Windows 10: Virtual Machine - Troubleshoot Performance Issues

How to: Virtual Machine - Troubleshoot Performance Issues

How to Troubleshoot Slow Performance of a Virtual Machine



Information This tutorial will be assuming you are using Windows 10 as your host OS and using VMWare Player for virtualization, although these tips hold true in other virtual platforms. Ex: Windows Virtual PC and VirtualBox.

This tutorial also assumes your virtual machines files are stored on your local disk C drive.

When the guide mentions the word VM, it is referring to the Virtual Machine.


1.) Your Disks are Fragmented

The first reason is most likely due to fragmentation of your Hard disk or the virtual disk itself:


(This applies to vmware player and workstation as well as others)



Tip Linux Distros (ubuntu, zorin, etc.) do not need to be defragged due to the file system it uses.


Windows 8 and 10 names defragging as "optimization"


Defragmenting Virtual Disks:

Like physical disk drives, virtual disks can become fragmented. Defragmenting disks rearranges files, programs, and unused space on the virtual disk so that programs run faster and files open more quickly. Defragmenting does not reclaim unused space on a virtual disk; to reclaim unused space, shrink the disk.

For best disk performance, follow these steps:

A.) Run a disk defragmentation utility inside the virtual machine.Go to This PC (my computer). Right Click Local Disk C. Choose properties. Under tools-Click Defragment now or optimize.








B.) Power off the virtual machine once defrag is complete in the VM, then defragment its virtual disks from the virtual machine settings editor (VM > Settings). Select the virtual disk you want to defragment, then click Defragment or optimize.













Tip Note: This capability works only with virtual disks, not physical or plain disks.


Tip Defragmenting disks may take considerable time.


C.) Run a disk defragmentation utility on the host (your physical) computer.

Click Start, Go to This PC (my computer). Right Click Local Disk C. Choose properties. Under tools-Click Defragment or optimize now.





Note: The defragmentation process requires free working space on the host computer's disk. If your virtual disk is contained in a single file, for example, you need free space equal to the size of the virtual disk file. Other virtual disk configurations require less free space.

2.) Realtime on access scanners- Anti-virus/Anti-malware Utilities are scanning your Virtual Machines Folders while they are in use

When you are using your VM, you might run into slowness due to your antivirus or a program like malwarebytes scanning your virtual machine files on the host machine as you are using them, slowing down your VM. So what we want to do is add the folders where your Virtual Machine files are stored so that the on access protection software you have installed is not scanning the Virtual Machines folders and not slowing you down.



Warning If you do this, This means your anti-virus/anti-malware solution will not find infected files in these folders should they store themselves there. Due to this, I recommend scanning the virtual machine folders every now and then by right clicking on the folder and choosing to scan with your protection software. You also may need to undo the exclusion before you are able to scan the folder.



Tip The following will be demonstrated with Malwarebytes as an example. You must read the documentation on your Antivirus product and any other real time scanners so you can find the Exclusions setting. It can be typically found in the settings panel for the program however.


Text instruction: Open Malwarebytes. Click Settings. Click Malware Exclusions. Click Add folder. Choose the folder where all of your Virtual machine files are stored. Click Select Folder. You are done! Close out.

Visual instructions:












3.) Your System Specs are holding you back

I recommend at least a Intel I3 or AMD A8 (quad core) for the best performance, and at least 8GB ram for good performance across the board. Sure you can run virtual machines with less than that, but Ideally you want a decent system so you can be in your Virtual Machine and have multiple things open on your host without slowing you down.


Make sure the host has more physical memory than the total amount of memory that will be used by all of the
following:
-The host operating system
-Any applications that will be running natively on the host
-The sum of the memory that will be used by the guest operating systems and the applications on all the
virtual machines that will be running at any one time.



4.) You did not dedicate enough Ram to the Virtual Machine

The List below shows microsoft's recommended system requirements in a hyperlink on the left, with my personal recommended system ram for platforms on the right for Virtual Machines use:

Windows:

Windows 98- 64mb ram minimum. Recommended: 128mb ram
Windows me/2000 128mb ram minimum. Recommended: 256mb ram
Windows XP: 1GB ram minimum. Recommended: 2GB ram
Windows Vista: 2GB ram minimum. Recommended: 4GB ram
Windows 7: 2GB ram minimum. Recommended: 4GB ram
Windows 8.1: 2GB ram minimum. Recommended: 4GB ram
Windows 10: 2GB ram minimum. Recommended: 4GB ram

Most popular Linux distros:
2GB ram minimum. Recommended: 4GB ram



Warning It is possible to give to much ram to a OS. Keep in mind about older Operating systems such as windows 98. If you give it to much ram, it may crash and be unstable.

You can find these settings in your Ram settings of the appropriate virtual program. Here is where you can find it in VMWare player:

Follow step 1 below in the image, but choose memory on the settings screen. Adjust Ram preferences there.




