You can configure advanced settings for the selected virtual machine to turn off memory page trimming, turn on Template mode, turn on automated disk cleanup, and turn on virtualization-based security (VBS).

To configure additional advanced options for a selected virtual machine, select VM > Settings, click the Options tab, and select Advanced.

Note: You cannot configure these options for a remote virtual machine.
Table 1. Additional Advanced Options
Option Description
Disable memory page trimming Workstation Pro uses a memory trimming technique to return unused virtual machine memory to the host machine for other uses. While trimming usually has little effect on performance and might be needed in low-memory situations, the I/O caused by memory trimming can sometimes interfere with disk-oriented workload performance in a guest.
Log virtual machine progress periodically When turned on, Workstation Pro includes information about your virtual machine's virtual CPU state, instruction pointer, and code segment registers in the log file. This is useful for troubleshooting or optimizing the performance of your virtual machine.
Enable Template mode (to be used for cloning) When you create a linked clone of a virtual machine, the clone depends on the parent virtual machine to function. If a linked clone cannot access the parent virtual machine or the snapshot on which the clone is based, the clone no longer operates. You can avoid this problem by designating the parent virtual machine of a linked clone as a template.

You typically must have write access to a virtual machine to clone it. A virtual machine that is designated as a clone template can be cloned by users who do not have write access to the template virtual machine.

To protect linked clones, you cannot delete a template virtual machine. You cannot delete snapshots of the template.

Clean up disks after shutting down this virtual machine

Instead of performing a manual disk cleanup of a virtual machine, by selecting VM > Manage > Clean Up Disks, you can configure the automated disk cleanup option. When selected, this option shrinks and defragments the virtual machine each time you shut down the virtual machine. Other power-off related operations, such as power off, suspend, restart, and reset do not trigger the automated disk cleanup.

The automated disk cleanup option is only selectable on Workstation Pro on Windows host systems and for Windows guest operating systems. Also, the option is only selectable when VMware Tools is installed on the virtual machine and when the virtual machine is powered on.

Note: This option is not available for remote virtual machines.

With this option selected, when you shut down the virtual machine the first time, Workstation Pro prompts you to accept the cleanup of the disks on the virtual machine. If you select Do not show this message again and click Clean Up, Workstation Pro performs the cleanup this time and in the future without issuing the prompt again.

After the cleanup starts, the progress of the cleanup appears on the left side of the Workstation Pro status bar. You can terminate the cleanup task by closing the virtual machine tab and clicking Yes.

After the cleanup finishes, a note appears in the message log and on the right side of the Workstation Pro status bar that reports the amount of disk space reclaimed.

Enable VBS (Virtualization Based Security) support
This option is only available for virtual machines that use hardware version 14 or later. With this option, Workstation Pro provides the technical support for Microsoft VBS feature in the virtual machine. You can then turn on and configure the Microsoft VBS feature in one of the following supported Windows guest operating systems.
  • Windows 10, version 1703 and later, Enterprise, 64-bit
  • Windows Sever 2016, version 1607 and later

    To use Windows 2016, version 1607 as the guest operating system, apply all Microsoft updates to the guest. VBS might not function in a Windows 2016 guest without the most current updates.

VBS reinforces the security of Microsoft Hyper-V. When you turn on VBS, Workstation Pro configures the virtual machine with the following settings.

Option Required Setting Workstation Pro Virtual Machine Settings
Firmware type UEFI Options > Advanced
Enable secure boot Enabled Options > Advanced
Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPTor AMD-V/RVI Enabled Hardware > Processors
Virtualize IOMMU (IO memory management unit) Enabled Hardware > Processors

For VBS to run in the guest operating system, you must also perform configurations in the guest. See Microsoft documentation related to virtualization-based security.