memory management
Hi guys. Thought I would try to clearify a little.
"File caching usually improves the speed of accessing files. When they are read again, the system can retrieve them from the faster memory, instead of reading from the slower hard disk. Windows NT/2000/XP accesses your hard disk for reading and writing through its integrated File Cache-Management. Unfortunately, NT/2000/XP's file caching shows a misbehavior when handling file operations. It allocates main memory for the file cache, which is no longer available for running applications. If applications request new memory, the system will be forced to swap out currently unused memory areas into the paging file, thus requiring read/write access to the hard disk. This paradox situation leads to a dramatic decrease in system performance, caused by the file caching, which slows down your machine instead of making it faster. Up to now, the user could neither control its behavior nor adjust it to its personal needs. O&O_CleverCache solves this problem by taking control over the resource management for file caching and applications. Applications can now allocate memory without forcing NT/2000/XP to swap. This leads to a performance increase and to lower response times, especially if you are running many applications at the same time. Our tests have shown that NT/2000/XP systems are able to run twice as fast when using O&O_CleverCache – no matter if it is a Server or a Workstation."
The best solution is having enough ram. IMHO at least 512mb for a win2k or xp installation
As for win95,win98\se and winMe, the slowing comes not from deliberate file caching but from not releasing programs from main memory. This is an "error" that microsoft seems unwilling to correct (much like the 60hz refresh rate "bug" running games).
Win98 etc can only handle max 512mb so these osses are sort of capped when it comes to capasity.
Here are links to my preffered memory "managers"
Win98\Me
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/maxmem.htm
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/cb.htm
Win2k
http://www.oosoft.de/english/products/ooccpro/index.html
Btw Service pack 4 is in the final beta stages
