XP Pagefile

[Bill Saunders]

I have 1 Gig of DDR Memory and XP. I have set my own Virtual Memory (swapfile) setting and XP always adds 926.5 meg of Virtual Memory on top of what I set. Even if I turn off Virtual Memory, it still has 926 meg. This is verified also with MemoryAnalyst.
How ever do you get XP to use what I set it to, and not add what "it" wants?

Bill

[reboot]

For fun, I experimented.
It seems XP will do that, except under one condition (on my sustem).
If I move the swap to a different partition, it stays the size I set.

[Bill Saunders]

Yes, in a different partition or different drive it does make it whatever size you ask, but adds that to the original virtual memory it already added!! Thanks for trying though. Must be a way to bypass this MS BS!!!

[Babylon]

This may seem kinda obvious but it got me the first time i changed the page file options.

Once you select the drive a page file is set for (Say C: ), select the page file option (like "No paging file") and press the "set" button. Doesn't work if you just press ok, or switch to another drive's page file settings without pressing the set button.

[Bill Saunders]

Thanks Babylon. I do set the set button. As seen in the attached pic, all indications are it still adds it's own swap file. Look at the virtual memory in the performance options in the attached screen shot. Set at zero, but still, nearly a gig of virtual. Also notice the unnecessary amount of swapping going on with MemoryAnalyst.

[Blakhart]

The os will always swap, (in a no swapfile system I think they will be exe's and dll's mostly) and it will swap all over the drive, if you run without a swapfile. This will be fragmented swapping, the worst kind. So a contiguous file for swapping is best, with no more than 1 fragment in that file. For best performance, have enough mem that swapping is minimal. You will never stop the os from swapping. Ehh, untill you turn the box off....

[Tuf]

I've found that first thing you want to do is to disable hibernation, unless of course you use it. Then disable the swapfile entirely. Delete the swapfile, you may have to reboot before you can delete it. Then set it to the size you want. If you have more than one drive put it on the one that does not have your boot partition on it.

I have also found if you disable it entirely you may not be able to copy files from a floppy disk to your hard drive. I found this out the hard way. There is an article on the M$ knowledge base about it.