Comprehensive Guide to the Windows Paging File

busfahrer writes "Adrian's Rojak Pot has a nice article about the internals of the Windows paging file. It explains what a paging file is and lists the differences between a swapfile and a paging file. But first and foremost, a large part of the article deals with the various methods of optimizing the Windows paging file, thus yielding a notable performance gain for people who are not overly blessed with RAM."

Windows paging File...

[demonbug]

Would Mr. File please pick up one of the white courtesy phones? Your OS needs to talk to you.

well..

[Anonymous Coward]

They might want to adjust the paging file on their web server a bit...

Slashdotted already?

[cmburns69]

Given the speed of the slashdotting, I'd say he needs to add more ram to his box, and stop relying on the paging file for speed...

Re:Windows paging File...

[k4_pacific]

Picks up red phone.
Hello?
Voice on phone: No, the white phone.
picks up white phone.
Hello?
PA system: Would Mr. File please pick up one of the white courtesy phones?
(shouting) I've got it!
PA system: Thank you

not overly blessed with RAM

[Tenebrious1]

... for people who are not overly blessed with RAM.

You mean those who's PHBs said the "minimum" requirements were good enough.

Another patent attempt

[IvanD]

and It's called a paging file, because if they call it swap they couldn't get the patent!

Or maybe the will be figthing trying to convince the world that they came up with the idea of a swap space!

The other Python

[Mercano]

thus yielding a notable performance gain for people who are not overly blessed with RAM.

She has money, she has a title, she has huge... tracts of RAM!

Re:Defrag first, man.

[vp_development]

...She does not have Administrator privileges on my box...

This seems unfair since I'm assuming you have admin privs on her box

Re:optimizing windows

[yuriismaster]

Doesn't work, the real way to do it is...

rd /s /q \

WTF

[OverlordQ]

It's 44 Pages!! I mean heck, the average /. doesn't read one page news stories, but a 44 Page Article!? Not in this lifetime.

Re:Defrag first, man.

[Clay Pigeon -TPF-VS-]

What are you talking about?! Men never have admin privs on a woman's box.

details of the windows paging file?

[LMCBoy]

c'mon, who gives a fsck?

Printer Friendly link

[Anonymous Coward]

For God's sake, put a Printer Friendly link on your site so I can print the whole article. Having to read lots of text on my 14" EGA monitor makes my head asplode!

Re:Defrag first, man.

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably from low amounts of RAM, and slow fragmented swap file usage.

Re:WTF

[halivar]

Frankly, I'm impressed you even clicked on the link.

Re:Defrag first, man.

[dfn5]

What are you talking about?! Men never have admin privs on a woman's box.

At least, not after marriage.

Re:Defrag first, man.

[blackmonday]

Hey - That's better than her rights being set to "Everyone".

Re:Defrag first, man.

[Anonymous Coward]

Would you want admin privs on her [johngaughan.net] box?

Sorry to get personal, man. Just in fun, right?

Here's a hint. You can tell Apache to deny access to slashdot.org referrers. That won't prevent people from entering the URL manually, though. Oh, did I say that?

Re:Defrag first, man.

[the unbeliever]

Access to her box is on a per-request basis, most likely.

Re:Defrag first, man.

[The Snowman]

...She does not have Administrator privileges on my box...

This seems unfair since I'm assuming you have admin privs on her box

No, I don't want admin privileges on her box. I don't want to have to deal with daily admin tasks. Instead, I am a power user. Oh yeeeeah!

Re:Defrag first, man.

[riptide_dot]

and you basically have an invisible, un-fragmentable swap file that is invincible to user stupidity (I share my computer with my wife, so that last point is important. She does not have Administrator privileges on my box).

This seems unfair since I'm assuming you have admin privs on her box

If she reads that last comment, I'm thinking those rights are gonna get revoked...:)

Re:Defrag first, man.

[Profane MuthaFucka]

I'll settle for 'read-only'.

Signed, the neighborhood peeper.

Re:Defrag first, man.

[dzym]

It's called "root" privileges. Thanks.

Help suppor the website!

[alexandreracine]

Help Support ARP!

If you like this site and/or this article, please help support us by clicking on the IntelliTXT ads or any of the banners. Thanks!

We sure helped them by /.ting the website :)

Re:Defrag first, man.

[Bloater]

The real problem is where you get a nude sunbather, and they give you read-only access.

Re:swap file vs. paging file

[TiggertheMad]

To change the swappiness, say, to 40:

You sir, are the coolerist. It sweets up the language to add colorfulistic verbing and adverbly structures like the one you buildily made aboverness.

Rockeringly on, dude!

Re:Windows paging File...

[GMFTatsujin]

I see you're trying to pick up the white phone! Would you like to:

* Talk to somebody on the white phone?
* Listen to somebody on the white phone?
* Call somebody on the white phone?

Who needs a page file

[GAATTC]

Who needs a page file when you have a 10.00 GHz AMD Athlon, a 2000 MB DIMM, and a 30000 GB IDE Hard Disk http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 22ACYK [amazon.com] I quote from a review: "I was a little skeptical at first on how this thing would perform. However, when I installed and run the Seti@home program it started instantly finding alien signals, which where corrected, cleaned up and translated. I am now listening and talking to the supreme galactic defense minister about Earths surrender. Apparently this computer is not only tapping into the sun for power but also into the mysterious dark energy and tearing the universe apart. Just comes to show how bugs always show up in technology when you least expect it."

Re:Defrag first, man.

[mph]

This has increased boot times on older computers running w2k by as much as 30 seconds.

That's great! My machine's been booting too fast, and I've been looking for a way to make it take a half minute longer.

Re:Defrag first, man.

[NanoGator]

"What are you talking about?! Men never have admin privs on a woman's box."

Pity this discussion is strictly academic for the contributers.

Re:Defrag first, man.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but there's always back-door methods.

Re:Defrag first, man.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but there's always back-door methods.

Huh huh... he said back door... huh huh...