Making Windows XP guest running faster in VirtualBox (Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx)

I've tried to run Windows XP guest using VirtualBox in Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and it was running significantly slower than qemu/kvm. But simple tricks made it run much faster.

The worst slow down was caused by I/O APIC. It is used when you want your Windows XP guest to use dual or more core. I didn't make extensive tests, but the following Settings

• IO APIC Disabled
• 192MB RAM
• One CPU core for guest Windows XP
• VT-x/AMD-V Disabled
• Nested Paging Disabled
• PAE/NX Disabled
• EFI Disabled
• 2D/3D Video Acceleration Disabled

gives much much better performance than

• IO APIC Enabled
• 784MB RAM
• Dual CPU core for guest Windows XP
• VT-x/AMD-V Enabled
• Nested Paging Enabled
• PAE/NX Enabled
• EFI Disabled
• 2D/3D Video Acceleration Enabled

[StreamRecorder]

• On spinning HDDs, pre-allocate the entire virtual disk. On SSDs, it doesn't matter.
• Allocate only the storage you need. Keep large files elsewhere, outside the vStorage.
• Never allocate more CPUs or RAM than you should. 1 vCPU is probably enough.
• Leave 1GB of RAM for the HostOS. Do not over commit RAM.
• Use the VirtIO drivers for Storage and Networking. Modern Linux guests support this. For Windows guests, use the SATA (storage) and Intel PRO/1000 (network) drivers. It is possible to use virtio drivers under Windows, it is just a little harder.
• Enable ACPI and AHCI for all guests from 2003, WinXP and later.
• Desktop VMs should get all 128MB of display vRAM
• Server VMs should stay with 9MB of vRAM; don't waste it.
• Avoid 2D and 3D accel settings, until you have everything else working the way you like. I'm serious. Ubuntu does bad things when this is enabled. It can bring a Core i7 to the ground.

Source: http://blog.jdpfu.com/2012/09/14/sol...-in-virtualbox

Currently I use:
RAM: 840 MB
I/O APIC Enabled
2 CPUs
PAE/NX Enabled
VT-x/AMD-V Enabled
Nested Paging Enabled

VRAM: 128 MB
3D Acceleration Enabled
2D Video Acceleration Enabled