Parallels Desktop for Mac crawls when using IE, Firefox Browser in Win 2K

Parallels is an exceptional program, but Ifor some reason, the guestOS slows to a crawl when web browsers such as IE or Firefox is launched. I checked the CPU activity on the Win2K Task Manager and it always reads 100%. On the Mac side, using a browser exceeds the CPU; it often reads close to 110% of the processor.

The MacOS actually runs fine, despite the overworked CPU. Only the guestOS slows down redraw and other functions. When I run other programs in Win2K, the CPU is at normal levels.

I recently allocated 512MB of 2GB available OSX RAM to Win2K and started using PD Tweaker.

Does anyone know why using web browsers in Parallels taxes the system so much?

 

I'm using the same browsers and have no such problems. Are you using bridged networking? It really sounds like a network config problem of some sort.

 

Bridged Networking

I'm not sure, since I'm not very experienced in Mac networking. UPDATE: I rechecked Parallel's Network Adapter settings and am indeed using Bridged Networking. Should I switch to Host Only? So far, I've only managed to get a connection from the former setting. Parallels is using the guest host adapter, which has a separate IP address from OS X. I've used VNC over a VPN network this morning, and was able to remotely control a PC located at work. That didn't slow down or tax the processor at all. Would a networking configuration error really tax the processor?

Once firefox is loaded in the GuestOS, for example, all of the available CPU is taxed by that program and the MacOS X side reports over 100% use, despite the other charts reporting much less. So far, I cannot suspect any spyware intentionally slowing down the computer.

Which GuestOS are you using? Right now I'm using the Windows Automatic Updater program and experiencing the same problems.

Jaleel