What is a windows xp swap file. Windows virtual memory - how to increase the paging file Windows XP

The paging file is used in Windows operating systems for those cases when the computer does not have enough random access memory. You can change the swap file size as follows:

1. Open the "Control Panel" through the "Start" menu.

2. If you have selected the "By categories" view in the "Control Panel", then you need to perform the following steps:

Select the menu item "Performance and Maintenance"

If you have the "Classic" view selected in the "Control Panel", then you just need to click on the "System" menu item.

3. In the system properties window that opens, click on "Advanced".

4. On the "Advanced" tab, look for the "Performance" section, and click on the "Parameters" button.

5. In the "Parameters" that opens, select the "Advanced" tab.

6. Now at the very bottom we are looking for the "Virtual Memory" section. There, click on the "Change" button.

7. A window will open in front of us in which you can actually edit the properties of the paging file. There are three options to choose from - set the desired size of the paging file (it is possible to set its maximum and minimum size), leave the system to choose the size of the paging file, and not use the paging file at all. Therefore, the ideal option would be to set the size of the paging file manually.

What is the size of the paging file? It mainly depends on your requirements for the computer and the format of the tasks performed. However, the following recommended values ​​may be suitable for most users:

ATTENTION! The following settings are not absolutely correct, and are only recommendations!

As you can see from the table, with more than 8 GB of memory, the need for a paging file is practically eliminated.

After you set the minimum and maximum size of the paging file, you must click the "Set" button. After you need to click the "OK" button, and restart the computer to apply the new paging file size.

Given that you are already in the "System Properties" menu, then simply follow these step-by-step actions:

Now in the window that opens, we will make changes.

Almost always, this file is located in the memory of drive C, as the system recommends. But considering that this disk is already loaded with the installed operating system, we will move it to another, less loaded disk, for example, disk D. Of course, ideally, when the paging file is located on another hard disk, but not everyone has it.

So, moving the paging file from drive C to drive D, we perform the following manipulations:

In the selected line, you should specify the size of the paging file that is suitable for your system. To choose the ideal paging file size, you need to increase the amount of RAM on your personal computer by one and a half to two times. This value will be the best option to improve computer performance. Thus, if the size of the RAM is 2 GB, then it is clear that the swap file should not be more than 4 GB. Accordingly, in the paragraph "Initial size" we will write 3000, respectively, in the field " Maximum size- 4000. Next, click "Set" and restart the computer so that the parameters that we have changed are saved.

It is worth noting that the "paging" technology is not recommended to be used all the time, but only when the system is overloaded with large games and applications. In all other cases, you just need to expand the installed amount of RAM.

And yet, if you use the swap file, then you need to periodically defragment the hard drive.

We hope that our tips will help improve the performance and speed of your system. Especially if you have to work with a weak personal computer. Good luck! Leave comments.

Let's start with what it is swap file and why is it needed. This will allow you understand the working principle operating system and, further, the principle of optimization, which will be described below. swap file is a storage of temporary data (virtual memory) with which the operating system works. It allows you to significantly expand the amount of memory used by your computer at a time when you use large applications that require a large amount of memory. At the time of their download, unused programs from the computer's memory are moved to swap file, freeing up main memory for the active application.

To improve performance With paging file can perform a series of actions. The simplest is its defragmentation. Defragmentation allows you to combine all the fragments of a file together and reduce the time it takes to move the head hard drive, which increases the speed of reading from a file, thereby increasing overall performance.

Defragmentation can be done by any from programs for defragment the disk, or you can use specialized utility, which can in offline defragment the paging file every time the system starts. Second step, less obvious is displacement (if such possibility available) paging file another HDD. It can also improve system performance. This is due to the fact that when installing the system swap file located in the root directory system disk, to the same place where the system itself is installed. Now imagine the system needs to save in swap file some data and, at the same time, work with a program that is launched from the same disk. It turns out that the disk needs to do two things: store data in swap file and load data into memory that is necessary for the application to work.

