Why do I need a page file?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ma No
  • Start date Start date
M

Ma No

I think I understand what the page file is and does, but I have 500 M RAM
installed, and even when I run several programs at the same time, I rarely
use a fraction of that when I check task manager; so what is the purpose of
having a 766 M page file -- that's the amount XP advises.

[If this is a stupid question, please be gentle]

Ma
 
Hi

Please have a look at the following article by MVP Alex Nichol:

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

--

Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups


| I think I understand what the page file is and does, but I have 500 M RAM
| installed, and even when I run several programs at the same time, I rarely
| use a fraction of that when I check task manager; so what is the purpose
of
| having a 766 M page file -- that's the amount XP advises.
|
| [If this is a stupid question, please be gentle]
|
| Ma
|
|
 
Yes, I find that even though I have 1.5 GB of RAM (3 x 512 MB), I still need
to have a minimal paging file. I found that 256 MB is the absolute minimum.
Any smaller, and the system would complaining about running out of virtual
memory during a full day's operation (14 hours). Once I bumped it up to 256
MB (since I have more than a Gig), those warnings went away completely.

----- Walter


Will Denny said:
Hi

Please have a look at the following article by MVP Alex Nichol:

"Virtual Memory in Windows XP"
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm
Click to expand...

Thanks very much

Ma
 
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