Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Part 4: Advanced settings for the adventurous

Like virtual memory settings, disk cache settings in Windows 7 aren't necessarily optimized for the best performance, but rather for the best compromise between performance and compatibility with older PCs.

You'll probably need to experiment with different values until you find the ones that work best for your system. Since it's possible to render Windows inoperable with incorrect settings here, you'll want to back up your PC before you begin.

Start by opening the Registry Editor, and expanding the branches to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Ses sion Manager\Memory Management. Some of the more interesting values in this key include the following:

DisablePagingExecutive
Values: 0 = disabled (default), 1 = enabled.
Enabling this setting will prevent Windows from paging certain system processes to disk, which effectively will keep more of the operating system in the faster physical memory, in turn making Windows much more responsive.

LargeSystemCache Values: 0 = standard (default), 1 = large.
By default, Windows uses only 8 MB of memory for the filesystem cache. Enabling this option will allow Windows to use all but 4 MB of your computer's memory for the filesystem cache. This will improve Windows' performance, but potentially at the expense of the performance of some of your more memory-intensive applications.