Pause background virtual machines

When you are running multiple virtual machines, you can increase performance in one virtual machine by pausing the others. If you are only running one virtual machine this setting has no effect on performance.

In Microsoft Virtual PC, on the Virtual PC menu, click Preferences.
Click PC Behavior.
Under PC Behavior Preferences, select the Pause background PCs check box.
Click Done.

Notes

When Pause background PCs is selected, virtual machines running in the background are paused. This option increases the performance of the active virtual machine. For best results, select this option when running more than one virtual machine.
If Pause background PCs is not selected and you are running multiple virtual machines, processing time is divided unequally between the active and background virtual machines. The active virtual machine receives the most processing time.

See also

About managing multiple machines

About memory usage