Best Settings For VMware and Windows 10 For Performance

Changing these settings will improve your performance

How to

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by Milan Stanojevic 

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Using the best settings for VMware and Windows 10 VMs can significantly enhance your productivity and system performance, so here are the settings that you might change.

What are the best settings for VMware running Windows 10?

1. Change basic settings

  1. Open VMware Workstation.
  2. Select your virtual machine and click Edit virtual machine settings.
     edit virtual machine settings 3
  3. Go to the Processors section and set the number of processors and cores. Typically 2 processors and 2 cores work well.
    processors virtual machine settings
  4. Go to the Memory section and allocate 4 GB of RAM (4096 MB).
    memory virtual machine settings
  5. Change the Bus type to SCSI for a performance boost.
  6. Enable Pre-allocate disk space to improve disk I/O performance.

2. Change advanced settings

  1. Go to VM > Settings, click Options, then Advanced. Check Disable memory page trimming.
    disable mamory page trimming
  2. Check Enable Template Mode (for Cloning).
    enable template mode
  3. Select Clean up disks after shutting down this virtual machine to automate disk cleanup.
    clean up disks after shutting down

3. Adjust .vmx file

  1. Shut down the virtual machine completely.
  2. At the bottom, locate the Configuration file path.
     virtual machine details
  3. Navigate to the Configuration file path, and locate your VM’s vmx file.
    vmx file
  4. Right-click the file and open it with Notepad.
  5. Add the following lines:
    scsi0:0.virtualSSD = 1
    prefvmx.useRecommendedLockedMemSize = TRUE
    sched.mem.pshare.enable = FALSE
    MemAllowAutoScaleDown = FALSE

    By following these detailed steps, you’ll be able to set up and optimize a Windows 10 virtual machine in VMware Workstation Player efficiently.

    If you want to run Windows 11 in a VM, we have a special guide that explains how to do that step by step, so don’t miss it.

    To learn more, don’t hesitate to check our guides on how to clone a virtual machine in VMware and how to delete a virtual machine in VMware.

    More about the topics: vmware, windows 10

    Milan Stanojevic

    Milan Stanojevic Shield

    Windows Toubleshooting Expert

    Milan has been enthusiastic about technology ever since his childhood days, and this led him to take interest in all PC-related technologies. He's a PC enthusiast and he spends most of his time learning about computers and technology. Before joining WindowsReport, he worked as a front-end web developer. Now, he's one of the Troubleshooting experts in our worldwide team, specializing in Windows errors & software issues.