Lately I’ve been getting
lots of questions about cache sizes as related to speed. As it seems
everyone is squeezing the last drop out of their processor/RAM
combination, I thought I’d share a little “trick” that
works. It may cost you a bit of money, but the rewards are worth it.
Explanation: windows
uses a “cache” file on your hard drive, called win386.swp,
otherwise known as the swap file. All win9x versions must have
a swap file of some sort, and there are arguments all over every BBS
about how big, how small, same max/min size, editing your system.ini
file, messing with the registry, etc. Forget them all. You don’t need
the headaches.
Here’s how to get
windows to run without ever using the swap file. (well,
almost)
Go out and buy a
minimum of 128 meg of RAM. Sure, everyone will scream about price,
but it’s relatively cheap compared to replacing your HD when it
crashes from the “thrashing” involved in read/writes
using a swap file.Go to Start >
Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Monitor.
If you don’t see it there, go to Add/Remove Programs in control
Panel, select the windows setup tab, System Tools, and select it
and install it.Open System Monitor,
select Edit, Add Item. Select Memory Manager on the left side, and
down the bottom on the right you’ll see Unused Physical Memory.
Select it. Select Edit, Add Item. Select Memory manager on the
left side, and 4th from the bottom on the right select Swapfile in
use. Let them run for a couple of minutes and take note of the
average settings in these boxes (graphs).If you have less
than 60 megabytes free (assuming you bought the 128 I
recommended), it’s time to do some serious pruning.If you’ve got
Windows 95, jump to #6, otherwise Win98 users continue…Go to
Start > Run > and type in msconfig. Click OK. Select the
Startup Tab. Look at all the junk you’ve got running in the
background, taking up your precious memory! Take the tick marks
out of EVERYTHING except what you absolutely, positively,
MUST have. Leave system tray, or Windows won’t start, and
it’s a good idea to leave Scan Registry, as it only runs once per
24hour period anyhow, backing up your registry. Above all, get rid
of Real Player and Jukebox. You don’t need them running all the
time. They’ll open if, and when, you try to open a .ram file
anyhow. You don’t need a virus scanner running while you’re
playing solitaire, so why is IT running? Only start it before you
go on the web, or put a floppy in the drive that you’re unsure of.
Get the picture?Read #5, but as
Win95 does not have msconfig, you need to do things manually. Open
Explorer, and look in the C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp
folder. Take out (delete) anything you don’t need. Look in the
C:\WINDOWS\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp folder for
anything else that you don’t absolutely need and delete them. Open
your virus scanner, look in the tools or preferences menu for
shutting the thing off (don’t start when windows starts), and do
the same with Real Player, or any other thing in the taskbar
(beside the clock).Restart your
computer.Open System Monitor,
and look at the new settings. You may have to manually select
Unused physical memory, and Swapfile in use again.If your swapfile is
in use, or you still have less than 50% (60 meg or so) of free
physical memory, it’s time to repeat the process, and shut
something else off.This works wonders
for systems with Winmodems, it frees up a lot of RAM for the modem
buffer to use, and generally speeds up connect rates. It also
helps if your modem likes to disconnect for no reason.Enjoy your new
faster computer. Applications will still take the regular time to
load up, but once in memory, will NOT use the swap file to store
information, they will use RAM instead, and that
translates into a huge speed increase.
Of course there will be
naysayers. I’m just suggesting you try this. It won’t hurt, and you
could be amazed at the results.
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