I have a new Windows 7 64 bit SP1 system and am running Workstation 7.1.4 build-385536. I was running into the periodic freeze issue that others have reported. I had tried all the following but was still experiencing the freezes. I was about to try the microsoft hot fix that was supposed to be rolled up in SP1 when I had to install vSphere 4.0.0 to handle an admin problem on an ESX server. After that I have not experienced any freezes. I don't know why but maybe it will give someone else a direction to look in.
Changes to BIOS
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enabled Intel Virtualization Technology in BIOS
Changes to OS
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turned off last file access time ( fsutil )
turned off system restore (System Properties -> System Protection -> Configure)
Unselected "Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties" in the C: drives properties
changed System Properties -> Advanced -> Performance Options -> visual effects to Adjust for best performance
switched to basic theme with no sounds
removed Table PC Components windows component
removed Remote Differential Compression windows component
Power Options -> Advanced Sttings
selected high performance
Hard Disk-> Turn off hard disk after: changed to 240
Sleep -> Allow Hybrid Sleep: turned off
powercfg -h off from admin command prompt (needed this as well as the above to stop hibernation)
Changes to registry
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set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive to 1
disabled the following sservices
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Adaptive Briteness
Application Layer Gateway Service
Bluetooth Support Service
Certificate Propagation
Desktop Window Manager Session Manager
Intel(R) Management and Security Application User Notification Service
Intel(R) Management and Security Application Local Management Service
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service
Offline Files
Parental Controls
Smart Card
Smart Card Removal Policy
Superfetch
Tablet PC Input Service
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Themes
TPM Base Services
WLAN AutoConfig
WWAN AutoConfig
Changes to Anti-Virus
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excluded virtual machines dir from security scans.
Changes to vmware vmx files
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sched.mem.pshare.enable="FALSE"
bios.bootdelay = "5000"
mainmem.useNamedFile = false
setting VMware to use 1 CPU core for clients
Changes to vmware config file
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C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation
vmmon.disableHostParameters = "TRUE"
Changes to Subversion
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Exclude c:\Virtual Machines in ToirtoiseSVN->Settings._Icon Overlays (this also excludes it from TSVNCache)
(Actually I ended up excluding alll of C: and adding only C:\dev* so only my dev area will have overlays)
Update to this.
- Do not disable or stop TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Changes thru vmware edit configuration for individual VMs
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With the VM shut down
Edit Virtual Machine Settings ->Options -> advanced
input grabbed : High
Settings
Gather Debug Information: Statistics
Disable Memory Page Trimming: Checked
Log virtual machine progress periodically: Checked
Changes to overall VMWare settings
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Edit->Preferences->Update Tab
Uncheck all checkboxes