ive read several times on here that it is advantageous to set your swapfile size to 1.5 times the amount of ram you have. i would greatly appreciate an explanation as to what swapfile is and why it is better to have a fixed size than the default windows settings.

also, how do i change it?

system specs (i dont know why youd need my system specs, but you never know)
PIII 866 mhz
256 mb ram
40 gb hard drive
WIN ME
NVIDIA TNT2

I have heard anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 your memory. Windows uses the swap file when you don't have enough real memory left. I pages whatever is not active out to the swap file to make room for the active application.

If you let Windows manage the swap file, it will keep allocating more and more hard drive space as needed until it could conceivably use your entire drive. Also, when the swap file is allocated dynamically, you will get a fragmented file and Windows needs to use your cpu to calculate swap file size. A fixed swapfile will be placed at the top of your drive after a defrag (at least norton does it) and since it never grows, you should get better performance.

You can change it in system properties/performance/virtual memory.

main advantage of setting fixed size of the swap file is reduction of disk fragmentation... you can almost eliminate fragmentation if you set the min and max swap file size to the same value (200 meg or 300 meg should work good for you... it is easy to experiment with the size) and move the swap file to a diferent partition.. it also reduces load on the CPU, becuse it does not need constantly evaluate the free disk space to set the swap file size
Regards Miro

Hi ZM,
To begin with, 1.5 x your ram should be fine for the amount of RAM you have (you can increase it later if it gives you trouble).

The swap file is a portion of your hard drive set by you or your operating system to allow your computer to run more programs then it has RAM for by shuttling some of the load to the HD.

When you allow windows to set the size, it calculates how much space is available on the partition that it resides in and sets that as the maximum and 0 as the minimum. The advantage of setting your own is that the swap file does not become fragmented it stays in one location and windows then "knows" the size and location of the swap file, making accessing it faster. Being a set size saves your CPU from constantly checking and resizing it.

To change it, press your "Windows logo" and "break" key, which will bring up your system properties, select the performance tab, press the virtual memory button, click the "let me specify my own virtual memory settings." radio button, set the minimum and the maximum settings at 384 (256 x 1.5) and push OK.

Hope this answers your questions.

Wow you guys type fast. There weren't any responses when I started mine.

This is from posting # 6952:

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Response Number 2
Name: Renaissance Man
Date: March 10, 2001 at 17:24:34 Pacific
Subject: Win ME and swap file

Reply:
Do NOT set the swap file to 2.5 times the size of your memory. Set the swap file the SAME size. For the most thorough discussion of swap files you will ever need or can imagine, go to www.rojakpot.com and look in the "Speed Demonz' Area."
*****

I haven't gone there in quite a while; I hope it's still there. A stunning and comprehensive article.

I have 256K memory and a 256K swap file and it works fine. The most important thing is that it is fixed. The next most important thing is that it is the FIRST thing on your disk. The article explains all that. Good luck!

I have since doubled my swap file to 512K.