Shrinking the Page File

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I've seen where if I shrank my page file it forced my system to use more real
memory and process got done faster cause it wasn't wasteting time writeing to
the HD but when you put the page file up to 1.5 like they say it take a
little time to preocess commands.

Basicly what do you think about lowering the size of your page file.
 
It's always a bad idea to interfere with Windows memory management. The
correct setting is 'System managed size' unless you're performing
troubleshooting or have a special need.

Earl Grey
 
AndreL said:
I've seen where if I shrank my page file it forced my system to use
more real memory and process got done faster cause it wasn't
wasteting time writeing to the HD but when you put the page file up
to 1.5 like they say it take a little time to preocess commands.

Basicly what do you think about lowering the size of your page file.
Click to expand...


Several points:

1. Shrinking the size of the page file does *not* force Windows to use more
real memory. It always uses real memory in preference to page file.

2. Shrinking the size of the page file can never make anything run faster.

3. The default size of 1.5 times the amount of RAM makes no sense. Since the
page file is used to extend memory when there isn't enough real memory, the
more RAM you have, the *less* page file you need.

4. It can save some disk space to make the minimum size of the page file
smaller (200MB or so). But leave the maximum large so it can expand if it
needs to. There is *no* downside to having a large maximum.

5. What I say in point 4 above can save a little disk space, but really has
no other advantage. In these days of large hard drives, most people don't
need to worry about saving a such a small amount of disk space, and there's
really no particular advantage to doing anything but leaving the default
settings in place.

For more information, this article by the late MVP, Alex Nichol, is
excellent: "Virtual Memory in Windows XP" at
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm
 
AndreL said:
I've seen where if I shrank my page file it forced my system to use
more real memory and process got done faster cause it wasn't
wasteting time writeing to the HD but when you put the page file up
to 1.5 like they say it take a little time to preocess commands.

Basicly what do you think about lowering the size of your page file.
Click to expand...

Here's what I think:
It's not a simple answer though it's a simple enough question to ask.
Basically, if you don't know the answer, you need to do some research. The
info you get here will be fairly good but partial, possibly suspect, full of
opinions and guesses and the like. The only easy thing to say for sure is
that if the pg gets too small, you will crash and possibly not smoothly,
depending on the state of your system to begin with.

HTH
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