BootCamp and Parallels Working Together

I recently acquired the new MacBook Pro 17.

I wanted to bring my Microsoft world to the Mac, so I investigated my options for making this possible.  Ultimately it was between BootCamp (already installed) and Parallels (3rd party).  BootCamp allows for a dedicated partition to be used for booting into the Microsoft OS.  Parallels allows for a virtual machine to exist for the guest operating system.  While debating the pros and cons, I realized I wanted both.

Fortunately, Parallels allows for "virtualizing" the BootCamp partition.  In other words, I can boot straight into my Microsoft OS or I can boot into MAC OS and run the same BootCamp partition in a virtual environment.  Booting straight into the BootCamp partition allows me to have dedicated resources to my Microsoft environment.  Running the partition in a virtual environment allows me to mix my Mac world with my Windows world.  This is even more transparent with a mode in Parallels called "coherence", which makes it appear that my Windows applications are running in the Mac OS. 

If you plan on using BootCamp along with Parallels, you may encounter some odd behaviors that you will need to adapt to. For example, I noticed that when I boot via Parallels virtual environment, I need to be patient when it loads.  Even though I am prompted to enter my credentials into the Microsoft OS, I intentionally wait until the message in the Parallels status bar disappears.  The message appears every time I launch the Parallels virtual machine.  It states that the Parallel Tools have not been installed.  Just be patient.  Wait until the message disappears and then log in.  If you do not wait, the environment sometimes hangs.