paging file

[Guest]

Hello
I'm using Windows XP with 512MB of memory, but I have quite a large paging file (nearly 200MB) whereas I've got 300MB of free RAM memory short after booting
What can I do to force XP to use as much RAM memory as possible instead of using so much paging file memory?

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Have a look at the following article by MVP Alex Nichol:

"Virtual Memory in Windows XP"
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

--

Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User


| Hello!
| I'm using Windows XP with 512MB of memory, but I have quite a large paging file (nearly 200MB) whereas I've got 300MB of free RAM memory short after booting.
| What can I do to force XP to use as much RAM memory as possible instead of using so much paging file memory?

 

[Bill]

Hello!
I'm using Windows XP with 512MB of memory, but I have quite a large
paging file (nearly 200MB) whereas I've got 300MB of free RAM memory
short after booting.

That is not a large pagefile, in fact it's actually quite typical.

Mine is fixed at 1gig so XP doesn't have to manage it, and it gives me
plenty of breathing room when I open large data files.

And just because you have a pagefile, doesn't mean it's all being used.
All versions of Windows create pagefiles in anticipation of the need to
swap out data, whether it actually does it not.

What can I do to force XP to use as much RAM memory as possible instead
of using so much paging file memory?

Windows will use all of your RAM without you having to do anything. If
you're using Task Manager to view your performance, don't be fooled into
thinking that "available" RAM is unused. Any RAM not used to hold a
program or data, is being used for operations like data or disk caching.

In other words, leave it alone, everything is fine, and don't worry
about it.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for answering so fast. I will read it.

 

[Ron Martell]

Hello!
I'm using Windows XP with 512MB of memory, but I have quite a large paging file (nearly 200MB) whereas I've got 300MB of free RAM memory short after booting.
What can I do to force XP to use as much RAM memory as possible instead of using so much paging file memory?

This is because of excessively large memory allocation requests that
have been issued by various Windows components and application
programs. Pretty much everything you run tends to request memory
allocations that are larger than what they actually need under normal
circumstances.

Windows compensates for this by only using RAM for that portion of the
request that is actually used. The unused portion is mapped to
locations in the paging file. Note that this mapping does not
require any actual disk activity - just a notation in the internal
memory mapping tables that are maintained by the CPU.

You can check for actual usage of the paging file with a free utility
from MVP Bill James. Get it from
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm or from
http://billsway.com/notes_public/WinXP_Tweaks/ and run it to see how
much actual memory content has been relocated from RAM to the paging
file.

For example at this moment on my own system the Task Manager reports
PF Usage of 212 mb whereas Bill's utility says there is 28 mb of
actual usage. This indicates that there is 184 mb total of excessive
memory requests at present. This will of course vary as applications
are opened and closed.

Hope this clarifies the situation.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Guest]

Thank you