Pagefile.sys

[zver]

What this file do??its a 700 mb and its hidden??can i somehow reduce it to smaller size??or i shouldnt touch it

[ponzan]

came on zver !!! are you pulling our legs? that's your virtual memory file!!! sure you can make it smaller configuring your virtual memory settings, with WinXP you may even try not using it at all if you dare

in my case, I have multiboot systems, with one partition exclusively dedicated to place the virtual memory for all OSes. Different partitions of Win2K and XP can share the same pagefile.sys, provided they are all the same size. Using the same value for both the initial and maximum is said to improve performance.


General Information - (from http://www.techadvice.com/win2000/p/page-file_w2k.htm) it's the same with Win XP

The page file is a special file used by windows for holding temporary data which is swapped in and out of physical memory in order to provide a larger virtual memory set.

The file name is pagefile.sys and it is created during setup in the Root of the boot drive as a hidden file. It will not show up on an Explorer file listing unless you toggle off the "Hide system Files" option. In its default state it should be approximately 1.5 times the system RAM.

Here are some tips on optimizing the use of pagefile.sys file...

-Avoid having the page file on the same drive as the system files
-Don't place pagefiles on multiple partitions of the same physical hard drive.
-Don't put pagefiles on mirrored or RAID-5 partitions


Configuring -

A page file can be individually set for each drive by doing the following.

On the desktop, right click "My Computer"
Select "Properties" from the provided selection list.
Click the Advanced Tab on the top right of the window
Click the "Performance Options..." button
Click the Change button, the "Virtual Memory" window will open.
At this point you can select the drive from the provided list and then type in the amount of memory you want dedicated to the swap file in the provided text boxes. A box is provided for the initial size and the maximum size. Simply enter the amount and click the Set button.

may check also http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm (or just Google...)

[scarecrow]

If you have > 768 MB of DDR RAM and you don't do audio composition on the fly or heavy video encoding, you can disable pagefile completely- actually you will gain some performance!
Some "heavy" apps like Premiere and Photoshop create their own swap file, preferrably at another harddisk than the main one, and do not explicitly need the windows swap file.

[Master]

Nice knowledge test Zver

[zver]

Thanks guys.i knew i shouldnt touch it,but i got some additional knowledge about it...