Win Server 2008 = Win Vista
I had the same problem. the installation of 2008 / Vista is an agony, until you can install the VMware drivers & tools.
enable / allow Terminal Services as soon as you get a chance, it makes it little bit less painful to navigate the menu options.
once you finally can properly open/close menu & options proceed to run services.msc and task manager
in services disable, or set to manual all the non required services
check in task manager which process or processes are consuming the most cpu usage, and repeat the previous step.
set windows update to manual, that is usually one of the major frequent cause, as well as the windows firewall, and bit defender
technically speaking in the server, you don't need any of those, it's supposed to be locked down and secured, no one except admins are supposed to have run application permission in the server.
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Edit: oh i forgot to mention also go to Windows Task Scheduler, and disable the unnecessary scheduled task, like the build in Defrag, or reschedule it to another time you know, and expect it to run without affecting the other VM machines on the same physical server
if all that fails, there's probably some sort of root kit (SPYWARE) that has already infected your system, else all legit applications & services will show up in Task Manager.
