I recently updated macOS (10.13.5 to 10.13.6), Parallels (13 to 14), and my Windows 10 VM (whatever updates Windows installed). After these updates my Windows 10 VM would take forever to boot up and would experience frequent 5-30 second pauses where it would not respond to clicks. Leaving Windows Task Manager open in Windows and waiting for a pause I could see that Disk Activity would show 100% for an extended period during these pauses, but the top apps were only moving 0.1 MB/s. Checking macOS Activity Monitor I realized that mdworker would spike to >50% CPU at the same time that my Windows 10 VM would pause. When I would force quit mdworker Windows would become responsive again and Disk Activity would show a sane percentage. Then it would all start again when another mdworker instance would spike to >50% CPU. I finally added my virtual machine folder (which holds all my Parallels VMs) to my Spotlight privacy list. My Windows 10 VM is running much better now. Boot times are back to normal, I'm not experiencing any more pauses, and mdworker does not spike the CPU like it was doing before. I'm not sure what changed in macOS or Parallels that led to this issue. But if you're running into slow performance, pauses, etc. try adding your VM folder to Spotlight's privacy list.
Dear Daniel, thank you very much! This was the solution, i have searched for days! Best regards, Andi
