Thursday, July 9, 2009

Running Windows without a Pagefile

Reader Joel Swehla is running an experiment on his PC by working without a pagefile:
I enjoyed Fred's June 11 article, 'Will moving the pagefile improve performance?' I was wondering about not having a pagefile at all. I have 4GB of RAM and no pagefile and have never had any issue. Am I tempting fate by doing this? I keep track of my RAM usage and never come close to using all 4GB, so I don't think it's a problem but am hoping for feedback.
Joel's right; it's possible to run Windows entirely in RAM. But I think he's probably also right in that he's indeed tempting fate. The in-depth topic in my column posted at Windows Secrets this week explains why nixing your pagefile will save some disk wear and maybe even gain your machine some speed but may also be skating on very, very thin ice --- at least with the current crop of PCs!

Also in this column:
  • Unbidden, Windows awakens at midnight

  • Perplexing partial Blu-ray drive failure

  • Unidentified "setup.exe" running!
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2 comments:

  1. Michael RaineyJuly 9, 2009 at 9:35 AM

    For what it's worth, I've been running XP Pro (2GB RAM) without a pagefile for more than a year with no problems at all.

    I use my computer for medium-level development and general stuff, but don't work too much with large databases or graphics files. My peak memory useage has never gone above 1 GB.

    To be honest, I didn't notice any dramatic speed increases when I got rid of the pagefile.

    ReplyDelete
  2. GavrielleJuly 10, 2009 at 3:14 AM

    Any thoughts for those of us already living in the future, Fred?:) I'm running XP Pro x64 with 8 GB of RAM. The biggest memory hog is Photoshop, which can use 3 GB, but that still leaves me plenty of RAM room. On the other hand, with 2 x 2.7 GHz chips, is any difference going to be detectable anyway?

    In return, I can offer, um, this video of guineapigs eating watermelon:

    http://cuteanimals.todaysbigthing.com/2009/06/15

    ReplyDelete

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