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In
Windows 98, there
are few
"tweaks"
to improve the
performance of
Windows 98.
Although today's
hard disk drives are
fast, we might want
to limit the use of
the Virtual Memory
(swap file). One
easy way to achieve
this is to limit the
amount of memory
Windows allocates to
the Disk cache
(replacement for
Windows 3.*
smartdrive).
We can check on the
amount of memory
used by Windows for
the Disk cache by
using System
Monitor. If we
haven't installed
it, go to Control
Panel (Start >
Settings >
Control Panel) and
choose Add/Remove
Programs. Select the
Windows Setup tab,
select System Tools
from the Components
window and press
Details. Scroll down
to the entry for
System Monitor and
click OK. This will
place an entry for
System Monitor in
your Programs >
Accessories >
System Tools.
To view the Disk
cache size:
Start System Monitor
(select Start >
Programs >
Accessories >
System Tools >
System Monitor)
To add an item to be
displayed, select
View > Add Item
The entries for the
Disk Cache size are
found under the
Memory Manager
category (Disk cache
size, Maximum disk
cache size, Mid disk
cache size, Minimum
disk cache size)
We can also find the
items to monitor
your Swapfile here
On a typical machine
(32MB RAM
installed), with
only Windows 98
installed, the Disk
cache size (right
after a fresh
reboot, with nothing
else running) was
reported at 12MB,
while the Maximum
disk cache size
could go up to 27MB.
To limit the amount
of memory used by
Windows for the Disk
cache:
Open System.ini
(select Start >
Run and in the Open:
box type sysedit)
Add the following
two lines to the [vcache]
section (add the
section if it's not
there):
MinFileCache=1024
MaxFileCache=8192
Note: Some users
only use a maximum
setting, others a
maximum and minimum
setting. Just
experiment and find
what's best in your
situation.
These values limit
the size of the
vcache (in
kilobytes), so that
Windows is prevented
from using more of
your available RAM
for the vcache. This
will increase the
amount of free
memory available to
your system, so that
when you open
another program it
is not paged to disk
immediately due to
lack of free memory.
The MinFileCache
(=Minimum File
Cache) setting
prevents Windows
from shrinking the
cache below 1024Kb.
As a rule of thumb,
use 25% of your RAM
for the MaxFileCache.
In general, most
users say that a
MaxFileCache
(=Maximum File Cache
setting) of up to
9Mb works best for
them, even if they
have more RAM
available. Just
experiment with
these settings to
find what works best
for you.
The settings
explained above are
valid if you use
FAT16 on your hard
drives. When using
FAT32, we advise you
to leave the vcache
managed by Windows.
The reason for this
is that with FAT32
in combination with
an
"aligned"
program, Windows 98
can run applications
from the disk cache
itself.
Unfortunately the
only
"aligned"
programs so far are
the MS Office
programs so until
more authors align
their programs on 4K
page boundaries, the
overwhelming
majority of programs
will still be
causing two copies
of an app to be in
RAM until the disk
cache is re-used.
This would mean that
for the time being
the Windows 95
guidelines for
assigning VCACHE
size (as above) are
still good
guidelines to follow
for Windows 98. If
we don't use FAT32,
then this is a
non-issue since with
FAT16 the alignment
process does not
work and Windows 98
can never run an
application from the
cache.
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Optimizing the Swap
File
The best way we can
ensure high swap
file performance is
to make sure that
the disk containing
the swap file has
enough free space so
that the swap file
size can shrink and
grow as needed.
We do not suggest
setting a
minimum/maximum swap
file size. Windows
98 does a much
better job managing
the swap file then
Windows 95.
If we have multiple
drives, the swap
file should be
placed on the drive
with the fastest
performance, unless
that disk is
overused.
If we put the swap
file on a dedicated
partition, use the
largest possible
cluster size [32KB].
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