5.) Your Virtual Client program is not up to date

Make sure you keep VMWare player up to date, or virtual box or whatever program you are using.

6.) You are running Virtual Machines from an External Hard Disk

Doing this is not recommend and will be unbearingly slow. (Unless it is a external SSD drive on USB 3.0.)


7.) Your hard drive is slow or is bogged down by too many running programs

Hard drive speed:
If you have a Hard Drive that is 5400 RPM, consider upgrading to a faster 7200RPM or 10000RPM Hard Disk.
Even better and faster option: Consider buying a ssd/hdd hybrid drive OR an SSD. These will dramatically increase performance by storing the virtual machine files there.

Using a lot of applications:
If you are running multiple programs on your host OS and also running a virtual machine, your virtual machine will slow down. Consider dedicating a second internal hard drive strictly for VM's. This will provide the best Performance. This way the host OS and programs are run separately from the VM, and the VM can utilize the full speed of the hard drive/ssd.


8.) You are using Virtual Machines without the Virtual Machines software installed into it.

If you have VMWare player, you want to make sure you have installed vmware tools as this significantly affects performance.



9.) Your Graphics drivers are out of date

You want to always make sure you have the latest graphics drivers for your system. Update them here:

If you have an Nvidia card go here: NVIDIA Driver Downloads - Automatically Detect NVIDIA Products

If you have an Amd card go here: AMD Driver Autodetect

Intel Integrated graphics can go here: Intel Drivers auto detect and update



10. The Operating system is not up to date

Make sure you have the latest updates for your HOST Operating system as well as the guest or VM Operating system. Use (if possible) windows update.
For Linux use system update.



11.) You are low on free disk space on your virtual disks.




Tip This only really matters when you have a more modern Operating system. Older Operating systems like windows 98 have a limit as to how much disk space they can see due to the file system type used. So giving them 10GB would be more than plenty of storage. You may need to research the operating system to see what the maximum file size and hard disk size is supported. Sometimes it is limited by the Operating system itself, others is due to the fat or fat32 file system.


In the Virtual Machine, Try going to disk management or my computer and determine how much disk space you have left. If you have low Disk Space on your virtual disks, make sure to increase them to have at least 20% free on your storage volume.


To do this, Do the following from this article here:


Prerequisites
■Power off the virtual machine.
■Verify that the virtual disk is not mapped or mounted. You cannot expand a virtual disk while it is mapped or mounted.
■Verify that the virtual machine has no snapshots.
■Verify that the virtual machine is not a linked clone or the parent of a linked clone.


Procedure:

1.) Select the virtual machine and select VM > Settings.
2.) On the Hardware tab, select the virtual hard disk to expand.
3.) Select Utilities > Expand.
4.) Set the new maximum size for the virtual disk.
You can set a size between 0.001GB and 2TB for a virtual disk.
5.) Select Expand.
6.) Click OK after the disk expansion process is complete.




12.) The Operating System is not optimized


See this tutorial:


Optimize Windows 10 - Windows 10 Help Forums


Some of those linked in the above tutorial apply to other Operating systems of Windows, not just windows 10.



13.) You do not have AMD-v OR Intel VT enabled in your bios.


You want to make sure this is turned on in your bios, as it adds a lot of benefits in performance wise when using Virtual Machines. See your computer's documentation or Google your pc model for instructions on how to do this.



14.) You have AMD-V OR Intel VT enabled in bios, but do not have it turned on in Vmware Player.


If you have hardware supported virtualization, make sure your Virtual Machine program such as vmware player, virtual box etc is told to use it.


In vmware player, go to edit virtual machine settings as shown in step 1 above, and under the processor tab, choose virtualize intel vt-x/ept or amd-v/rvi and make sure it is checked.


See screenshot:







15.) If after doing all the above, and you still have problems with slowness, adjust the priority of the VM's process:


In task manager on your host with the VM running, setting the virtual machine process priority to High should help, making the vm run more smoothly. Right click the processes for the VM, and choose priority-High.


Note however; that doing this can cause your main host to be slow at doing other things while the VM is running, as you are telling your PC the VM is the highest priority.


(credit-Kari for this one)



Related Tutorials

• How to Speed Up the Performance of Windows 7
• How to Optimize the Performance of Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Create a Virtual Machine with Windows 8 Hyper-V
• How to Create a Virtual Machine in Windows Virtual PC
• How to Install and Setup Windows XP Mode in Windows 7
• How to Install Windows 8 on VirtualBox
• How to Install Windows 8 on VMware Player
• How to Expand a Virtual Hard Disk of a Virtual Machine in VMware Player

:)

 

BSOD when launching Virtual Machine

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



I appreciate your effort on this. I understand how difficult it could be when the computer doesn’t work as it is supposed to, we will look into this for you. Please reply with the following details to assist you with the appropriate troubleshooting
steps:

• Which application are you using to create Virtual Machine?
  
