VMware suddenly VERY slow opening applications

[JohnDeC]

Running VMware 10.1.1 on a MacBook Pro with 16MB RAM, running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4.  Host OS on VMware is Windows 10 version 1709. Network Adapter connected,and sharing internet with my Mac.

Over the last few days, opening time for applications has gone from nearly instantaneous to very slow. E.g., click on the MS Word icon, nothing appears for about 45 seconds, then the application takes about a further minute to fully open.  Similar for Chrome, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Windows Explorer.

Applications on the Mac side of the system open in their normal quick way

Can anyone tell me how to fix this?

[ColoradoMarmot]

Sounds like there may be too many CPU's assigned to the guest.   MBP's are either 2 or 4 cores, and should have either 1 or no more than 3 assigned to a guest.  Make sure you also have at least 4GB of RAM left for the host (8 is better).

[JohnDeC]

There is only the single VMware guest on the MBP, and it's running only the single client - Windows 10.  I don't know how to check on how much RAM is left for the host?

[ColoradoMarmot]

How many CPU's and RAM is configured for the guest?  That's in the settings for the virtual machine.

[JohnDeC]

OK.  Closed down Windows 10, went into the VMware settings, found that I had 4 processors and almost all the RAM allocated to VMware, so went back and changed this to 2 processors and the recommended RAM (2048 MB), leaving 14000 MB for the Mac.  No improvement in opening times for things like MS Word.

Opened the Task Manager and found that it was running at 99% or 100% CPU most of the time.

????

[ColoradoMarmot]

Ok, sounds like there's something inside the VM that's chewing cycles.  If you click on all processes, and then sort by CPU, what's the process that's spiked?

[JohnDeC]

Whenever I'm opening an application (Windows Explorer, Chrome, MS Word etc), that application spikes to 50-90% of CPU for the 1-3 minutes it takes to open.  CTF Loader is usually below it at about 15%.  RuntimeBroker also features.

???

[SBrayybrooke]

I'm having exactly the same issue since the 10.13.4 MacOS release. I have a call in to VMWare to see what they can do. Waiting for call bac. My Host is an i7 iMac with 24GB RAM, and have tried various guest hardware setups (currently 4 cores and 8GB RAM). The same slow response on all configs. My MacOS shows VMWare taking 300% or more CPU power sometimes, and my Fusion drive goes mental when Fusion is running (even though the W10 VM is on a USB3 SSD).

[JohnDeC]

Just turned on the computer with VMware Fusion.  Before opening anything else, opened Task Manager.  CPU running at 99%.  VMware Tools Core Service taking up about 44% of CPU.  Service Host: Local System (3) about 40%.  WMI Provider Host also getting up there.  Now 60%.

Isn't there anyone in VMware who recognises this sort of problem????

[wila]

Hi,

When you start a VM and immediately go look at Task Manager you don't get to see what makes things slow.

Your VM is still booting, lots of stuff gets scheduled immediately after you log in. You'll have to wait a few minutes at the very least.

There can be lots of reasons on why a VM (or a computer in general) is slow and it is not always easy to troubleshoot without getting all info that you would get if you have the machine on your desk.

Also note that most people helping out here are volunteers (VMware users helping other VMware users, the forum is not an official support channel!)

Another possible and common reason for VMs that slow down is if you keep a lot of snapshots open.

The recommendation is to commit your snapshots as soon as possible.

Also note that "Auto-protect" also continually keeps a number of snapshots open and is not something I personally recommend using.

If you don't use snapshots, check the antivirus. You can first try disabling, but you cannot rule it out unless you remove it (take a snapshot before removing it.. test and THEN roll back if it isn't the culprit)

Sometimes the problem is due to shared folders.. disable any shared folders and reboot the guest. Is the problem still there?

--

Wil

[JohnDeC · Accepted solution]

Thanks to those who responded.  Particularly your comments wila.  Issue now resolved.  Here's the story.

The issue wasn't snapshots, it was the antivirus I was using.  AntiMalwareBytes.  It didn't feature much in the Task Manager listing but was clearly using some VMware/Windows 10 functions.  The manufacturer of Antimalwarebytes put out an upgrade yesterday, which I installed and hey presto instead of taking 2-3 minutes to open Word or Chrome or File Explorer, it's back to its usual few seconds.

[ColoradoMarmot]

One note on AV - make sure you don't have automatic scans configured.  They usually will trigger as soon as you resume or boot a VM, which brings the system to a crawl.  Dynamic protection should be sufficient these days, and you can always run a manual scan if needed.

System restore can cause similar issues if you have automatic restore points set.

[RockPanda]

After I disable my Bitdefender, problem solved.

Thanks a lot.

[joblo335]

2048MB memory is working perfectly 

All other amount of RAM are laggy.