Virtual PC Loading Very Slow

[straittmann]

The bootup process for virtual XP is slow and inconsistent. It takes anywhere from three to five minutes before a working XP desktop appears. The process goes through a number of blue and black screens and the longest screen shows the window entitled "Loading your personal settings". I have about 12 programs loaded in the XP mode. The startup file has 2 programs, MS Office and Windows Search. Also when I try to launch a program from the Windows 7 Virtual applications launch it goes through the following sequences:
Preparing to launch applications, Starting virtual application, Loading your personal settings and then the message, "Virtual environment for launching applications has been closed".
I have an Intel I7 processor, 12 GB RAM and the virtual C drive has 7 GB used and 130 GB spare.

I have also uninstalled the XP Mode and Virtual PC programs and reinstalled them with fresh versions from the Microsoft Software site and the results are the same. I removed the Virtual PC application and installed VMPlayer and it works fine.
I will probably keep the VMPlayer installation, but am curious to find out why Virtual PC is so slow loading.
All help appreciated.
Thanks, Sam

 

[WindowsStar]

Is this the OEM load of Windows 7 from Dell? If so you need to remove all the bloat ware from the machine. You probably have all the Dell system software, and all the Dell update software, Dell Monitoring software, JAVA updates, Adobe Updates all running at the same time. Remove all that and I bet XP Mode will run much better.
.

 

[straittmann]

Hi WindowsStar, Dell OEM System 7 Ultimate is installed on this computer. When I look at the installed programs the only Dell software is one program to Check the Drivers. How do I view all the programs that are running in the background? Also if I was running a lot of bloat would that not also effect the running of the VMPlayer virtual machine? It seems to operate quite normally.
Thanks, Sam

 

[WindowsStar]

Hi WindowsStar, Dell OEM System 7 Ultimate is installed on this computer. When I look at the installed programs the only Dell software is one program to Check the Drivers. How do I view all the programs that are running in the background? Also if I was running a lot of bloat would that not also effect the running of the VMPlayer virtual machine? It seems to operate quite normally.
Thanks, Sam

Depends on how intensive the program is. One maybe more than the other and so you have more delay with it.

You should see all the software loaded.

Open the task manager and post a screen shot or two of the processes.

 

[severedsolo]

Just a thought, does your processor support Hardware Virtualisation? or are you using the update that removes the need for it? If its not Hardware virtualised then its going to be fairly slow

 

[straittmann]

The computer passed the HAV test without adding the additional package.
Sam