Windows Swap File

Is there a way to limit the size of this thing? It starts out at ~50mb and after several programs are run, the thing gets 700mb+

control panel>system>performance>virtual memory
set it to around 2.5 times physical memory size , set minimum and maximum to same size

Thanks Fod

A little more steamlining can be acheived if 1st you disable the virtual memory, reboot, run defrag and then re-enable it this places the now "permanant" swop file in a contiguous file and speed up Windows access to it

Heh I did exactly that once but when I tried to compile my HL map radiosity ran out of memory, 64 megs RAM and 384 megs of swapfile wasn't enough for it.

you cant go wrong with more ram i added 2 128meg cards to my 64 megs of ram, it only cost me 84 dollars US for both cards.

fodders said:

control panel>system>performance>virtual memory
set it to around 2.5 times physical memory size , set minimum and maximum to same size

I set mine to 200 megs for regular usage, and 400 megs for newer games (Quake 2, Half Life, etc.). That's always worked well for me.

sephiroth said:

you cant go wrong with more ram i added 2 128meg cards to my 64 megs of ram, it only cost me 84 dollars US for both cards.

Can add as much RAM as you want Windows will still fuck about swapping files to and from hard drive unless you cut it's bollox off by setting a permanant swap file :)

This is a little late.. but another good thing to do if u have a high amount of Ram is to force windows to use all of it b4 dipping into a swap file. I got this outta of an article at http://www.dailyradar.com/features/game_feature_page_610_2.html

"Type "sysedit" (no quotes) and press enter. This will bring up five files; the one we're interested in is SYSTEM.INI, so select it. In this file, you'll find a section that starts with [386Enh]. (There are all sorts of entries under this heading that say things like "device=*vcd.") At the bottom of this section (before the next set of brackets), enter this statement (no quotes): "ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1". This turns the conservative swap file usage on, meaning that Windows will only use the virtual memory (i.e., access your hard drive) when it's out of physical RAM. "

I've done this and has screwed up on me yet :) hope this helps some.