To offload one disk and give him the opportunity to fully work with uploaded data, swap file it is best to place it on a second disk, which will deal only with work with the paging file. It is important to understand what to move swap file to the second disk is necessary only if this second disk is used much less than the system one and has at least the same read and write speed. V otherwise moving will only slow things down, since the disk will also have to work with the swap file.

Defragmenting the paging file with PageDefrag

Program PageDefragdesigned for defragmentation paging file. This process can be easily automated by enabling the Defragment every boot option in the program window. Actually, this is where the whole setup of the program ends.

With moving paging file everything is a little more complicated than with setting up the PageDefrag program. But it's also not difficult. Moving the swap file requires two steps:

Disable current swap file
- Create new swap file on the second disk

To do this, open the properties of "My Computer" (you can click the combination "Win + Break" so as not to click the mouse once again) or click on the "System" icon in the "Control Panel". Select the "Advanced" tab and in the topmost "Performance" block, click the "Settings" button.

A window titled "Performance Options" will open, in which you need to select the "Advanced" tab. On this tab, in the lowest block "Virtual memory" you need to click on the "Change" button.

The window we need will appear, in which we will produce transfer paging file. First we need to remove the existing on the system disk swap file. To do this, select the system drive (usually C:) and activate the line " No swap file» in the block «Size paging file for the selected disk. After that, click "Set".

Then switch to the second drive where you want to transferpaging file, and activate it by setting a dot in the "Size by system selection" field in the same block "Paging file size for the selected disk". Then click on the "Set" button.

Now it remains to restart the computer so that all changes entered into force. One stage of computer optimization has been successfully completed. In the following articles we will talk about other optimization methods, stay tuned.

Location of the paging file on a computer with multiple hard drives

If you have several hard drives in your computer (physically, and not one divided into several sections), then it makes sense Windows XP and her swap file keep on different disks. The speed of work changes quite noticeably.

Prohibition of unloading drivers and the system kernel to the paging file in Windows XP

On computers with very large quantity physical RAM can increase performance Windows XP, prohibiting the unloading of drivers and the system kernel from physical memory to swap file to disk. To do this, in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management, set the dword parameter "DisablePagingExecutive" to 1.

That's basically all about the paging file. Enjoy your work!

It is customary to call virtual that computer memory that contains a paging file located on the selected section of the installed hard disk called pagefile.sys. This file not visible to a normal user because it is hidden.

The first systems with virtual memory appeared in the 70s. The technology became more widespread in the 80s, and in the 90s it was already widely used in personal computers. For regular user this is a long time ago in a standard way an increase in the amount of "RAM" of the computer, in case of its critical shortage.

Current operating systems allow you to significantly increase the paging file of your computer. Let's take a look at the steps needed to do this. Windows example xp.

Increasing the paging file of RAM in Windows XP

The first thing to do is go to windows menu XP "Start", select the item "My Computer" there and by pressing the right mouse button to call the context menu.

The context menu can be invoked just as successfully by clicking right click on the icon "My Computer", which is habitually present on the desktop. In the window that opens, go to "Properties".

There we go to the "Advanced" tab, where we look for the "Virtual memory" field and click on "Change"

In the window that appears, you will see the value "Disk", with one or more partitions of your drive listed. We select the partition on which the paging file is supposed to be located, and look down a little lower, there you can determine the size of the paging file.

Pay attention to the "Free: 771 MB" option present here. This is the volume free space on the selected partition of your hard drive. It is very important to make sure that after determining the size of the paging file, there is free space on the hard drive. This remark will be especially relevant for the disk on which the Windows system xp. From the value of free space determined by the system, subtract the amount of paging file set and get the real free space. It is recommended to leave at least 1 GB for the system disk. If the calculations come out less, then just select another section.

How much does it cost to increase the paging file in Windows XP?

In that Microsoft issue offers the following formula for calculating file size Windows paging XP: Original RAM size x 1.5. In the column "Paging file size" on any disk, you will see this figure in the "Recommended" line. In this case, the amount of RAM is 1 GB or 1024 MB, and therefore the system recommends installing 1534 MB of virtual memory.

