The tips in this section help you make adjustments to improve performance for particular guest operating systems running inside a virtual machine.
This section offers advice for configuring a Windows 95 or Windows 98 guest operating system for better performance inside a VMware Workstation virtual machine.
Note: This document pertains to the guest operating system that is running inside a VMware Workstation virtual machine. It does not describe actions that should be taken on the host.
Make certain you have selected the correct guest operating system in the virtual machine settings editor - VM > Settings > Options.
Make certain VMware Tools is installed. VMware Tools provides an optimized SVGA driver and sets up the VMware Tools service to run automatically when the system starts. Among other things, the VMware Tools service allows you to synchronize the virtual machine's clock with the host computer's clock, which can improve performance for some functions. You can install VMware Tools by choosing VM > Install VMware Tools.
Windows 95 OSR2 and later (including Windows 98) can use direct memory access (DMA) for faster access to IDE hard disks. However, this feature may not be enabled by default.
You can turn on DMA access using the guest operating system's Device Manager.
Run your virtual machine in full screen mode. Click the Full Screen button on the VMware Workstation toolbar.
In your system.ini file, in the [386enh] section, add the following line:
ConservativeSwapFileUsage=1
Using the VM > Removable Devices menu, disconnect your CD-ROM drive if you do not need to use it.
If you are using a Linux host and have a Windows 95 guest, also disconnect
/dev/rtc. Do not disconnect it in a Windows 98 guest.
Disconnecting these devices reduces CPU usage.
Note: The time synchronization feature in VMware Tools does not rely on
/dev/rtc.
Windows 98 has a number of visual effects, designed to be attractive, that place unnecessary demands on the graphics emulation in VMware Workstation. Some users have seen performance improvements when they turn off these special effects.
To modify these settings, right-click on the desktop of your virtual machine, then select Properties from the pop-up menu. Click the Effects tab and uncheck the Animate windows, menus, and lists check box.
Also, if you have Show window contents while dragging checked, try unchecking that check box.
This section offers advice for configuring a Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 guest operating system for better performance inside a VMware Workstation virtual machine.
Note: This document pertains to the guest operating system that is running inside a VMware Workstation virtual machine. It does not describe actions that should be taken on Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 running on the host computer.
Make certain you have selected the correct guest operating system in the virtual machine settings editor - VM > Settings > Options.
Make certain VMware Tools is installed. VMware Tools provides an optimized SVGA driver and sets up the VMware Tools service to run automatically when the system starts. Among other things, the VMware Tools service allows you to synchronize the virtual machine's clock with the host computer's clock, which can improve performance for some functions. You can install VMware Tools by choosing VM > Install VMware Tools.
Using the VM > Removable Devices menu, disconnect your CD-ROM drive if you do not need to use it. If you are using a Linux host, also disconnect /dev/rtc. Disconnecting these devices reduces CPU usage.
Note: The time synchronization feature in VMware Tools does not rely on
/dev/rtc.
The fade effects that Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 use when displaying menus can be somewhat slow and make the virtual machine seem less responsive.
To disable the fade effects, right-click the guest operating system desktop, then choose Properties > Appearance > Effects (on Windows XP or Windows Server 2003) or Properties > Effects (on Windows 2000) and uncheck Use transition effects for menus and tool tips.
Run your virtual machine in full screen mode. Click the Full Screen button on the VMware Workstation toolbar.
This section offers advice for configuring a Linux guest operating system for better performance inside a VMware Workstation virtual machine.
Note: This document pertains to the guest operating system that is running inside a VMware Workstation virtual machine. It does not describe actions that should be taken on Linux running on the host.
Make certain you have selected the correct guest operating system in the virtual machine settings editor - VM > Settings > Options.
Make certain VMware Tools is installed. VMware Tools provides an optimized SVGA driver and sets up the VMware Tools service to run automatically when the system starts. Among other things, the VMware Tools service allows you to synchronize the virtual machine's clock with the host computer's clock, which can improve performance for some functions. You can install VMware Tools by choosing VM > Install VMware Tools.
Using the VM > Removable Devices menu, disconnect your CD-ROM drive if you do not need to use it. If you are using a Linux host, also disconnect /dev/rtc. Disconnecting these devices reduces CPU usage.
Note: The time synchronization feature in VMware Tools does not rely on
/dev/rtc.
When you are installing your Linux guest operating system, use the text-mode installer instead of the graphical installer if you have a choice. This makes the installation process faster.
If you do use a graphical installer and if you are using a Linux host computer, try to run VMware Workstation in full screen mode during the installation.
Run your virtual machine in full screen mode. Click the Full Screen button on the VMware Workstation toolbar.
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