please help me understand xp paging file?

Question

i have 768mb of ram. how much paging file do i need to maximize windows performance. some says it will only slows file execution if i got a lot of paging file associated. im confused. tnx to you all

Answer 1

a page file is a portion of your hard drive that is set aside by windows to act as an overflow if your system memory or RAM isn't enough. Whenever you access the page file it will be a lot slower than your RAM. RAM is purpose built to be used like this and a hard drive just can't reach the same speeds.
There are setups with a lot of RAM that don't use a page file, but almost every computer uses a page file. A page file is a good thing normally, while it is slower ity's better to have a slight slowdown rather than to get a error that you have run out of memory and lose a lot of work, for instance if you're editing photos or a video. sometimes a lot of things can be built up on the clipboard or large textures or complex files.
If you're not sure just let windows auto manage it. Windows usually sets more space than you'll ever need aside so if you want to custom manage things do a google and read up on page files in win xp.

Answer 2

Let Windows manage your paging file. If you want to gain performance:
1) add some more ram
2) control the programs that start with Windows: Start>Run>type Msconfig>Enter>click on Startup and disable the programs you don't need
3) defrag your hard disk to minimize reaction times

Answer 3

The general guideline is 1.5x your RAM.

Set the MINIMUM page file size to this #, and the maximum to say, twice the number.