Disabling the pagefile? - Page 2

**Strider** · 04-01-2007, 11:17 PM

Ideally Pagefile of twice the size of the RAM is recommended for normal PC usage.

pixelpainter · 18-01-2007, 06:30 AM

Also if you have more than one drive (not partition) you should try and set a paging file that is larger on your 2ndary drive, but always leave a small one for Xp on your boot drive. (256-512mb will do)
If you are using a program like Photoshop, make sure you set the page file on a different drive than the software.

Quote:

"force the kernel to stay in memory" registry trick

I have never found that this tweak has made a whole lot of difference for me, you should look up a Services tweak guide (don't mess with this if you don't know what you are doing) Shutting down unused services can free up system resources. There are a few that are useless for most people, such as Machine Debug, secondary login, and some that are potentially unsafe to run, such as remote registry, and I usually turn of remote login unless I plan on usiing it. The most important thing is to take a screen shot of your services before you make changes, so you know the original settings if you mess it up.

**bakuryu** · 18-01-2007, 12:02 PM

And make sure that the sum total of your physical memory + pagefile doesn't cross 4GB for a Windows 32bit OS, cause 32bit OS can handle addresses upto 4GB only.

ZyanWu · 18-01-2007, 05:49 PM

Ok! I've wrote and applied the things u guys said...
BTW!

Quote:

Hello ZyanWu it appears that you have not posted on our forums in several weeks, why not take a few moments to ask a question, help provide a solution or just engage in a conversation with another member in any one of our forums?

I'm really sorry about me not beeing/posting all this time... I had to study for my exams... I'll catch up later... I promise

pixelpainter · 19-01-2007, 03:36 AM

I you have, for example, 4GB of memory, and are still using 32bit XP OS, there is a large memory switch you can use in the boot.ini.
Windows Xp operating systems will allocate 2GB for the operating system and 2GB for applications. However, for other applications which use up a lot of memory, 2GB of virtual memory (that is physical RAM plus pagefile disk memory) might not be enough.
Microsoft provides the /3GB boot.ini switch. It takes 1GB off the system allocated space so the User mode (application) virtual address space grows to 3GB.
You should add the following to your Boot.ini file
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windo ws XP SP2 /fastdetect /3GB

What the bottom line is, applications that need it, can now use up to 3gb of memory, whilst the system will only use 1GB
I have 4GB myself, and this does seem to work for me for video and graphic apps, pretty well.

**bakuryu** · 19-01-2007, 03:53 PM

But /3GB is not present in Windows XP Home edition.

Also to make use of the 3GB virtual memory :

Quote:

Executables that can use the 3-GB address space are required to have the bit IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE set in their image header. If you are the developer of the executable, you can specify a linker flag (/LARGEADDRESSAWARE).

To set this bit, you must use Microsoft Visual Studio Version 6.0 or later and the Editbin.exe utility, which has the ability to modify the image header (/LARGEADDRESSAWARE) flag. For more information on setting this flag, see the Microsoft Visual Studio documentation.

Not all executables are flagged with it, so I wonder how much performance improvement there would be.

pixelpainter · 19-01-2007, 10:50 PM

The way I have understood it, is that as long as you have SP2 installed, you can use this switch with boot.ini.

But it looks like you are right about Home Edition, I wasn't aware of that... I have never use Home Edition, it never made any sense to me.

Yes, the software you are using, does have to be able to take advantage of the larger memory address eg: photoshop cs2.

(It figures that I would know that one

)

Quote:

SUMMARY
This article lists the problems that are fixed in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). Service packs are cumulative. This means that the problems that are fixed in a service pack are also fixed in later service packs. For example, Windows XP SP2 contains all the fixes that are included in Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1). You do not have to install an earlier service pack before you install Windows XP SP2.

Quote:

When the /3GB switch is used with Windows XP Professional, with Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, with Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, the /3GB switch works identically across versions.

