Page file question ?

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by CloneRanger, Apr 17, 2010.

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  1. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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    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.

    pf.gif

    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.
     
  2. doktornotor

    doktornotor Registered Member

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    Eh... Please, read this: Pushing the Limits of Windows: Virtual Memory 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.
     
  3. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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    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

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

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

    doktornotor Registered Member

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    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
     
  5. Greg S

    Greg S Registered Member

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    You might try this guys app and see what shows up. https://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.
     
  6. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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    @Greg S

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

    no-pf.gif

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

    Interesting, and more questions raised ?


    Re - no pagefile

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


    Nick Rhodes post 22


    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.
     
  7. Greg S

    Greg S Registered Member

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    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.
     
  8. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    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
     
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