up vote 6 down vote favorite
2
share [g+] share [fb]

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit with 8GB of RAM. The problem is, I very rarely use all of it.

I do some video editing from time to time and it definitely comes in handy then, but for everyday use, I'm not making best use of it.

Are there any settings I can change which will force my operating system to use more RAM, for instance, stopping it using pagefiles? I'm happy for it to use up to 4GB itself when I'm just mucking around browsing and moving files around. As far as I know, having more of the operating system in memory would make it more responsive. It's not exactly bad at the moment, but surely it can't hurt especially as I'm not using it for anything else.

I'd also like it to stop swapping pages out of memory onto the disc when running other programs like browsers, media players etc. unless it really has to. This would lengthen the life span of my disc, and also make everything generally more responsive.

Please let me know if I've got any of my facts wrong here.

link|improve this question
2  
Paging is a little more complicated than you seem to think it is - it's also a preemptive backing store, etc. Things are always getting written to the pagefile even if you're not actually paging out memory. This answer over at Server Fault says it better than anything else I could say - serverfault.com/questions/23621/… – Shinrai Jun 3 '11 at 1:31
feedback

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote

Control panel->system->avdanced system settings->advanced->performance settings->advanced->virtual memory change-> uncheck automatically manage, and set the pagefile to whatever you want. I would NOT recommending setting no pagefile, as should you go near 8GB, you would get an error, but you could certainly do it.

link|improve this answer
1  
why on earth he should do something like that? – akappa Jun 3 '11 at 1:32
What would you recommend as my Initial and Maximum pagefile sizes? I'm not that savvy about this sort of thing... – Nick Brunt Jun 3 '11 at 1:32
1  
@akappa Because if he really never goes near the 8GB, it really will be faster. However, I agree it should not be done. I would recommend an initial of 50 MB or so, and max it at about the max amount of memory you could need above over and above your 8GB of RAM + 1. – soandos Jun 3 '11 at 1:37
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.