Window pagefile?

[tjuzer]

Do I need? I have 2gb ram.

[sleepwalker]

better to have than not

[Madcatmk2]

What apps/games are you using?
I never need more than 1.79GB ram so i set it to no page file/0. You can't "really" disable it btw unless you use a hack, even if the gui shows otherwise. Some odd programs still needs it so windows address some for it. When i reboot it goes back to zero.

[Daijoubu]

In XP you can disable it but since some softwares (and/or windows) still relay on the page file even if you got plently of free ram, you are better off keeping it

[ShadowVlican]

i don't know why people worry about pagefile so much

you can always shove the pagefile on a separate hdd and let windows manage the size. or set the size to like 512MB because u got 2GB of ram already

i have 2GB of ram also, and I haven't changed any pagefile settings since i installed windows...

[cjpark]

I also have 2gb of ram and disabled my pagefile. Photoshop gives a warning about it when it starts up but I've never had an problems with the system using up all of this ram.

[supernerd]

i don't know why people worry about pagefile so much

Because a poorly designed memory system with a page file that accesses disk more often than necessary will be slow.

In particular, windows seems to occasionally manage memory very poorly. I have 2GB of physical ram and my working set never exceeds 2GB (occasionally hit ~1.6GB), yet it will page lots of stuff in and out when switching between applications. Getting rid of my pagefile has helped dramatically.

Its also stupid when programs expect or "require" a pagefile (i.e photoshop). It makes absolutely no sense. If I had 1GB of ram and a 1GB pagefile, the program doesnt complain. Yet if I have 2GB of ram and no pagefile, photoshop complains... In both cases, I have the same amount of "virtual memory" (this is an awful MS term).

So to the OP, if your working set is 2GB or less, then no, you dont need it. Or to make an easier comparison. If you used to get by with 512MB of ram and a 1.5GB pagefile, you will be abel to get by with 2GB and 0 pagefile (and things will at least not be slower).