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Maxvatar
Contributor
Contributor

Shared folder affected by Win10 guest's antimalware service

Hello all,

I've serious performance and stability issue from last update to VMW Workstation Pro 16.2.1 build-18811642 with VMWTools 11.3.5, build-18557794. From the time of update, the guest with Win10Pro is getting stuck when certain OS process access the directory on "shared folder". I tracked down the issue to be linked with guest's antimalware service, which utilizes full CPU core with unknown tasks.

I tried to minimize the impact of antimalware service by adding whole network drive to list of directories excluded from checks or to shut down real-time protection completely. The result is even worse - whole virtual machine freezes when it comes to touching the shared folder and security checks.

It's really annoying, because I need to work with Eclipse developer studio connected to customer via VPN, nevertheless the workspace directory must be synchronized to track in our network (so must be located on host drive). Even without this requirement it is not even possible e.g. save downloaded file directly to shared folder - "save-as" popup window freezes when I choose shared folder network drive.

The symptoms are also similar to this post: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/Network-Shared-Folders-issue/td-p/2733585. But it didn't help in my case.

I'd like to emphasise, that the problem has appeared a month ago, around mid of November 21. Till that time I ran my VM as descibed without any problem. I'm not sure, if the VMWare Tools causes the problem or Microsoft with their updates playes ugly game again.

Anyone having similar troubles ?

Thank you

Best regards

Max

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5 Replies
Maxvatar
Contributor
Contributor

Hello all,

let me reopen this issue, because it still persist. Does anybody fase same problems and have a solution ?

Thank you.

Best regards

Tom

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RDPetruska
Leadership
Leadership

Have you tried rolling back to version 16.1.2?  Many users have had multiple issues with the 16.2.x branch.

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

"Compared to regular industry proven Windows-shared folders VMware-shared-folders are an experimental, makeshift solution. "
Thats a statement a senior VMware engineer mentioned years ago.
I would recommend to switch to Windows File sharing simply because it is way more predictable and reliable.

Ulli


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Maxvatar
Contributor
Contributor

I tried downgrade, no luck. IMHO the problem is really related to Windows Antimalware Service.

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Maxvatar
Contributor
Contributor

I'll try that, thank you Ulli.

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