Disable RAM reservation vmware workstation pro 17.6

[Denis Sorokin]

How to disable memory reservation?

When the VM is launched, the host system reserves the entire memory allocated VM

This happens with Windows 10 guest OS. With Linux, the memory is not all reserved at once.

[Alexandru Capras]

I think you can do it two ways:
One is the global setting for all VMs (as shown in the documentation), and the other is per-VM by editing the .vmx file directly.

I believe these are the lines you're looking for: 
prefvmx.minVmMemPct = "0"
mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE"

[Denis Sorokin]

Global memory reservation limit is unsuitable, because there may be several VMs.

prefvmx.minVmMemPct = "0"

This option doesn't change anything.

[Alexandru Capras]

Oh yeah, you're right. That option is actually for preventing the .vmem swap file from being created in Workstation and Fusion which should help reduce disk I/O.
I just tested this on a fresh VM and checked the .vmx file after enabling memory reservation.

sched.mem.min = "0"
sched.mem.minSize = "0"

These lines changed when I enabled reservation, and it also added:

sched.mem.pin = "TRUE"

I did this test on a vSphere VM, not on a Workstation VM... but it's worth giving a try.

[Denis Sorokin]

sched.mem.pin = "FALSE"
sched.mem.min = "0"
sched.mem.minSize = "0"

=>

no effect