This comes straight from the horses mouth (in this case Microsoft)

**bakuryu** · 20-01-2007, 12:28 AM

Yes, actually these are the following OS that support /3GB switch

Quote:

Windows XP Professional
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition
Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
Windows NT Server 4.0, Enterprise Edition

Also this is for only servers if the installed memory is greater than 16GB and the /3GB switch is used then the additional memory is ignored until the switch is removed.

And in Vista 32bit, where there is no Boot.ini so you have do do it using :

Code:

BCDEDIT /Set IncreaseUserVa 3072

Hey where did /3GB go in Longhorn and Vista?

ZyanWu · 20-01-2007, 12:29 AM

And Vista 64?

**bakuryu** · 20-01-2007, 12:38 AM

64bit versions of Vista ::
Vista Home Basic (and Home Basic N) will support up to 8 GB of RAM.
Home Premium will support 16 GB of RAM.
Business (and Business N), Enterprise, and Ultimate will all support 128 GB or more of memory. (The "or more" bit refers to the fact that there are no client PCs available yet for over 128 GB of RAM

Also x64 bit versions support virtual address space up to 16TB

so it would take quite sometime to beat it

Comparison of 32-bit and 64-bit memory architecture for 64-bit editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003

04-01-2007, 11:17 PM	#11
Strider Founder Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: The Last City Zion! Posts: 2,688 Thanks: 230 Thanked 230 Times in 191 Posts Rep Power: 53	Re: Disabling the pagefile? Ideally Pagefile of twice the size of the RAM is recommended for normal PC usage. __________________ Want to ask a question? Try This! A guide on how to post a question, reply to a post etc.

18-01-2007, 12:02 PM	#13
bakuryu ƒ(ψ)=Θº×φ Join Date: May 2006 Location: India Age: 22 Posts: 5,032 Thanks: 12 Thanked 392 Times in 362 Posts Rep Power: 69	Re: Disabling the pagefile? And make sure that the sum total of your physical memory + pagefile doesn't cross 4GB for a Windows 32bit OS, cause 32bit OS can handle addresses upto 4GB only. __________________ Please don't click here

19-01-2007, 03:36 AM	#15
pixelpainter Advanced Member (250+) Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: san francisco Posts: 457 Thanks: 16 Thanked 50 Times in 47 Posts Rep Power: 26	Re: Disabling the pagefile? I you have, for example, 4GB of memory, and are still using 32bit XP OS, there is a large memory switch you can use in the boot.ini. Windows Xp operating systems will allocate 2GB for the operating system and 2GB for applications. However, for other applications which use up a lot of memory, 2GB of virtual memory (that is physical RAM plus pagefile disk memory) might not be enough. Microsoft provides the /3GB boot.ini switch. It takes 1GB off the system allocated space so the User mode (application) virtual address space grows to 3GB. You should add the following to your Boot.ini file multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windo ws XP SP2 /fastdetect /3GB What the bottom line is, applications that need it, can now use up to 3gb of memory, whilst the system will only use 1GB I have 4GB myself, and this does seem to work for me for video and graphic apps, pretty well. __________________ - - - "It's the life in your years, not the years in your life that counts." Abraham Lincoln

20-01-2007, 12:29 AM	#19
ZyanWu Regular Member (100+) Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: At home Posts: 141 Thanks: 46 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts Rep Power: 3	Re: Disabling the pagefile? And Vista 64?

20-01-2007, 12:38 AM	#20
bakuryu ƒ(ψ)=Θº×φ Join Date: May 2006 Location: India Age: 22 Posts: 5,032 Thanks: 12 Thanked 392 Times in 362 Posts Rep Power: 69	Re: Disabling the pagefile? 64bit versions of Vista :: Vista Home Basic (and Home Basic N) will support up to 8 GB of RAM. Home Premium will support 16 GB of RAM. Business (and Business N), Enterprise, and Ultimate will all support 128 GB or more of memory. (The "or more" bit refers to the fact that there are no client PCs available yet for over 128 GB of RAM Also x64 bit versions support virtual address space up to 16TB so it would take quite sometime to beat it Comparison of 32-bit and 64-bit memory architecture for 64-bit editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003

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