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Virtualization Notes

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Notes on making virtual machines run faster inside of VirtualPC/Virtual Server

  • Make sure the VHD and any undo disks are on a different disk than the host OS.
  • If this VM will only be run by VS, use SCSI instead of IDE drives as described here:
    https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8D71F23D-0380-4C2F-81DF-6F96ABE05493&displaylang=en
  • Changes to make in the guest OS:
    • Remove temp files/folders/recycled items
    • Turn off System Restore (Control Panel -> System -> Advanced)
    • Tune for performance (My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced)
    • Enable full hardware video acceleration
    • If you are not CPU constrained, use NTFS compression
    • Defrag disk
    • Precompact the disk
  • In VPC/VS, inspect the disk and compact the VHD.
  • Defrag the VHD file

Also check out Dan's great blog post about speeding up XP on a VPC.