What are the Pros and Cons of Importing a BootCamp Installation into VMWare Fusion 11.5.5??

[john_858]

I've successfully installed Windows 10 Pro (latest 2004 version) via BootCamp on my Mac (Catalina 10.15.5).  If I use the import option in VMWare Fusion 11.5.5, what are the implications for being able to continue to run Windows natively via Bootcamp?  Do I retain the option to run Windows 10 Pro from either BootCamp or VMWare Fusion?  Or once I complete the import am I forfeiting the ability to run Windows via Bootcamp?

[wila]

Hi,

When you create a new VM, from your boot camp partition then you can run both, either directly on the hardware as boot camp and as a virtual machine.

It is the same Windows instance that you run either directly on the hardware or as a VM. Changes made on the VM will be visible when booted as boot camp.

That's the whole idea.

Note that "importing a boot camp" partition is something you can do _after_ you did the above and in that case it means that you create a virtual only machine out of your existing boot camp partition.

In that particular case you will end up with 2 different instances. An imported boot camp VM is a separate instance of Windows. You will not loose your original boot camp partition (it leaves that alone). This however might have license implications.

Hope this helps,

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Wil