Optimize Windows XP virtual memory details

What is virtual memory?
Virtual Memory is Windows XP as part of the hard disk space used as memory. Virtual memory is essential even if physical memory is large. Virtual memory on the hard disk is actually a huge file, the file name is PageFile.Sys, usually can not be seen. The resource manager's protection of system files must be turned off to see this file. Virtual memory is sometimes referred to as "page file"; it is from the file name of this file. Setting up the hard disk Optimize the virtual memory. Why do you want to set the hard disk? This is because virtual memory files (also known as page files) are stored on the hard disk, and improving the performance of the hard disk can also improve the performance of the memory to some extent. 1. Enable disk write cache

Right click on “My Computer" Select “Properties->Hardware”, open Device Manager to find the hard disk currently in use, right click and select Attributes. In the "Strategy" page of the hard disk properties, open "Enable write caching on disk", as shown in Figure 1.
This option will activate the write cache of the hard disk to improve the read and write speed of the hard disk. However, be aware that after this feature is turned on, if the computer suddenly loses power, it may result in irreparable data loss. It is therefore best to turn this feature back on with a UPS. Of course, if you don't do any important data processing work when you use your computer normally, it doesn't matter if you don't have a UPS. This function will not cause too much damage to the system.

2. Open Ultra MDA

In Device Management, select “Basic/Secondary IDE Controller” in the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller, right click and select “Attributes”. Open the “Advanced Settings” page. The most important setting item here is "transfer mode", generally should select "DMA (if available)", as shown in Figure 2.
3. Configuring Recovery Options When a fatal error is encountered during Windows XP, a snapshot of the memory is saved as a file for system debugging. For most ordinary users, this file is of no use. Instead, it will affect the performance of virtual memory. So it should be closed.

Right click on “My Computer", select “Properties->Advanced", click “Set> ; select "“Advanced" page. There is a “memory usage” option. If you set it to “system cache”, Windows XP will use about 4MB of physical memory as the cache for reading and writing the hard disk, which can greatly improve the physical memory and virtual memory. The speed of data exchange between. By default, this option is turned off. If your computer has sufficient physical memory, such as 256M or more, it is best to turn this option on. However, if physical memory is tight, you should still leave the default options, as shown in Figure 3.

Page File Settings Page File Size Calculations The size of page files varies from computer to computer. Regarding the page file size setting, there are two widely spread "Formulas", "Physical Memory X2.5" or "Physical Memory X1.5". These two calculation methods are simple, but not applicable to all computers. The most accurate way to set the page file size is to look at the page file size that the computer actually uses in normal operation. The log function that comes with Windows XP can monitor the size of the page file that the computer usually uses, so as to make the most accurate settings. The specific steps are as follows. 1. Right click on “My Computer” and select ““Properties->Advanced", click “Performance>;“Settings" button, then select “Advanced” Page, click the "Change" button under "Virtual Memory". Select “Custom Size” and set both “start size” and “maximum" to 300M, which is just a temporary setting. Restart the computer after the setup is complete for the settings to take effect.

Second, go to “Control Panel->Performance and Maintenance->Administrative Tools Open “Performance", expand “Performance Logs and Warnings>, select “Counter Logs”. Right-click on the right side of the window and select “New Log Settings”, as shown in Figure 4.

Third, just set a log name, such as “ monitor virtual memory size & rdquo;, as shown in Figure 5.

4. Click the “Add Counters button on the "General" page, as shown in Figure 6.

Select “Paging File” in “Performance Object", then select “Select Logs from the list>;“%Usage Peak” below, and on the right side from the list Select "In the sample" ” select “_Total”. Finally, click the “Add” and “Close" button, as shown in Figure 7.

V. Don't forget to remember the log file storage location and file name in the "Log File" page. We need to check this log later to determine how much virtual memory Windows XP usually uses. In the example, the log files are stored in the D:Perflog directory, as shown in Figure 8.

Also set the “log file type” for “text file", which is easy to read, as shown in Figure 9.
At this point you can see that the icon in front of the newly created log entry has turned green, which indicates that the log system is already monitoring virtual memory. If the icon is still red, you should right-click and select “Start” to start the log.

After opening this CVS file for a while, we can see the following entries, as shown in Figure 10.
This log file records the usage of the page file during this period of time. Note that the unit here is %, not MB. With a simple calculation, we can get the minimum size of the page file, the formula is "page file size X percentage". For example, in this example, the maximum usage ratio of virtual memory is 31%, 300MBX31%=93MB, which is the minimum value of virtual memory (note that 300MB is the temporary value of the previous setting). If the physical memory is large, consider setting the page file's “start size” and “maximum" to equal, equal to the size calculated in the previous step. In this way, disk fragmentation will not occur due to page file transition expansion. The side effect is that the "maximum value" is set smaller, and in case of occasional virtual memory overrun, it may cause the system to crash.

Set Page File

Now go back to the setting dialog box of “Virtual Memory” and select Custom Size and set the “Initial Size” and “Maximum Value” according to the above calculation results. ;, as shown in Figure 11. Here we set the "initial size" to 91M, and set the "maximum" to 200M, which is safer.
Defragmenting Page Files Windows XP runtime requires a lot of access to page files. If the page files are fragmented, system performance will be seriously affected and the life of the hard disk will be shortened. So it is necessary for us to defragment the page files on a regular basis. But don't forget, the page file is a system key file that Windows XP runtime cannot access. So defragmenting it is not an easy task. We have two options to choose from. One is to install Windows dual system, and then start another Windows to defragment the partition where Windows XP is located. The second is to use specialized tool software, such as System File Defragmenter.