sp3 allowed virtual memory change without reboot!?

  • Thread starter Thread starter PetePixxx
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PetePixxx

I installed sp3, rebooted maybe once or twice. Then I went to My
Computer>Properties>Advanced>Settings>Advanced>Virtual memory>
and changed from system mananged size to a custom size of 2G/2G on C:.
It didn't force a reboot, but went to the desktop. I thought that weird so
I rebooted anyway. XP wouldn't load normally. In safe mode the virtual
memory was still read system managed. But I SET it again anyway as system
managed. Rebooted and everything was fine.

Has anyone else had a virtual memory change not force a reboot, and have XP
still work?
 
in
I installed sp3, rebooted maybe once or twice. Then I went to My
Computer>Properties>Advanced>Settings>Advanced>Virtual memory>
and changed from system mananged size to a custom size of 2G/2G on C:.
It didn't force a reboot, but went to the desktop. I thought that weird so
I rebooted anyway. XP wouldn't load normally. In safe mode the virtual
memory was still read system managed. But I SET it again anyway as system
managed. Rebooted and everything was fine.

Has anyone else had a virtual memory change not force a reboot, and have XP
still work?
Click to expand...

I've never been forced to do a reboot regardless of service pack level
after changing the pagefile parameters. I get prompted but I am not
forced to reboot. I'll ignore the prompt and reboot whenever I feel
like it. The changes are never immediate. They are only effected upon
Windows startup.
 
You caught me! Yes, it only "forces" a reboot if you want the change to
happen, which is what I meant.

To re-state the issue-- it showed that the virtual memory usage WAS CHANGED
IMMEDIATELY, and did NOT give the notification of a reboot being needed to
take effect. Then didn't allow a normal boot.

Update: after posting this I tried to see if this behavior is consistent.
It's not. It changed the "Total paging file size for all drives:" message
for virtual memory a couple of times without the "reboot required" message.
And, it gave the message a couple of times.

Hint: I stopped testing after it asked one time if I wanted to "replace" a
page file that
"already existed" on a drive. That drive letter partition was just merged a
couple of days ago from two partitions. The first time I answered "no". And
it wouldn't boot. Then with No Page File on that drive, it booted OK. After
answering Yes to replace the file, it has booted OK so far. So there was
some kind of conflict in the boot files also. But that doesn't explain why
the no "reboot required for settings to take effect" message.

Have a great day!
 
in
You caught me! Yes, it only "forces" a reboot if you want the change to
happen, which is what I meant.

To re-state the issue-- it showed that the virtual memory usage WAS CHANGED
IMMEDIATELY, and did NOT give the notification of a reboot being needed to
take effect. Then didn't allow a normal boot.

Update: after posting this I tried to see if this behavior is consistent.
It's not. It changed the "Total paging file size for all drives:" message
for virtual memory a couple of times without the "reboot required" message.
And, it gave the message a couple of times.

Hint: I stopped testing after it asked one time if I wanted to "replace" a
page file that
"already existed" on a drive. That drive letter partition was just merged a
couple of days ago from two partitions. The first time I answered "no". And
it wouldn't boot. Then with No Page File on that drive, it booted OK. After
answering Yes to replace the file, it has booted OK so far. So there was
some kind of conflict in the boot files also. But that doesn't explain why
the no "reboot required for settings to take effect" message.

Have a great day!
Click to expand...

Although you can change the values, they won't stick unless you also hit
the Set button before you exit that dialog. Maybe you changed the
values but forget to click the Set button. I've done it a few times
because intuitively you would figure that clicking OK meant to accept
the newly changed values.

If you change the size of the pagefile, you really don't want to use the
existing one. In fact, one way to defrag the pagefile is to defrag the
drive, reboot into safe mode, change the pagefile size, delete the
current pagefile, and then reboot. I suspect you already know about
trying not to defrag the pagefile because you set both Min and Max to
the same value.

I haven't bothered with SP-3. There is nothing in it when reading the
overview notes on it that is a must have or even a like-to-have feature
in SP-3. I'll wait until the first wave of fixes get released that
address SP-3, or a couple of months. Unless you're in a corporate
network, there is almost nothing of use in SP-3 to you.
 
Thank you for checking that I am doing it right. But Yes, I clicked Set. I
don't remember ever before changing the page file size with OUT receiveing a
warning message that they won't take effect till reboot. Have a great day!
 
PetePixxx said:
Thank you for checking that I am doing it right. But Yes, I clicked
Set. I don't remember ever before changing the page file size with
OUT receiveing a warning message that they won't take effect till
reboot. Have a great day!
Click to expand...

I've seen this before (pre SP3 too). I think some kinds of changes don't
force a reboot. I think it's something like this, but I'm not quite sure...
if you change a dynamic pagefile to a fixed size one increase the minimum
size of the pagefile but don't change the maximum from the suggested value,
it can just 'grow' the file to the size you asked for in the normal way.
 
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