Make sure the VM machine you’re going to be changing is shutdown/powered off first.
Then edit the .vmx file and add the following:
mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE"
MemTrimRate = "0"
sched.mem.pshare.enable = "FALSE"
prefvmx.useRecommendedLockedMemSize = "TRUE"
prefvmx.minVmMemPct = "100"
mainMem.useNamedFile – stop the VM from creating a memory mapped file (on disk).
MemTrimRate – Disable memory trimming.
sched.mem.pshare.enable – Disables memory sharing across running VM’s.
prefvmx.useRecommendedLockedMemSize – No idea, other than this WMWare KB article.
prefvmx.minVmMemPct – Preallocate all RAM available to the VM at startup, reducing this value allows some swapping to occur.
Update: 13-Jan-2016
It seems that this data can be configured on a global, for the current PC, basis. If the changes are applied to the c:\ProgramData\VMWare\VMWare Workstation\config.ini file.
And some additional settings can be added as well to further boost performance when the VM is in use.
priority.grabbed = "high"
priority.ungrabbed = "normal"
The grabbed setting can only be "high", or "normal".
The ungrabbed setting can have a value of "normal",
"low", or "idle".
TreaclePumpkin 