porsche6714 Posted July 29, 2007 CID Share Posted July 29, 2007 Hello, I have a Vista computer with 2GB of memory. I dont do any memory intensive tasks and barely use 700MB at max. Now some say that if you have the memory you should disable the page file for increased performance but others advide against it saying that it could cause problems and wouldnt increase performace at all. What are your thoughts???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roco Posted July 29, 2007 CID Share Posted July 29, 2007 , No matter how much memory I have on my computer Xp always uses some page files , even with the registery tweeks applied , I page file onto a second hard drive ,it's slightly quicker, if I remove this drive (on a Tray ) windows fails to boot up , maybe Vista is different ? porsche6714 check out this link http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1683239,00.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
php Posted July 29, 2007 CID Share Posted July 29, 2007 No, don't disable it.. and it won't increase performance. If something is going into the pagefile when your physical memory isn't full, then it probably isn't needed badly anyways. Not to mention I'm not sure Vista would let you disable the pagefile entirely... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porsche6714 Posted July 29, 2007 Author CID Share Posted July 29, 2007 Thanks for the link and all the info everyone. You can completly disable the page file but I did it and the performance gain was nothing spectacular. I just use the laptop for internet, DVDs, and other basic stuff so i suppose i'll just leave it on. Tnanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sequoia Posted July 30, 2007 CID Share Posted July 30, 2007 You can select no page file in Vista.I do this about once a week just to clear the page file.Then I go back to manage custom size.I have been usin the recommended min & max at the bottom of that window. So far no problems with doing it that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninjageek Posted August 2, 2007 CID Share Posted August 2, 2007 Sorry I gotta put my 2 cents in here. What is it with messing with the page file in xp? Moving it to another drive and or resizing it and or whatever. You are not gonna notice any diffrence. In fact messing may make things worse. Leave it be. While tweaking xp does help, pagefile in xp is one thing you need to leave alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resopalrabotnick Posted August 2, 2007 CID Share Posted August 2, 2007 Sorry I gotta put my 2 cents in here. What is it with messing with the page file in xp? Moving it to another drive and or resizing it and or whatever. You are not gonna notice any diffrence. In fact messing may make things worse. Leave it be. While tweaking xp does help, pagefile in xp is one thing you need to leave alone. really. one thing windows doesn't always agree with is somebody messing with its memory. and you know it regards the page file as slower ram. windows uses resources. we all know that. let it be. a gig or two isn't gonna kill you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just- Posted August 2, 2007 CID Share Posted August 2, 2007 Sorry I gotta put my 2 cents in here. What is it with messing with the page file in xp? Moving it to another drive and or resizing it and or whatever. You are not gonna notice any diffrence. In fact messing may make things worse. Leave it be. While tweaking xp does help, pagefile in xp is one thing you need to leave alone. humm i dont agree most people install all sorts of programs and have all sorts of data in the main C: drive where the paging file is, this means as the paging file increases it will be scatered (fragmented) all over the place which will take longer to access because the hard disk arm just has to go all over the place back and forward now if u place the paging file in a partion hard disk just for the paging there is less likely that your paging file gets fragmented i mean a hell lot less change that happens plus you can defrag that partion and make it easier for windows to access ur "slow ram" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHalf Posted August 2, 2007 CID Share Posted August 2, 2007 I agree with just- and the only time I disable the paging file is when I run 'Diskeeper', then I reset the paging file to it's original values. TheHalf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just- Posted August 2, 2007 CID Share Posted August 2, 2007 does any one want to post a guide on how to change the directory of destination of u paging files for both xp and vista anyone ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resopalrabotnick Posted August 2, 2007 CID Share Posted August 2, 2007 you can also set the pagefile size to the max recommended by windows as a fixed value and then defrag. that way it will always be x gig big and not fragment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just- Posted August 2, 2007 CID Share Posted August 2, 2007 you can also set the pagefile size to the max recommended by windows as a fixed value and then defrag. that way it will always be x gig big and not fragment. i am not sure about this are you saying if u set it to a fixed size that windows will PRE allocate this ?? when i say pre allocate is it will save certain space in memory even before it is used. as my understanding goes windows would let you choose a paging file size and as it uses it, it will put the data where there is available space in the hard disk meaning it will still be scattered all over the hard disk i think the only way to avoid this is to create a separate partition am i wrong ? does windows pre allocate data when u set a fixed file size ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disturbed Posted August 2, 2007 CID Share Posted August 2, 2007 I run windows xp without a paging file and everything is working properly. To say that it increased my performance, I honestly have no idea - it's been such a long time since I did set it up that way I don't remember any more. But it definitely has not decreased the performance either. The way I look at it is from the theoretical point of view - what is the main purpose of the page file and whether I actually need it. In my case answer was no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resopalrabotnick Posted August 2, 2007 CID Share Posted August 2, 2007 iirc using the manual setting makes windows create a pagefile of the minimum size Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sequoia Posted August 2, 2007 CID Share Posted August 2, 2007 I run mine kind of like the TheHalf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roco Posted August 2, 2007 CID Share Posted August 2, 2007 Hmm, my XP setup is to page file onto a second hard drive , to a partion specially set up just for that, the reason that drive is sitting idle most of the time ,and it lets "C" drive do it's own thing , (My tech term, lol , ) I set the size to 1536Mb min and max , I read somewhere it was quicker that way ? and set the registry entry to -disable paging of aplications and data files = "1" from the default "0" , is it faster , well it seems to be but i got no real proof , but it dosn't seem to do any harm either, ............... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.