Kompato

Speeding up VMWare Fusion

I don't often have to launch a VM, but when I do I want it to be as fast as possible.
 
Over time I've noticed drastic fluctuations in VMWare Fusion's performance -- especially with Windows as the guest OS. I noticed the same sort of thing with Parallels in the past, as well.
 
This time, I think I've found the culprit. I had inadvertently turned on 3D acceleration in an earlier version of VMWare Fusion and forgot to turn it off. Having that setting turned on would occasionally slow the performance of OS X dramatically. Now that it's off, things are snappy again.
 
If you've got other suggestions for speeding up the performance of VMWare Fusion or Parallels, please share in the comments. For instance, I've heard some people report that changing the screen resolution in their VM provided a speed boost (perhaps temporary).