request: A dummy's guide to swap files, pagefiles, and virtu

Hi All, Exactly what's the deal with page files and awap files in Windows NT (nt/24/xp) ??? I know that in win9x/me (eww) a swap fie is essentially what windows uses to throw around program data that temporarily doesn't fit in system RAM, effectively trading hard drive space as a slow alternative to RAM.

Customization Tweaking 1789 This topic was started by ,


data/avatar/default/avatar33.webp

672 Posts
Location -
Joined 2001-07-01
Hi All, Exactly what's the deal with page files and awap files in Windows NT (nt/24/xp) ??? [note: I shall be referring to Windows NT4/2000/XP hereon as Windows NT]
I know that in win9x/me (eww) a swap fie is essentially what windows uses to throw around program data that temporarily doesn't fit in system RAM, effectively trading hard drive space as a slow alternative to RAM.
Here's my main question: What is a pagefile? Also, how related is it to a swapfile? does windows NT use swap files or page files or both? if so, how? So to put these questions into breif form, here we go:
 
-what's a pagefile?
-does Windows NT use swap files? page files? or both? how?
 
Thanx. Note: I said "A dummy's guide" for a reason, so please use simple plain english whenever possible. Thanx

Participate on our website and join the conversation

You have already an account on our website? Use the link below to login.
Login
Create a new user account. Registration is free and takes only a few seconds.
Register
This topic is archived. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast.

Responses to this topic


data/avatar/default/avatar33.webp

723 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-02-05
A swapfile is used by Windoz to page data that doesn't fit in RAM.
"Paging" means swapping data from RAM to HD...
 
According to M$ it has to be 2.5 times your RAM. Personally I think it's bull$hit, I set mine to 250 MB fixed size. Also you can reduce the aggresivity of the OS for paging (using the swapfile) by playing with some registry keys (forgot which).

data/avatar/default/avatar33.webp

672 Posts
Location -
Joined 2001-07-01
OP
Quote:A swapfile is used by Windoz to page data that doesn't fit in RAM.
Wow. Plain english please? to PAGE data? what's THAT mean. Also, what's the difference between a PAGE file and a SWAP file then? Does Windows NT use on or both of them? details please...

data/avatar/default/avatar33.webp

723 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-02-05
Paging is the way windows moves data between ram and hdd (and viceversa). It is called like that because the way data is organized in the swapfile (in blocks, i.e pages).
 
In other words, the swapfile is the physical item, whereas paging is a process. Page file is another name for swap file.

data/avatar/default/avatar33.webp

672 Posts
Location -
Joined 2001-07-01
OP
Gotcha. Thanx. But what's the difference between paging file and swap file?

data/avatar/default/avatar33.webp

672 Posts
Location -
Joined 2001-07-01
OP
Thanx AlecStaar. I'll read up on it