Vmware workstation takes too much time to shut down

Maybe this might work for you, for me it worked.

VM Takes Long Time to Shutdown Fix

1. Shut down the VM before you do anything; if something like a Production server, you should either backup the entire directory that holds the VM files or take a snapshot (depends on your product).
2. In the VM's folder, locate the .VMX file
3. Make a copy (backup) of the file (this is important!)

4. Edit the file using notepad (don't use anything like Word) - locate the following entries in file - if you DO NOT find them, add them to the bottom of the file:

   prefvmx.minVmMemPct = "100"
   mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE"
   mainMem.partialLazySave = "FALSE"
   mainMem.partialLazyRestore = "FALSE"
   

5. Save the file and exit notepad
6. Start the VM - let it completely start, log in, then choose normal shutdown - should now shutdown in a matter of seconds.

I've had no adverse effects with these settings but use at your own risk.

^{Source: http://davidmsterling.blogspot.com.br/2012/08/vmware-virtual-machine-takes-long-time.html}

In case you use external hard drive try disabling write caching on the device It helped me.

After I installed the vmware tools in the VM, the problem went away!

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/099565e7-fd3f-41da-9595-5f17637298ea/pagefile-clearpagefileatshutdown?forum=w7itprogeneral

Modify this setting within the registry to speed up the process. Please first read the article(s) on topic from Microsoft.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"ClearPageFileAtShutdown"=dword:00000000

For me, uninstall and re-install VMware-Tools helped to power off in less than 1 min. Before, it took from like 20 minutes to never...