Is Virtual Memory Required?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alfred Kaufmann
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A

Alfred Kaufmann

I have 4GB of memory on my Vista Home Premium system and I see that
virtual memory is still being used - would I be safe in disabling
virtual memory? I know when I ran Windows XP I had no problems
disabling the virtual memory when I had just 2GB.

Al
 
Alfred Kaufmann said:
I have 4GB of memory on my Vista Home Premium system and I see that
virtual memory is still being used - would I be safe in disabling
virtual memory? I know when I ran Windows XP I had no problems
disabling the virtual memory when I had just 2GB.

Al
Click to expand...


I do not think that you should disable it..

--
Mike Hall - MVP
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Alfred Kaufmann said:
I have 4GB of memory on my Vista Home Premium system and I see that
virtual memory is still being used - would I be safe in disabling
virtual memory? I know when I ran Windows XP I had no problems
disabling the virtual memory when I had just 2GB.
Click to expand...

There is no good reason to disable virtual memory. Windows will always run
better with it than without it - its designed that way. The amount of
physical RAM you have makes no difference. I have 4 GB also and wouldn't
dream of disabling VM.
 
Alfred Kaufmann said:
I have 4GB of memory on my Vista Home Premium system and I see that
virtual memory is still being used - would I be safe in disabling
virtual memory? I know when I ran Windows XP I had no problems
disabling the virtual memory when I had just 2GB.

Al
Click to expand...

I agree with the other posts. No need or benefit from disabling it.

If anything, you'll hinder some things in the OS.

Remember, Windows will swap unused data to the swap file freeing up real RAM
for other uses. Even parts of itself (mainly the kernel.)

So disabling it is actually counter productive.

Mic
 
Hi,

In short yes, because much software requires an allocation of pages when
initialized, regardless of whether it is later used or not. Disabling it may
result in 'out of memory' errors despite how much physical memory is
present.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com
 
I have 4GB of memory on my Vista Home Premium system and I see that
virtual memory is still being used - would I be safe in disabling
virtual memory? I know when I ran Windows XP I had no problems
disabling the virtual memory when I had just 2GB.
Click to expand...



Disabling it in either XP or Vista is a very bad idea. Note two
things:

1. There is no possible benefit to disabling it. If it's not needed,
it won't be used.

2. Windows preallocates memory to the Page File in anticipation of
possibly needing to use it (that's almost certainly what you are
seeing reported, not what is actually being used). If you disable the
Page File, those allocations get made to real memory instead, and the
result is that you can never use that part of your RAM.

You may have no problems disabling it in XP, but that was because 2GB
of RAM was so much more than you probably needed that the amount doing
so locked out didn't hurt you. And disabling it didn't help you in any
way.
 
Disabling virtual memory will kill some programs that look for it, even if
they never use it.
Leave it enabled and set to a Windows managed size.
I usually install a small, HDD that I use just for virtual memory.
I have dozens of older HDDS from 5-20GB that are not really finctional as
primary drives, so I use them for such purposes rather than tossing them.
By having a dedicated HDD for the virtual memory cache, you don't have to
worry about it slowing down your main HDD.
Not everyone has a need for that, but it works for me.
 
Ken Blake said:
You may have no problems disabling it in XP, but that was because 2GB
of RAM was so much more than you probably needed that the amount doing
so locked out didn't hurt you. And disabling it didn't help you in any
way.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Disabling the page file results in less real RAM available to you.
You can't "disable virtual memory". With no page file, Windows will use
real RAM for swapping and virtual memory, resulting in less RAM for your
apps.

Bottom line is: leave it alone and let Windows manage the size.
 
Thanks for all the replies! I will move the virtual memory to an
empty hard drive and run a test to see if that changes anything. I
would have thought that you want to keep the virtual memory on your
fatest hard drive which for me is the system drive c:.

Al
 
Alfred said:
I have 4GB of memory on my Vista Home Premium system and I see that
virtual memory is still being used - would I be safe in disabling
virtual memory? I know when I ran Windows XP I had no problems
disabling the virtual memory when I had just 2GB.
Click to expand...

Hey, if that floats your boat, go for it!

If Virtual Memory should never be disabled, there wouldn't be an option TO
disable it, would there?
 
HeyBub said:
Hey, if that floats your boat, go for it!

If Virtual Memory should never be disabled, there wouldn't be an option TO
disable it, would there?
Click to expand...

There is no option to disable Virtual Memory. You can disable the page
file, but that does not disable Virtual Memory.
 
Alfred Kaufmann said:
When you disable the pagefile, where does the system keep the virtual
memory?
Click to expand...

In RAM, which is why it is a bad idea to disable the page file as you will
have less RAM available for your use.
 
Thanks for all the replies! I will move the virtual memory to an
empty hard drive and run a test to see if that changes anything. I
would have thought that you want to keep the virtual memory on your
fatest hard drive which for me is the system drive c:.
Click to expand...


The best place to put the page file is usually on the most-used
partition of the least-used physical drive. In that way you minimize
the head movement to and from it. From a performance standpoint,
that's normally more important than the rotational speed of the drive.

If you do move the page file, keep a small amount on C:. Read here for
more information: http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

One additional point: with the 4GB of RAM you say you have, you
probably almost never use the page file (again, don't mix up
allocations to it with actual use). If that's the case, moving it
anywhere will have no impact on performance.

You can monitor your actual page file usage with Bill James's Page
File Monitor for Windows XP. See
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm
 
When you disable the pagefile, where does the system keep the virtual
memory?
Click to expand...


The terminology is confusing. Although many people think of the page
file as being synonymous with "virtual memory," that's not the way
Microsoft uses the term. To Microsoft, "virtual memory" is the total
memory available to you--RAM plus the page file. Bob's point, I
assume, is that disabling the page file only disables part of virtual
memory, and the RAM remains as virtual memory.
 
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