Windows – What are the recommended power settings for VMs

power-managementvirtual machinevmwarewindows

What power options should be changed in Windows when it is running on a virtual machine?

We are using VMWare and the possible OS's are any of several still-supported versions of Windows. For example in the power options, does it help to enable "Turn off the display" or disable "Put the computer to sleep"? Are there other settings that are recommended?

Please avoid speculation and debate. Authoritative sources are strongly preferred.

Best Answer

Pat Lee from VMWare blogged about improving performance and reducing memory footprint with a few tweaks in the blog post: Optimizing Vista on VMware Fusion 2: Reducing Memory Use and Improving Application Performance

In a gist, here's what was said:

  1. Disable System Restore
  2. Disable Screen Savers
  3. Optimize Power Management for Virtual Machine
  4. Disable Windows Sidebar
  5. Disable Remote Management
  6. Run Windows Disk Defragmentation Utilities
  7. OPTIONAL: Change to Classic UI
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