confused about boot camp/fusion

[alainr]

i am waiting to receive my new imac. and am confused about boot camp/fusion. i read the posts on this site about the technical differences.

if i keep using quicken for the pc, can i access the data either by booting up as a pc OR using fusion from the mac side? Or, do i have to pick to get to quicken pc one way from the first?

Can I divide the screen using boot camp so that i can see PC data on half and mac data on the other half?

I understand that fusion slows down the computer; is it simple to use fusion to get to needed windows programs, and then turn it off and simply use the mac side?

I do online banking and run quicken when i go online; i wld like to try and avoid buying a windows anti virus program.
maybe this will all be cleared up once i play w/the imac.
thank you

 

[ruskiwi]

if i keep using quicken for the pc, can i access the data either by booting up as a pc OR using fusion from the mac side? Or, do i have to pick to get to quicken pc one way from the first?

You can do either. The difference is, if you use Boot Camp, you will have to restart in Windows, whereas if you use Fusion, it will be like opening a program within Mac (although it will take longer) that you can close when not in use. Pausing Fusion will make it quicker to restart than shutting it down, and is much faster than restarting your whole computer, especially if you have other programs open that you want to keep open.

Can I divide the screen using boot camp so that i can see PC data on half and mac data on the other half?

No. To use Boot Camp you have to restart your computer. Fusion allows you three view modes: Full Screen (looks like you're only using Windows), Single Window (resizable window, means you can see Mac windows as well as drag files from one desktop to the other), and Unity (Windows desktop will not show, but any program you have open will show its window as if it's a Mac program)

I understand that fusion slows down the computer; is it simple to use fusion to get to needed windows programs, and then turn it off and simply use the mac side?

Very simple, and it doesn't really slow down the computer if you have heaps of RAM, but I wouldn't leave it running all the time.

I do online banking and run quicken when i go online; i wld like to try and avoid buying a windows anti virus program.

Using Windows via Boot Camp or Fusion is like on any PC and it would be wise to protect it just as you would on a PC.