DOS Games Discussion

Guest · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 10:14 pm Post subject: RAM, RAM, and more RAM

Windows can be silly (98 and XP). Even with lots of RAM, it still creates a swap file with a few dozen megabytes. If I had all the RAM in the world, would Windows still make a swap file larger than zero bytes?

Wally*Won_Kenobie · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 10:21 pm Post subject:

yes it would

If you want to optimise the swap file get norton uttilities

emmzee · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 1:33 am Post subject:

If you want, you can screw with the page file size yourself:

Start -> Control Panel -> System

(or right click My Computer and pick Properties)

Click the "Advanced" tab, then click the "Settings" button in the "Performance" area.

Then click the "Advanced" tab in the window that pops up. Then click the "Change" button in the "Virtual Memory" area and you can change the page file size. You can also turn it off.

I'm using Windows XP Home so if you're using Pro it might be a bit different, I dunno. Also, of course, don't change stuff in your settings unless you know what you're doing. Forbidding

Guest · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:02 pm Post subject:

Oh no, I wasn't interested in how to tinker with the swap file (I already know how to do that), I was wondering about Windows creating a swap file with more than zero bytes even if you had 64 GB RAM when the minimum swap file size is set at zero.

It's like Bill Gates using a credit card.

Wally*Won_Kenobie · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:38 pm Post subject:

ahhh .

Guest · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 10:07 pm Post subject:

What I mean is that since Bill Gates is rich, he does not need to borrow money.

In the same take, if Windows has more RAM than it needs, why bother borrowing it from the hard drive?

johpower · Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2004 8:46 am Post subject:

It's called "crash protection". If you overrun the total RAM, and have no place to cache the data, you're SOL. Further it speeds the PC. The swap file is in one place (usually) and that's much better than hunting the drive all over again. Finally, it greatly assists multi-tasking. Want to go back to running one ap at a time in real mode as per DOS go ahead and see how long it takes to print a 10 mb graphic or such. We used to eat better in those days. Laughing

Guest · Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2004 11:12 pm Post subject:

Thanks Johpower!

Yeah, I s'pose if you have 300 icons in the system tray and 2,000 programs running at the same time, that swap file might come in handy.

johpower · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2004 5:38 pm Post subject:

You got it! Cool