page file

I am running 1024 megs of RAM , 1.7 Dell P4, XP Pro SP1

what should my page file be set to?

I have it set at a custom 256mb. is this a good idea?

 

is 256mb acceptable for a page file ? I don't have tiem to run the tests like that guide suggests.

 

How's about the tweak that adds the line

ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1

to the [386Enh] section of System.ini

Does this affect it any?

 

I have 512 Mbyte RAM and a pagefile set to min 200 MB and a max of 400 MByte. If you have set your pagefile is set too small it will give you a popup about you need to make the pagefile bigger if you run an application that need the extra memory. (Actually with 1 GByte memory I would just disable the pagefile if using WinXP and see how it goes)

Only if you are running Win9x.

WinNT4/2k/XP doesn't react to the settings in the system.ini. System.ini is only there for compatiblity with old 16 bit applications.

 

Yeah, that was one GREAT tweak for Win98, and I was always a little surprised that everyone on the planet (everyone who had sufficient memory, that is) hadn't applied it.

Win 98 hardly ever used enough virtual memory to sneeze at on my two 98 machines, after I added that simple tweak to their boot files. They were just faster.

Too bad those old 98 bootfiles aren't read by XP. Or not.

 

I have a question on this subject myself. I have 512MB RAM, and though that isn't an incredible amount of memory, I tried disabling the page file completely, because I notice that I have over 300MB free even under the most intensive gaming and what not. Well... I checked some different places on the computer, along with AIDA32 software, to see how much memory was being used, and to my dismay, the paging file was still set.

This really ticks me off that I tell my computer to do something and it refuses. I've checked to make sure the paging file was disabled and that I hit apply. I thought, well... maybe I didn't hit apply before I rebooted the computer. I was wrong.. no matter how many times I tell it to disable the paging file, it won't. I can't tell you how angry this makes me... that it shows me one thing, and does another. Typical Microsoft behavior I guess.

 

T-R,

I'm not sure this is what you're looking for, but I've read that no matter what you do in the Virtual Memory settings, XP will create and use a pagefile.sys on the OS drive unless you disable that function in the reg. I haven't tried this bit, and I'm not qualified to recommend it, but if you're adventurous (and you are), this might be worth a look:

In HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management, there's DisablePagingExecutive with a default value of 0. If that's changed to 1, it's supposed to kill XP's ability to use the pagefile at all. Reboot required, of course.

IF you're adventurous, and IF you've backed up the reg, and IF your 512 MB is all working just fine for you, you might want to have a go at that.

 

Windows requires a swapfile, even if you have gigs of RAM. However, you can optimize RAM and swapfile usage. For that purpose I use Cacheman. Having 512 MB of RAM I also use "conservative swapfile usage".

 

Thanks Wisewiz & Aurelius

True... I forgot about the registry setting and the conservative usage of the swapfile. That's the reason I was so angry, is because I know I've disabled the page file before, but it was done with a program called TweakXP (good app, BTW). It disabled the page file for me, which I had forgotten.

And thanks Aurelius... you jogged my memory about the Cacheman program and programs like it. I remember seeing some of them here at Major Geeks while I was browsing through the software. I'll go with the most popular one and give it a shot. Thanks you two!

 

It won't.

It doesn't.

 

Thunder,

Does this mean that you are successfully running XP with no pagefile.sys on any drive of your XP system?

If so, what do you think you did that T-Rex didn't do?

Inquiring minds want to know!

 

Correct. But I don't do any gaming. Not sure what T-rex is doing.

 

Thanks. I'm impressed.

You and I must be the last two people on the planet who don't install games on our machines.

I thought I was the only one.

 

There is always Mine Sweeper which is installed by default (Unless using Win2k Srv. as I recall)

Actually running without pagefile can be recommended for laptop users with enough memory, as the hdd swallow a lot of power and lower the battery time.

 

Nope, during install I vetoed the games. I don't even have Freecell or Hearts.

 

I'd like to add that I'm using Win98se. As far as I know a swap file is required, which doesn't mean it has to be in use all the time. On the contrary: with the help of Cacheman I have optimized the system, so that it practically doesn't use swap file (but it's there).

 

A swapfile isn't rquired for Win9x either. However using the ConservativeSwapfileUsage tweak allowed me to use a small one for those apps that did require a swapfile (VoptMe).

 

Thunder, my good man, I appreciate your time and help, but what you've conveyed to me is exactly the point I was trying to make. The screen shot you provided is identical (except for the theme colors ) to how I have mine set. This is what I was trying to express to the folks here... regardless of what that dialog box says that you provided in a screen shot, I assure you, your page file is still there. Yes... mine too reports as having no page file allocated. Mine too displays the exact same information yours does... what I tried to express is... take a look in your system information and tell me what you see about the paging file. Also look in Task Manager at the page file use, and you'll see that, in fact, you do have a page file in use, even though you've instructed otherwise. Hate to break it to ya, but I think Wisewiz was correct on both counts... the registry tweak and XP using a paging file regardless of the instructions to eliminate it. Take a look, and you may find yourself just as angry as I am about this "feature".

Which brings to mind this little question: If XP requires a paging file (unless a registry tweak is applied) and XP will use a paging file regardless of what you instruct it to do, then why even have the option to disable it? Isn't that a little deceiving? Oh... we're talking about Microsoft... I forgot... that's typical. Sorry... anyway... the dialog box Thunder provided in his screen shot attachment also reports the system as having no paging file. Doesn't this add to the deceit? So basically, Windows is lying in it's information about your system. Somehow, this doesn't surprise me. Sorry for the Microsoft bashes, I'm just a little frustrated with this issue.

 

A pagefile is exactly that, a file. There is no pagefile.sys anywhere on my box.