How to improve virtual machine performance in Virtual PC 2004 (887790)

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Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.To improve the performance of virtual machines that are running VPC 2004, use the following methods.

Install Virtual Machine Additions

We recommend that you install Virtual Machine Additions on your virtual machine. The Virtual Machine Additions package contains several feature and performance improvements. You will experience the most improvement on older operating systems such as MS-DOS 6.22 and Microsoft Windows 95. However, we recommend that you install Virtual Machine Additions on all guest operating systems.

To install Virtual Machine Additions on a Windows operating system, click Install or Update Virtual Machine Additions on the Action menu in Virtual PC 2004. For additional information about how to install Virtual Machine Additions on an MS-DOS-based virtual machine, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For information about how to install Virtual Machine Additions on other guest operating systems, follow these steps:

1. Start Virtual PC 2004.
2. On the Help menu, click Virtual PC Help.
3. In the Type in the keyword to find box, type Virtual Machine Additions.
4. Under Virtual Machine Additions, click installing, click Display, click the topic that you want, and then click Display.

Configure the performance settings in Virtual PC 2004

You may experience performance improvements on VPC 2004 virtual machines if you configure the performance settings. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Virtual PC 2004.
2. In the Virtual PC Console dialog box, click Options on the File menu.
3. Under Options, click Performance.
4. Under Performance, click All running virtual machines get equal CPU time in the right pane, click Run Virtual PC at maximum speed, and then click OK.

Configure performance settings on the Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Server 2003 virtual machine

1. Start Virtual PC 2004, and then start the Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 virtual machine that you want to configure.
2. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
3. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Performance.
4. On the Advanced tab, click Programs under Processor scheduling, and then click OK.
   
   Note Before you modify this setting, you must verify that the host is not running critical services in the background.
5. On the Hardware tab, click Device Manager.
6. Expand Disk Drives, right-click the drive that you want, and then click Properties.
7. On the Policies tab, click to clear the Enable write-caching on the disk check box, and then click OK.
8. On the File menu, click Exit to close Device Manager.
9. Click Start, click Run, type desk.cpl, and then click OK.
10. On the Settings tab, click Advanced.
11. On the Troubleshoot tab, move the Hardware acceleration slider to Full, and then click OK two times.
12. Click Start, click Run, type regedit.exe, and then click OK.
13. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

    My Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

14. In the right pane, right-click MenuShowDelay, click Modify, type 400 in the Value data box, and then click OK.
15. Quit Registry Editor.

Configure virtual hard disks for performance

1. Start Virtual PC 2004.
2. In the Virtual PC Console dialog box, click the virtual machine that you want, click Settings, click the hard disk that you want to modify, click Virtual Disk Wizard, and then click Next.
3. Click Edit an existing virtual disk, and then click Next.
4. Click A virtual disk, and then click Next.
5. In the Name and location box, type a location for the .vhd file on a physical hard disk that is separate from your computer's operating system. If your computer has one physical hard disk, go to step 6.
   
   Note We recommend that you store .vhd files on a physical hard disk that is separate from the host operating system. Doing this helps prevent paging issues.
6. Click Fixed size, and then click Next.
7. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the virtual hard disk setup.

Enable hardware acceleration on your computer

1. Click Start, click Run, type desk.cpl, and then click OK.
2. On the Settings tab, click Advanced.
3. On the Troubleshoot tab, move the Hardware acceleration slider to Full, and then click OK two times.

Install Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1

For more information about how to download and install Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1, visit the following Microsoft Web site: