks as if it's running on "real" PC hardware, regardless of whether it runs on deLuxe Mac hardware or on virtualized Parallels hardware.

I don't know what the situation is with software that requires special components (e.g. drivers or such) that only one of the environments offers, such as e.g. Firewire printer drivers.