CPU 100% usage but not RAM

[docaz]

You can't solve this as it isn't a problem, if a OS needs 600mb and its there it will grab it, if there is 1tb of ram the OS won't touch it until it needs more. Allocating 4gb ram to any OS does NOT mean it will use all of it, it only uses what it needs not what you want it to use. (vista being the exception here)

I guess, I am a little confused because the VM is a converted guest from a physical. On the physical machine, when I increased the physical RAM to 2 gig I saw a significant improvement in performance and when I am using the exact same system converted to a guest it does not use the extra RAM and performs slower.

[vbox4me2]

Then you must look what component is using that ram on the real machine, it might be a video driver or a harddisk caching driver which ain't there anymore.

[docaz]

Then you must look what component is using that ram on the real machine, it might be a video driver or a harddisk caching driver which ain't there anymore.

Ahhh..
This makes a lot of sense. I do not have the physical system anymore because I upgraded my computer and instead of installing all applications again, I converted it into a VM and put it on the new computer but this certainly sounds like a possibility.

[Sasquatch]

For the best performance, doing a clean install on a new system instead of transferring your old install from a different hardware setup is advised. Just create a new VM (next to the current one) and configure it to your liking. You can transfer the apps and their settings one by one when you're done. Or just add the 'old' hard drive as slave to the new install and transfer the settings like that.

[docaz]

For the best performance, doing a clean install on a new system instead of transferring your old install from a different hardware setup is advised. Just create a new VM (next to the current one) and configure it to your liking. You can transfer the apps and their settings one by one when you're done. Or just add the 'old' hard drive as slave to the new install and transfer the settings like that.

I tried to save some time because I have probably 40 programs installed but your suggestion is probably the best and I can install one by one over time.