Disable Vista/XP paging (swap) file?

[PaceAdvantage]

I've been reading the debate back and forth on the web lately, since I went from 4gigs to 8gigs of RAM in my Vista x64 box.

It seems like a no-brainer to me that Vista would run faster if there was no swap file and you had enough memory installed (8 gigs is considered plenty to be able to run without a swap file with zero problems, as far as I can tell).

But there are some out there who insist that you should continue to run with a paging file (at the very least, a very small one), no matter how much physical RAM you have installed in your PC.

Has anyone out there been running their Vista or XP boxes with the paging (swap) virtual memory file disabled? Do you see a performance increase since Vista/XP doesn't have to access the HDD as much?

[BillW]

I know I'm going to get into trouble here by assuming that windows is designed properly but your question should be moot. The swap file shouldn't come into play unless you run out of RAM (kinda like a safety net on a high wire act - unless you fall, it's out of the equation). Therefore it's always good to have some virtual memory to back you up as it makes the inevitable crash that occurs when you do run out of memory less probable. Now someone will come along and explain to me why windows doesn't work that way :D .

[headhawg]

IMO, It's a very bad idea to disable the paging file PA. Windows is terrible at memory management (although the 64-bit versions are slightly better), and many applications don't release their resources due (in part) to lazy programming. Also, some apps also use the page file directly, independent of Windows, so that's another potential issue. I don't know what the exact triggers are for paging but I am pretty sure that you won't see an undue amount of hard disk access unless needed. However, I'm real sure that if Windows runs out of accessible RAM expect some kind of paging error or lock-up.

There are things that you can do to improve the performance of the page file system but you may already know those. If not, I can make some recommendations. Also, you're going to get opinions on both sides so I suggest you check on Microsoft's site for a definitive answer. I've got some information about it around here somewhere as well.

[Dick Schmidt]

PA, dump Vista and get Windows 7. Forget your memory problems, run faster than summer lightning and have a machine as reliable as a brick. Da Bomb!!


Dick

Life is short and dinnertime is chancy.
Eat desert first!

[dlgreg]

I am running a Win 7 Pro 64 bit machine with no paging file. Since RAM was relatively cheap when I built the machine I populated all memory slots with 2 GB modules, for 12 GB total. The reason I disabled the paging file is the main "hard" drive in the machine is an SSD (actually it is 2 Intel 80 GB Solid State Drives in a Raid 0 array). Disabling the paging file is one of the tweaks many SSD users to try to prevent unnecessary writes to the SSD. Another is to create a RAM disk and direct browser cache and temporary files to write there instead of to the SSD.
See the following link on the OCZ forum for more information.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63273
dlgreg