Poor disk performance running any WIndows Client

[bamajackson]

Disk usage constantly at 95-100%:

When running any Windows client, 8.1 Pro / 10 Tech Preview, disk usage on my host and client is horrible as it stays in the upper 90's at all times.  It runs but it constantly causing overall slowdown of my entire system. I have tried.....

1. Scrapping and recreating BOTH Windows clients from scratch - No change
2. With and Without 3D acceleration - No change
3. Turned off all automatic updates on host and client.  -  Very Little to no change
4. tried downgrading hardware compatibility to VMWare 10 -  This causes even more issues hosts and client hang almost before the client even finished booting up. Only way to recover from this is to hard power-down the Host (hold power button until it shuts off)
5. tried downgrading to VMWare 10 - faster bootups it seems but when using, disk usage issue still present.
6. tired Virtual Box -  NO DISK ISSUES runs great all-around. Considerable difference in performance.

With VMWare clients, I am using it's recommended settings.  CPU is 1 w/ 2 cores, RAM is set to 2GB, Storage 100GB fixed,

Host: brand new ASUS Q551L running Windows 8.1 Pro

So What is the problem with VMWare and how do I fix this?  Or is it easier just to ask for a refund?  Several hours of VMWare Phone Support only resulted in being told "Windows update is the culprit turn off on clients and host" which I didn't find too helpful.

[Dayworker]

First enable the setting: "Fit all virtual machine memory into reserved host RAM" in the VMware-Workstation host-settings and then add the following VMX entry:

Linux host:

mainmem.backing = "swap"

or

Windows host:

mainmem.useNamedFile = "false"

For further tuning read the KB-entry Troubleshooting hosted disk I/O performance problems (1008885).

[bamajackson]

Did as instructed but all I see is more RAM being used (obviously) but still no change in disk usage whatsoever.

[Dayworker]

Second run. Please add the following entries:

MemTrimRate = "0"

sched.mem.pshare.enable = "FALSE"

prefvmx.useRecommendedLockedMemSize = "TRUE"

Where did you save your Thick/Preallocated VMDK? Different drive (partitions does not count) from the host OS?

[bamajackson]

I had tried using the free VMWare Player and still the same disk issues. I am done fighting with this. Im a student and dont have this kind of time to waste. Wasted enough too much time already.  Seems like VMware has alot of work to do to fix a poor product line.  I am working with VMware to get a refund. From now on I will be using VirtualBox.

Apologies and thanks so much for your help.