Page File Question

2048Megabytes

2048Megabytes

Active Member
How much Random Access Memory does a normal desktop running Windows XP 32-bit need before you can select the "no paging file" option under the "Virtual Memory" section in the Control Panel?

I figured I have enough RAM to select the no paging file option. How much do desktops need to not use pagefiles? Is 1 gigabyte of memory enough for most operating systems?
 
It depends on what you do, you can usually get away with no paging file with 2GB. If you're just surfing/office/email you can probably turn it off with 1GB.
 
If you do a lot of photo editing with photoshop or any other program, then you should leave pagefile active. You should even increase it.

But if you don't do editing, then yes you can turn it off with the amount of ram you have.
 
I was just reading some tips on how to make Windows XP 32-bit run faster. Here it is:

By default, Windows XP assigns all remaining available Hard Drive Disk space on the Windows drive, with a minimum of 768 megabytes and a maximum of every thing free space wise on the drive, to Virtual Memory. This can actually slow performance down big time, especially on large drives in use today. Windows will scatter all the files it's using over that entire unused area of the drive, meaning longer fetch times. Highlight the drive that Windows is installed on, usually C, and choose the custom size option. In both value boxes, enter 768 and click OK . This will limit the Swap File to 768 megabytes instead of all the free space on the Drive.

So if you are using page files in Windows XP 32-bit, it is a good idea to limit the size to 768 megabytes to get optimal performance.
 
Last edited:
2048Megabytes said:
By default, Windows XP assigns all remaining available Hard Drive Disk space on the Windows drive, with a minimum of 768 megabytes and a maximum of every thing free space wise on the drive, to Virtual Memory.
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that a single pagefile had a maximum size of 4GB. And special entires in the registry needed, if you want more than one pagefile on a single partition
 
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