There is also a more advanced Windows XP RAM to virtual memory ratio table that looks like this:

Moving the paging file to another disk partition

The algorithm of actions when transferring the paging file from one disk partition to another is as follows:

• First, we go to the already familiar virtual memory menu, to the same place where we changed the size of virtual memory.
• We select the disk on which the paging file is located, and click on the item "No paging file".
• Click on the "Set" button and confirm the action in the window that appears.
• Select a new disk partition that will now store the paging file.
• We select the operating mode:

1. "Size at the choice of the system" (automatic adjustment, depending on the system's need for additional memory);
2. "Special size" (its value can be set by the user).

• Saving the changes made, click "Set", after which we will close all windows with the "OK" button and send the computer to restart.

It is worth noting that an increase in the paging file is not always accompanied by an increase in efficiency. On the contrary, if the amount of virtual memory is increased too much, then Windows XP will become slower. The fact is that with a large swap file, Windows will more often access not fast RAM, but virtual memory, which is located on a relatively slow HDD. After all, the speed of reading from a hard drive is significantly lower than from RAM, and therefore big file paging can significantly slow down the computer and additionally load the hard drive, which will further reduce performance.

Thus, the main plus of having virtual memory in your PC is the amount of memory available to programs and games, much more than they can physically provide. installed slats random access memory.

There are also disadvantages to virtual memory - this is a possible slowdown of the system as a whole, as well as more intensive use of the hard disk, which can lead to accelerated wear.

Swap File Optimization

Let's list some simple tips on setting up the paging file in order to increase Windows performance xp.

• If you use only one hard drive, then it is better to place the paging file on its system partition.
• If two or more hard drives are installed, it is better to move the virtual memory to the most fast disk or arrange it in parts on several physical disks.
• Creating a paging file on multiple logical partitions on the same drive is not recommended, as this can severely degrade system performance.
• If there are two or more hard drives it is not recommended to place the paging file on old models of hard drives - this will also reduce the overall speed.

Windows XP moves anything that won't fit in RAM to the swap file. It is located on the HDD of your computer. If you have solid state drive type SSD, then there is no need for this in principle. An HDD is a much slower device than an SSD and RAM. Therefore, even with a grown paging file, your system may slow down. Plus, the hard drive will work harder and wear out more. Based on this, it is recommended to use the paging technology only for a short time, in case it becomes necessary to launch especially demanding applications. In other, much more frequent cases, it is recommended to simply increase the amount of installed RAM.

The swap file is system file, which the operating system uses as a "continuation" of RAM, namely, to store data of inactive programs. As a rule, the paging file is used when the amount of RAM is low, and the size of this file can be controlled using the appropriate setting.

How to manage the size of the operating system paging file

So, today we will look at how using regular Windows Tools XP change the size of the swap file.

If you are using the classic view of the toolbar, then find the "System" icon and double-click on it with the left mouse button.

1. Because all operating system settings start with "Control Panels", then open it. To do this, in the Start menu, left-click on the item "Control Panel".
2. Now let's go to the section "Performance and Maintenance" by clicking on the corresponding icon with the mouse.
3. Next, you can click on the task "View information about this computer" or double-click on the "System" icon to open a window "System properties".
4. In this window, go to the tab "Additionally" and press the button "Options", which is in the group "Performance".
5. A window will open before us "Performance Options", in which we just have to click on the "Edit" button in the group "Virtual Memory" and you can go to the paging file size settings.

Here you can see how much is used in this moment, which is recommended to be set, as well as the minimum size. In order to change the size, you must enter two numbers when the switch is in the "Special Size" position. The first is the original size in megabytes, and the second is the maximum size. For the entered parameters to take effect, you must click on the "Set" button.

If you set the switch to "Size by system selection", then Windows XP itself will regulate the file size directly.

And finally, in order to completely disable paging, you need to set the switch to "No paging file". In this case, all program data will be stored in the computer's RAM. However, this is worth doing if you have 4 or more gigabytes of memory installed.