I spent hours debugging an almost unusable Windows 11 VM (mouse lag of several seconds, File Explorer taking 5-10
minutes to open) on a high-spec machine.
I tried everything: disabling Hyper-V, converting split disk to single file, removing VM encryption, reducing
memory/VRAM allocation, disabling side channel mitigations. None of these made any noticeable difference.
The actual cause turned out to be the "Keep Aspect Ratio Stretch" display button. On a HiDPI laptop display, with
VMware Tools not yet installed and the VM running in ULM mode, this single setting made the VM completely unusable.
Disabling it immediately resolved the issue.
This was extremely hard to diagnose because host CPU, RAM, and disk metrics all looked normal. Might be worth adding a
warning when Stretch mode is activated on a HiDPI host without VMware Tools installed.
Environment: Workstation Pro 25.0.1, Windows 11 Home 23H2, ULM mode (Hyper-V active), HiDPI display.
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