jaygan
asked on
How to really disable windows XP pagefile
I have 2.5GB of RAM and I want to disable XP's pagefile. I've already removed all pagefiles by right clicking my computer-> properties-> advanced -> Performance -> Settings -> Advanced -> Virtual Memory-> Change. In fact, it states there "Total paging file size for all drives: 0MB"
I've already rebooted a couple of times. However, whenever I do Crt-Alt-Del, under the performance tab, the PF Usage is still high. It normally goes about 1GB. The available physical memory shows about 1.4GB. This makes me wonder if I was really able to disable Windows's pagefile or if there's an additional step that I need to do.
I'm using Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2.
Thank you!
I've already rebooted a couple of times. However, whenever I do Crt-Alt-Del, under the performance tab, the PF Usage is still high. It normally goes about 1GB. The available physical memory shows about 1.4GB. This makes me wonder if I was really able to disable Windows's pagefile or if there's an additional step that I need to do.
I'm using Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2.
Thank you!
well, any joy?
I wouldn't advise totally disabling the pagefile.
The main reason for this is that programs will try and reserve as much memory as they can - even if they're not actually using it. With a pagefile, it can just be allocated there. If you disable the pagefile, you will end up wasting RAM.
To clarify: There is no "real" reason to disable your pagefile totally. Instead, you should consider tweaking it.
http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm
Thanks.
The main reason for this is that programs will try and reserve as much memory as they can - even if they're not actually using it. With a pagefile, it can just be allocated there. If you disable the pagefile, you will end up wasting RAM.
To clarify: There is no "real" reason to disable your pagefile totally. Instead, you should consider tweaking it.
http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm
Thanks.
ASKER
Hi SC,
I tried doing the registry change, rebooted my laptop, and rechecked the registry to make sure that my changes were still there and it is.
When I tried to do Ctrl-Alt-Del, it still shows a usage of 600+MB for PF usage and 1.7+GB of free physical memory. Could it be that WinXP requires pagefile and I should just create a 2MB pagefile? I really do want to totally disable the pagefile. I'm actually on my way to upgrade my memory to 4GB (probably will only yeild 3.5GB) so I really don't have a need for pagefiles.
Again, thanks!
I tried doing the registry change, rebooted my laptop, and rechecked the registry to make sure that my changes were still there and it is.
When I tried to do Ctrl-Alt-Del, it still shows a usage of 600+MB for PF usage and 1.7+GB of free physical memory. Could it be that WinXP requires pagefile and I should just create a 2MB pagefile? I really do want to totally disable the pagefile. I'm actually on my way to upgrade my memory to 4GB (probably will only yeild 3.5GB) so I really don't have a need for pagefiles.
Again, thanks!
Even though you "don't have a need for pagefiles", you will not notice an improvement in performance by disabling it (although I will admit there are conflicting reports on this). My advice would be to set the pagefile to a static level and leave it at that.
It really is more hassle that it's worth to disable it. Windows really does love it's pagefile. and some applications have been known to get a bit testy when you disable it.
Thanks.
It really is more hassle that it's worth to disable it. Windows really does love it's pagefile. and some applications have been known to get a bit testy when you disable it.
Thanks.
Pagefiles does have positive and negative impact on performace.
which gets overlooked are
- pagefile on the same drive as OS drive will slow down performace. we need to move it to a drive preferable empty one and set the maximum and minumum page file size to same value to avoid having a huge fragmented Pagefile over time . In case of enterprise 2003 server, which does memory flushing ever so often, Physical Ram is the only answer. I have had pretty bad experience with a 64bit 2003Enterprise and 2005Enterprise SQL and Pagefile memory dump issues. Finally had to increase the RAM and set PF to a static value on a empty drive as per M$ Suggestion. You may also find similar PF Issues in EE if only one has the patience to search.
Jaygan - It really is down to your PC Spec and your requirement if you need to disable PF or not. Let us know what you are planning to do with the PC and we can say if disabling or making PF a low static value helps.
SC
which gets overlooked are
- pagefile on the same drive as OS drive will slow down performace. we need to move it to a drive preferable empty one and set the maximum and minumum page file size to same value to avoid having a huge fragmented Pagefile over time . In case of enterprise 2003 server, which does memory flushing ever so often, Physical Ram is the only answer. I have had pretty bad experience with a 64bit 2003Enterprise and 2005Enterprise SQL and Pagefile memory dump issues. Finally had to increase the RAM and set PF to a static value on a empty drive as per M$ Suggestion. You may also find similar PF Issues in EE if only one has the patience to search.
Jaygan - It really is down to your PC Spec and your requirement if you need to disable PF or not. Let us know what you are planning to do with the PC and we can say if disabling or making PF a low static value helps.
SC
ASKER
My PC Spec now is 2.5GB physical RAM which I will be upgrading this week to 4GB.
I mainly just use it for Office programs and internet surfing. I do have lots of programs open at the same time so I do a lot of program switching. I do some programming but my pagefile never exceeds 2GB even before with just my 1GB RAM (mostly, my pagefile is just 800MB). With that, I don't think I'll need pagefiles and disabling it should help in my laptop's peformance given that I only have one drive.
