BAD ADVICE.

I realize you took a boot camp and passed a test, but the original author’s suggestion was spot-on for x86 systems.

1) Set to no paging file
2) Reboot
3) Defrag
4) Manually set minimum and maximum page file size to 1.5x system memory (ie 2Gb of RAM would be 3000Mb min/max page file (3072 to be exact)).
5) Discard Larry’s post.

The main reason for this is to halt fragmentation in the page file, which Larry’s method would actually cause as the page file shrinks and grows. Bad bad idea.

Thanks Larry, you’ve proven Microsoft MCSA is nothing more than a worthless piece of paper (which I knew already)

Now that you have enough memory installed, install Windows and allow it to set default virtual memory sizes. Go into the settings, look at the minimum recommended size for the swap file, and double that for the minimum, use the same number for the maximum.

Let’s get past the niggardly OEM’s trying to save a couple dollars, thereby selling substandard machines, and the swap file becomes a much less important consideration for most users. Special cases will arise, of course – that’s what the IT guy is for.

By default Windows sets the initial size of the pagefile to 1.5 times the size of physical memory or 2GB, whichever is less. But this is with the assumption that the pagefile is allowed to grow if this is needed. If this is prevented, as the author suggests, you risk severe performance degradation or a system crash. The default settings prevent this.

A better way to prevent pagefile resizing is to increase the initial size so that it will never (or rarely) be necessary. When this is done you have a fixed pagefile for all practical purposes. Always set the maximum size to at least twice the initial size. This gives a safety net in case you guess wrong about the initial size. After a reboot (or sooner) t pagefile will revert to it;s initial unfragmented state. There is no reason not avail yourself of this safety net.

Larry Miller
Microsoft MCSA