Page file question ?

[CloneRanger]

I've always disabled the page file, and in previous OS's the swap file. If you have enough memory it's NO problem, and eliminates ANY personnal etc etc data been written to it. Visa V privacy.

217200

It's not always that amount every day, but never goes too much higher, and does fluctuate throughout sessions.

So can anyone tell me why i see this ? I would expect it to be zero.

[doktornotor]

Eh... Please, read this: Pushing the Limits of Windows: Virtual Memory (http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2008/11/17/3155406.aspx) and the other articles linked right at the top there. This page file myth is something horrible. And as you've noted, Windows will ignore your broken configuration since the page file is required.

[CloneRanger]

Hi doktor

Thanks for the Mark Russinovich link :thumb: i had seen it before but forgotten about it.


Found another perspective on this thanks to Him :thumb: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2005/10/running-xp-with-the-pagefile-disabled.html

-{ Quote: "In the Task Manager utility under Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the graphical displays labeled "PF usage" and "Page File Usage History" actually reflect not the pagefile contents but the total (or current) commit charge. The height of the graph area corresponds to the commit limit. Despite the label, these do not show how much has actually been written to the pagefile, but only the maximum potential pagefile usage at the moment. In Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0, these same displays are labeled "Mem usage" but again actually show the commit charge." }-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commit_charge

Lots of positive remarks about no PF in the link too :)

[doktornotor]

Well... as with anything, YMMV ;D I never had any speed-up after disabling swap file, neither in Windows, nor in Linux. When experimenting - even with lots of RAM - I managed to run into totally unresposible deadlocked boxes due to this move and some application bug. Also, there are applications that outright refuse to run w/o page file (the recent Adobe monsters come to mind).

So - not recommended from me personally. :P

[Greg S]

-{ Quote: "I've always disabled the page file, and in previous OS's the swap file. If you have enough memory it's NO problem, and eliminates ANY personnal etc etc data been written to it. Visa V privacy.

217200

It's not always that amount every day, but never goes too much higher, and does fluctuate throughout sessions.

So can anyone tell me why i see this ? I would expect it to be zero." }-

You might try this guys app and see what shows up. http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=213473&highlight=pagefileusage

I used it on XP with the Win default page file setting. The most it ever showed as being used was about 53 mb's contrary to what task manager and other monitoring apps claimed.

[CloneRanger]

@Greg S

Thanks for the info and app link, and thanks to Howard Kaikow :thumb:

217210

Shows NO pagefile on my XP, which verifys why i can never find pagefile.sys exactly what i want :thumb:

-{ Quote: "I used it on XP with the Win default page file setting. The most it ever showed as being used was about 53 mb's contrary to what task manager and other monitoring apps claimed." }-

Interesting, and more questions raised ?


Re - no pagefile

Howard Kaikow post 16 http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=213473&highlight=pagefileusage

-{ Quote: "With the newer OS, one does not actually need a pagefile,

When booting, the OS will create a small pagefile in memory." }-


Nick Rhodes post 22

-{ Quote: "Windows always creates a pagefile, even if you think you have totally turned it off ! " }-


But i think it creates it in memory, rather than on disk, from the info i posted earlier, and what Howard Kaikow says. Which as far as i'm concerned is infinitly superior, both for privacy reasons, and NO disk trashing etc.

[Greg S]

-{ Quote: " both for privacy reasons, and NO disk trashing etc." }-
I can easily see where this would be a plus from a hardware and security standpoint. Only drawback that I'm aware of is that some apps can be contrary if no pagefile(disk) is not found. PSP 8 being one of them that comes to mind as I'm sure there are others.

[Mrkvonic]

I would not disable pagefile, because even if it's used as ramdisk, which does add some speed boost, so to speak, you are effectively reducing your ram and what happens when you deplete it?

Don't forget you are bounded by i/o operations first and foremost. And you're likely to encounter bug and problems when programs try to offload their pages into pagefile.

Mrk