VM Fusion soooooooooo slow

[TotallyFrustrat]

I have the latest VMFusion, Office 2016 on a Mac (mid 2012).  Why does it run so slow?  Actually takes 1 minute or more between mouse clicks.  I must stay with Microsoft office, what are my options other than tossing the Mac in the trash and buy a Windows machine?

[Mikero]

Performance is always going to be something that is situation-specific.

In your case it would be helpful to know:

- What is the Guest OS you're running?

- How did you configure the VM in terms of CPU and RAM?

- Which Mac specifically are you using?

- Is there any process running away with your CPU? (check Task Manager and Activity Monitor)

Performance is typically a balancing act between what the Host needs and what the Guest requires. I usually split it down the middle for an important VM.

So, on my MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM I'd give 2 CPU and between 4 and 8GB of RAM, but almost never more than 8.

If you'd like us to take a deeper look, you could provide the output of Help > Collect Support Information and we can examine the logs.

[Woodmeister50]

My question is why are you using Office 2016 in a Windows virtual machine when there

is Office 2016 for Mac?

[MacNoo]

I, too, found the latest version of Fusion to be brutally slow, so much that I will check once to see if there is any way of speeding it up. If not then I will be asking for a refund because it is unusable.

My system:

early 2009 MBP

8GB RAM

El Capitan

The WinXP VM was migrated from Parallels. I don't have my disk to reinstall WinXP from scratch (it's across the country)

I have tried a variety of config settings. 1/2 CPU. Various amounts of RAM. There are no run-away processes.

If someone would like to suggest some optimal settings I will give it a go and see what happens.

[Mikero]

Performance is less about the settings and more about what's going on.

Are you seeing any particular process that is using high CPU in Windows? OSX?

Where are you seeing it be 'brutally slow'?

Can you post the output of your help > collect support information so we can examine more deeply?

[MacNoo]

Sure.

Here are some empirical notes taken just now with a newly updated version of Fusion (just got notice that an update was available.

1. I have a shortcut to a MS Word doc on my desktop. I double-click to open. 30 seconds (+30) later I see the beginnings of the Word window appears. At +45 the file begins to open. At +55 the scroll bar continues to shrink as more of the file is read in. This Word file is a table of about 600 rows having about 6 fields per row.

2. I double-click on DVDFAB9 on the desktop. At +22 the splash appears. At +55 the program window appears and appears ready for use.

3. Double-click on My Computer. +5 to get the Explorer window open.

4. Click on MS Excel. At +6 I get the window open and ready for use.

5. Kindle app. +15 to get splash screen. +22 to get responsive window.

6. Blackberry Desktop s/w. +13 to get splash screen. +90 to get responsive window (maybe).

7. It took >6 minutes to "collect support information" which is, I think, attached.

No Win processes to speak of. "Idle" takes >88%.

Not a great deal in Os X. VMWare is about 15-20%.

Just tried booting DVDFAB9 once more. +16 to get splash. +42 to get first screen. +10 after clicking on first screen to get second screen.

I am happy to receive any advice.

EDIT: sorry I just deleted the attachment cuz I had a look and there is quite a bit of stuff there that I'd prefer not to be in the public sphere. To whom can I email the attachment?

[MacNoo]

I appreciate the earlier quick replies. Is there a particular reason there was no reply after I posted the response times?

[Mikero]

You can email it to me at mroy at vmware dot com (or send me a dropbox link or something)

[Mikero]

Sorry about that, probably just because I've been busy releasing 8.1... I try to get here regularly, but sometimes the days run away on me

[MacNoo]

Thanks very much, Mike. I emailed the report to you. The subject is the path to this thread.