I mainly just use it for Office programs and internet surfing. I do have lots of programs open at the same time so I do a lot of program switching. I do some programming but my pagefile never exceeds 2GB even before with just my 1GB RAM (mostly, my pagefile is just 800MB). With that, I don't think I'll need pagefiles and disabling it should help in my laptop's peformance given that I only have one drive.
Jaygan
A static unfragmented pagefile 1.5times the Ram value will be OK in your case. If you feel that your applications are not using the physical ram but the PF , it might be due to memory lock by applications.
see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457057.aspx for details.
SC
A static unfragmented pagefile 1.5times the Ram value will be OK in your case. If you feel that your applications are not using the physical ram but the PF , it might be due to memory lock by applications.
see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457057.aspx for details.
SC
Did it help atall?
ASKER
Well, I really do want to disable PF so, no offense, but your last answer didn't really help.
Thing is, even though I've already set PF to zero in the pagefile settings, my laptop continues to use a very sizable amount of PF: 600MB to 1.3GB. What I'm baffled about though is where the pagefile is located now since I can't seem to find any pagefile.sys and my settings (since it has been set to zero), doesn't specify where windows should have the pagefiles.
I really do appreciate your continued help on this.
Thing is, even though I've already set PF to zero in the pagefile settings, my laptop continues to use a very sizable amount of PF: 600MB to 1.3GB. What I'm baffled about though is where the pagefile is located now since I can't seem to find any pagefile.sys and my settings (since it has been set to zero), doesn't specify where windows should have the pagefiles.
I really do appreciate your continued help on this.
I have exactly the same problem. Running XP SP2 and have No Paging File set for all drives. Yet the system still shows a pagefile is being used. I have looked at all the drives and cannot find any instances of pagefile.sys or temppf.sys. I even searched the whole computer (in system and hidden files) for files > 50MB and can't find any. Task manager and sysinternal Proc Explorer still show plenty of virtual memory being used and plenty of page faults occuring.
Can somebody please explain what is happening?
Can somebody please explain what is happening?
In above post when I said "I even searched the whole computer (in system and hidden files) for files > 50MB and can't find any" I meant cant find anything that looks like a page file.
ASKER
Hi Option,
If you do find a solution anywhere, I would greatly appreciate it if you can post it here as well. I have 3.4GB of physical RAM and it kills me that I'm using 1GB of page file when I still have more than 2GB of physical RAM free...
If you do find a solution anywhere, I would greatly appreciate it if you can post it here as well. I have 3.4GB of physical RAM and it kills me that I'm using 1GB of page file when I still have more than 2GB of physical RAM free...
Will do jaygan.
For the experts, can some of you (even if you don't agree with the idea of turn off page files) give this a try and see if you have the same problem as jaygan and I? I will attach some screenshots to show the symptoms.
I am running XP Pro SP2 - with all the latest critical hotfixes, and jaygan is running Home SP2.
vmem1.gif
vmem2.gif
For the experts, can some of you (even if you don't agree with the idea of turn off page files) give this a try and see if you have the same problem as jaygan and I? I will attach some screenshots to show the symptoms.
I am running XP Pro SP2 - with all the latest critical hotfixes, and jaygan is running Home SP2.
vmem1.gif
vmem2.gif
And one more screenshot from a non Microsoft source...
vmem3.gif
vmem3.gif
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itsmein... yes its totally crazy but I think you may be onto something. Its possible that MS knows that many programs (and perhaps XP itself) will behave badly if there is no pagefile available on the system, so if the user opts not to have a pagefile on the disk the OS needs to provide one in RAM... you could almost call it (now its my turn to write something crazy) 'virtual virtual memory'. LOL.
On the weekend I had a pretty serious dev session running VS.NET, SQL Server, Photoshop, Aptana, Firefox, IE, Outlook (with a 1GB pst file) and other bits and pieces. Took a while but eventually the commit charge hit 2GB which is equal to my laptops RAM, and Aptana crashed spectacularly with an out of memory error. So I am pretty sure that even though the system is reporting virtual memory usage, it is not allowing any more memory allocation than my RAM capacity allows.
so now hopefully another expert will set us straight and provide some sanity to this thread. when I get a chance I'll try you're RAM tool idea.
On the weekend I had a pretty serious dev session running VS.NET, SQL Server, Photoshop, Aptana, Firefox, IE, Outlook (with a 1GB pst file) and other bits and pieces. Took a while but eventually the commit charge hit 2GB which is equal to my laptops RAM, and Aptana crashed spectacularly with an out of memory error. So I am pretty sure that even though the system is reporting virtual memory usage, it is not allowing any more memory allocation than my RAM capacity allows.
so now hopefully another expert will set us straight and provide some sanity to this thread. when I get a chance I'll try you're RAM tool idea.
ASKER
Thanks! I seems that your "crazy" answer is right after all! I've noticed that the Total Physical Memory > Available + System Cache + PF Usage. As the right side approaches the left side, errors started to appear.
Start a registry editor (e.g., regedit.exe).
Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
Set the DisablePagingExecutive registry entry to 1.
Ofcourse @ your own risk!
Courtesy :windowsitpro
SC