• Does the issue occur only when launching a Virtual Machine?
  
• Have you reinstalled Windows on the computer?
  
• What is the make and model of the computer?
  

I have analyzed the dump files shared by you. Since the issue occurs when you launch Virtual Machine, I suggest you to try disabling the VMWare USB Arbitration Service and check if that helps. Please follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Press Windows key + R, to open
   Run dialog box.
   
2. Type services.msc and click on
   OK.
   
3. Look for the VMWare USB Arbitration Service and double click on it to open
   Properties.
   
4. Select Disabled from the drop down for
   Startup and Stop the service.
   
5. Click on Apply and OK.
   

Please reply with the status of the issue, we will be glad to help you further.



Regards,

Nikhar Khare

Microsoft Community - Moderator

 

Clean install of W10 not possible in Virtual Machine.


Please get a cup of coffee, lean back and think an answer for these two questions. Take your time, then check the answers below the questions:

Questions:

1. If you do a clean install of let's say Windows 10 Insider Build 10525 on a totally new computer which has never had an activated Windows 10 on it, does it activate?
2. If you do a clean install of Windows 10 Insider Build on a computer where the underlying Windows 10, upgraded from a qualifying old operating system has already been activated, does it activate?

Answers:

1. No, of course not.
2. Yes, of course.

Why do you think that a virtual machine would make any difference? You have tried to install Windows 10 on a totally new machine which has never had an activated Windows 10 installed, therefore the Microsoft activation servers block the activation due invalid machine ID. In the highlighted part in below quote you admit your mistake yourself, plain and simple, yet you when doing this wrong draw conclusion that even if done correctly it would not work:

What you have tried is essentially the same as if you took a brand new real physical PC without any operating system, which has never had any operating system, and then installed Windows 10 Insider Preview wondering why it does not activate! Virtual Machines behave exactly the same way; if you want to clean install Windows 10 Insider Preview and get it activated you must do it on an existing virtual machine, one which has already had an upgraded Windows 10 activated. This "computer", the virtual machine, its machine ID is marked on activation servers as valid and activated and it will of course activate.

Be it a virtual machine or a physical computer, you cannot activate a clean installed Windows 10 Insider Preview on a totally new machine. How difficult can this be to understand?

When clean installing Windows 10 Insider Preview on a computer which has already had a previous Windows 10 Insider activated, you do not use the product key! It will be asked twice, once before the installation starts and once after the last reboot to OOBE phase. In both cases you skip the product key and your Windows will be automatically activated.

 

Installing a Virtual Machine in Windows 10

Step #1 is to decide which virtual machine software you wish to install.

The three most popular choices are:

• VirtualBox (from Oracle)
• VMWare Workstation Player (from VMWare); and
• Hyper-V (from Microsoft)

Once you've made your choice you can find detailed, illustrated instructions for installing each one on the internet.

As a personal suggestion: You might find it easier to use either VirtualBox or VMWare Workstation Player. Hyper-V is more complicated to setup.

Between VirtualBox and VMWare, I think you'll find VirtualBox more user-friendly, and it has the advantage of allowing you to create checkpoints - backups of your virtual machine - whereas to do that in VMWare you'll need to upgrade to their (expensive!)
paid version.

 

Clean install of W10 not possible in Virtual Machine.


@Kari

You can do clean install with windows 10 but it won't activate on Virtual Machine at least it didn't on mine. I followed the proper steps to do that.

Again I will repeat what I did step by step with some additions.

Step 1 Installed windows 7 retail on a virtual box, it activated without issue.
Step 2 changed the virtual box description to windows 10
Step 3 upgrade to windows 10 and it activated without issue
Step 4 backed up (So I could go back to it later)
Step 5 Removed windows 10.
Step 6 created a new virtual machine
Step 7 Installed clean windows 10 and it didn't activate and did that error code see below.


@night-hawk had a similar issue and got the same error code

Error code: 0xC004C003 with the specified product key being blocked

Night Hawk does it make a difference on what version of Virtual box that you are using?

My testing was done on Xubuntu using VirtualBox Graphical user interface version 4.3.26-Ubuntu r98988

 

Virtual Machine on SurfaceBook2

Hello,

We are meeting hard time installing our soft - does not work on virtual machine - on Surface Book 2.

Customer Surface runs Windows10Pro on virtual machine and the owner seems to know nothing about virtual machine. We do not understand!

We know Surface Book comes with Win10S and could upgrade to Win10Pro.

At that time, does upgrade create a virtual machine?

Form where came this virtual machine? Really lost!

we asked our customer for running CMD>Systeminfo | findstr /i mod yielding the following.

System Model : Surface Book 2

[01]: Intel64 Family 6 Model 142 Stepping 10 GenuineIntel 1910Mhz

Best Regards



***Moved from Surface Book 2 / Install, update, and repair***