Computer

4. Optimizing Virtual Memory

This post is part of the How To: Optimize Windows XP And Make It Faster article, please read the full guide.

While this section of the guide will help speed up your system’s Virtual Memory usage, buying & installing more system RAM will speed up your computer more than any tutorial ever could. General Windows XP users should have no less than 512MB of RAM while gamers should have no less than 768MB (1GB+ preferably). RAM is cheap nowdays & takes literally seconds to install.

Hit CTRL+Alt+Delete. Now click on the Performance tab. Under “Physical Memory” look at the number by “Available”. If this number is at or below “131072″, BUY MORE RAM!

What Is Virtual Memory:
When running games & memory-intensive programs, sometimes you may get low on RAM depending on how much you have installed. When your system’s RAM gets low, Windows will start pushing information out of your RAM and then writes it onto the hard drive into a file called “PageFile.sys”. When data that is in PageFile.sys is needed, Windows reads it from the hard drive & puts it back into RAM. This is called “Virtual Memory”.

Why Using Virtual Memory A Bad Thing:
Microsoft designed Virtual Memory to function as described above so that there is always RAM available when you need it. Sounds like a great setup right? Well, maybe but it still has its faults. Here are three problems that plague the Virtual Memory system in Windows XP.

1) Physical RAM is over a thousand times faster than any hard drive. This means that the more Virtual Memory your system is forced to use is the slower your computer will become.

2) By default, Windows is set to manage your virtual memory’s size. It does so by constantly enlarging and shrinking the size of the PageFile.sys file on your hard drive. This can cause a large amount of file fragmentation which will slow down your hard drive’s read and write speeds.

3) The third problem? The third problem is that Microsoft’s standard hard drive defragmenting program does NOT defragment your page file, your registry, or any locked operating system files. It is only possible to defragment the page file and system files during a reboot BEFORE the Windows operating system is loaded.

How This Section Is Going To Speed Up Virtual Memory:
This guide will do two things to optimize your virtual memory. One, we will change your virtual memory size to ensure that Windows, your programs, and your games NEVER run out of memory. Two, you can download a free & easy to use program that will defragment your registry, page file, and locked system files the next time you reboot your computer. Both of these together will minimize the performance hit caused by problems 1, 2, & 3 mentioned above. The program is called PageDefrag and you can find more information on it here.

Also, if you have two or more physical hard drives installed, you have the ability of having your virtual memory work nearly twice as fast. Hard drives can only write & read information to and from one sector of a hard drive at a time. By placing the page file on a hard drive that does NOT contain your Windows operating system, you will have one hard drive dedicated solely to the operating system and one hard drive dedicated solely to the page file instead of one hard drive doing both at the same time.

Using This Guide & Important Notes About Partitioned Hard Drives:
There are 2 parts below…the first is if you only have one physical hard drive and the second half is if you have 2 or more physical hard drives. A couple of important notes about which section to use if your hard drive(s) have multiple partitions…

If you only have one hard drive and it contains multiple partitions:
» Use the single hard drive section below.
» Place the page file on the same partition that contains your operating system.

If you have 2 or more hard drives with multiple partitions:
» Use the multiple hard drive section below.
» Place the page file on the first partition of any hard drive that does not contain your operating system.

The Single Hard Drive Method

1) Right-click MY COMPUTER.

2) Select PROPERTIES.

3) Select the ADVANCED tab.

4) Under PERFORMANCE click the SETTINGS tab.

5) Click the ADVANCED tab.

6) Under the Virtual Memory section , click the CHANGE button.

7) With your C: drive selected in the top selection box, select CUSTOM SIZE.

8 ) In INITIAL SIZE type 2048.

9) In MAXIMUM SIZE type 2048.

10) CLICK THE SET BUTTON — (Do not forget!!).

11) Click OK to exit that window.

12) Click OK to exit the next window and you may be notified that you will need to restart Windows. Do NOT restart yet,Continue on to 5. Getting Rid of Unneeded Background Services > > >

The Multiple Hard Drive Method

1) Follow the above “Single Hard Drive Method” steps 1 to 6.

2) In the hard drive selection box, click the hard drive that DOES contain your operating system (this is usually your C: drive).

3) Below, select NO PAGING FILE and click the Set button (Don’t forget!).

4) Now click the hard drive that does NOT contain your operating system.

5) Down below, select Custom size.

6) In INITIAL SIZE type 2048.

7) In MAXIMUM SIZE type 2048.

8 ) CLICK THE SET BUTTON — (Do not forget!!)

9) Click OK to exit that window.

10) Click OK to exit the next window and you may be notified that you will need to restart Windows. Do NOT restart yet,move on to section 5.

Continue on to 5. Getting Rid of Unneeded Background Services >>>

Also Read:

• How To: Optimize Windows XP And Make It Faster
• How To: Uninstall Windows Vista Completely
• Featured: TrueCrypt
• 3. Allocating Processor & RAM Usage
• 2. Optimizing Windows Display and Effects

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