Optimal Windows Virtual Memory Settings

When your Computer - Desktop or Notebook first arrived, it would have appeared to be extremely fast to you. However, within the next few days, with you installing all your favorite programs and transferring all your data to your new Computer, you would notice a perceptible drop in speed. This is natural, provided the drop in speed is not too much: the more programs you add to your Computer, the more files you save to your Computer, the slower it becomes.

As you continue to use your Computer, its speed further decreases significantly. This is a natural process and is usually due to two reasons. The first is the fact that your Files have become non-contiguously arranged on your Hard Disk. The more non-contiguous your files and programs become, the more time it takes for a specific program to run, the more time it takes to locate a specific file stored on your Hard Disk and load it into the associated program.

The solution is to periodically run a Disk Defragmenter, such as Disk Defragmenter. One such program comes bundled with Windows. If you need more than what Windows has by way of its own Disk Defragmenter - and you should ask for more too, click here to read about Disk Managers.

Windows' free bundled Disk Defragmenter is accessible from the following Menu: Start/ Accessories/ System Tools/ Disk Defragmenter. Although it is not as effective or thorough as Raxco's PerfectDisk, it will restore some of your Computer's lost speed.

The second cause of Computer slowdowns is Registry errors or a non-optimal Registry. The more programs you install and uninstall, the more Registry corruptions occur. While these would normally not cause your Computer to come to a grinding halt, they will certainly serve to severely degrade performance. This is why you need to periodically run a Registry Defragmenter such as Elcor Software's PremiumBooster (visit http://www.premiumbooster.com for a free scan of your Computer's Registry).

To perform a free scan of your Registry, click on the "Start Free Scan" text at the bottom, right of the advertisement at the top. Or the Free Scan icon right above it.

There are freeware Registry Scanners such as CCleaner as well - Click here to download CCleaner. Apart from cleaning your Registry, CCleaner also cleans your Hard Disk, deleting Windows Temporary Files, Internet Files and Cookies, etc. It is a great favorite amongst us, for it is completely safe - we have NEVER had an issue with it yet! We give it a "High Recommend!"

For the WellOiledPC shootout of 10 leading Registry Defragmenters, our comments on each solution and our ranking of them, Click Here!

Remember, where your Windows Registry is concerned, a single false move will result in a crashed Computer! DO NOT use the first Registry Repairing solution that you come across!
It is wiser to use commercial products, where your Computer's working is concerned. We at WellOiledPC STRONGLY recommend that you go in for standard commercialware for the following categories of programs:
- Operating System
- AntiSpyware
- AntiVirus
- Registry Defregmenters
- Disk Managers

For most other categories of Programs, freeware is fine!

If the above two steps do not - by-and-large - restore your Computer's lost speed, the next step is to check for Viruses and/ or Spyware.

Read all about how to protect your Computer/ recover from a Virus attack - including a comparison of AntiViruses and purchase links to top-of-the-line AntiVirus programs, in the following pages: Virus and Antivirus

Read all about how to protect your Computer/ recover from a Spyware attack - including a comparison of Antipyware and purchase links to top-of-the-line AntiSpyware programs, in the following pages: Spyware and Antispyware

While the above two happen naturally and automatically - there isn't much you can do to stop or slow it down - there are two more reasons for a Computer slow-down over time. We will discuss the procedure for fine-tuning your Computer's Virtual Memory Settings, in this section. The other, pruning the number of Startup programs on your Computer, is discussed in the page, Startup Programs (click the Underlined, Bold, Blue text here, to read about how to fine-tune your Virtual memory settings).

The fact is, usually, the Virtual Memory settings DO NOT require fine-tuning - the default settings work just fine, out-of-the-box...

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Here are the steps to optimize your Computer's Virtual Memory settings, if you're ready to get your hands dirty...

	Shown to the left are the My Computer and My Network icons of my PC. Right-click on the My Computer icon of your PC.
	You will get to the menu shown to the left. Now Left-click on Properties, the last menuitem (highlighted in blue)
	Left-clicking on Properties will bring up the screen shown to the left. Now Left-click the Advanced Tab. It is in the front row of tabs and is to the right-most.
	Left-clicking the Advanced Tab will bring up the screen shown to the left. Click on the Settings Button under the area, Performance, in the screen shown here.
	On clicking the Settings Button in the previous step, you will reach the screen shown to the left here. First, explore the Tab for Visual Effects, which is shown to the left. Make sure that the Radio Button Let Windows choose what's best for my computer is the one that is selected. Radio Buttons let you select only one of the options given. So if you try to select Adjust for Best appearance, your selection Let Windows choose what's best for my computer will cease to be the chosen one. On the other hand, Tick Boxes let you choose one or more options, at the same time.
	Next, explore the Advanced Tab as shown above. Since your PC is not being run as a Server, you should choose the Radio Button (now you know what is a Radio Button!!) for Programs, under the area Processor scheduling. This will give your programs greater share of your processor's attention and lesser share of your processor's attention to the numerous background services that windows runs all the time. Similarly, in the area for Memory usage, select the Radio Button Programs. This will give your programs more memory to run in.
	The Paging File is used when the available physical memory of your PC is used up. Just before that happens, the data in your physical memory is written to your Hard Disk as a Paging File (also called Virtual Memory) and thus, physical memory is freed up. This lets windows optimize its performance. The last area in the screen above, namely Virtual Memory, affects your system performance most. On clicking it, you will see the screen shown to the left. I have 1 GB of Main Memory on my PC. I also have 1 Hard Disk of 120 GB unformatted capacity, partitioned into 3 Logical Disks of size 15 GB, 40 GB and 40 GB. (Some of the unformatted capacity is lost after formatting). Depending on how much memory your PC has and its Hard Disk size and layout, you will obviously see different figures here. It is strongly recommended that you let Windows decide the Paging File size, that you do not change the default settings! Windows-recommended settings for the Paging File are a Minimum of 150% and a Maximum of 300% of the Physical Memory that your PC has. Since I have 1 GB (1 GB = 1024 MB, not 1000 MB, as many still believe falsely!), my minimum Page File Size is close to 1024 x 1.5, i.e., 1536 MB, at 1524 MB. My maximum Page File size is close to 1024 x 3 = 3072 MB, at 3048 MB. If your settings follow a similar pattern, do not change them, for a change will only cause a fall in your PC's performance!