Windows is unusably slow

[StephenW2]

Windows 10 is taking at least 20 minutes to start up in Parallels 12. Originally I thought it was a problem with the Windows 7 VM, so dumped that and went to Windows 10, but definitely not better; might be worse. If it starts, stabilising the desktop takes another 10 to 15 minutes. Trying to run any programs is pointless. I've tried resizing the VM and RAM is set to half the machine's capacity (i.e. to 4 MB of 8 MB installed).
Virtual machine apparently occupies about 16 GB, so I set expandable space (I forget the actual term) to 64 GB, down from 128 GB, given that the hard drive has 86 GB free.
Any help would be appreciated!

 

[PaulChristopher@Parallels]

Hi @StephenW2, please go to Actions > Configure > Options > Optimization > disable Free Space: Real-time Virtual Disk Optimization.

If the "Real-time Virtual Disk Optimization" option is enabled, it may slow disk performance up to 30% (at the moment of compaction, not constantly). If the host has an SSD disk, the feature will be enabled by default for all virtual machines but will work only if it is compatible with the guest OS.

Open virtual machine configuration > switch to Options tab > Optimization tab > Set performance to Faster virtual machine; check Enable adaptive hypervisor and Tune Windows for speed. If you're not running on battery power, you can also turn on the Better performance option.

 

[StephenW2]

Hi PaulChris
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately the Real-time Virtual Disk Optimization does not seem to be a choice under Options > Optimization. I attach a screenshot to show what I see under configuration. And also a screenshot of About Parallels to confirm the version I'm looking at.
I look forward to any further ideas.
Thank you,
Stephen

 

[carlos7]

Hello I have a problem in windows, all my programs didn't work properly
also there is a message to say I need to shutoff virtual machine in order my programs getting work properly