Questions about parallels install on my imac 27"

I have an imac 27" running lion and had installed windows 7 via bootcamp, everything is working fine but I am just tired of having to reboot everytime I want to jump back and forth between the OS's.

When I saw Parallels I thought THIS is the answer! I assumed I would need to re-install windows but I read I can just point parallels to the bootcamp installation of windows 7, is there a walk thru anywhere or video anywhere of how this all works?

I haven't got the software here yet but am a bit confused am I installing parallels on the mac side and then instead of reinstalling windows telling it to access windows via the partition where bootcamp sits? If i do this and it works, do I still have the option of rebooting into windows via bootcamp (I can't imagine needing to do this but wondered).

Am I going to have to reactivate windows once I start using parallels on the mac side of things (assuming that I don't have to reinstall it if i can point parallels to the bootcamp partition).

I saw lots of stuff on parallels on youtube but didn't find a video of someone installing it using an existing bootcamp version of windows.

The version of parallels I ordered says 7, I am using windows 7, and lion if that helps,

Excited about all this but kinda nervous as I am still very new to the mac side of things (with bootcamp I find myself in windows 90% of the time) so I am trying to change that by getting and using parallels just wanna make sure I do it right and not have grief in the install or have issues needing to reinstall or reactivate windows again and again.

Bill

 

You will be boe to find detailed guidance in Parallels User Guide. Basically- you install Parallels in Mac, create virtual machine and than in configuration menu chooses the hard drive manually from virtual to real boot camp.
You might be asked to reactivate the windows - but you can just call Microsoft and use the same key you have.

You will be able to boot into boot camp natively and all the changes would be saved.