The overall performance, for example, of an 8-MB computer is better
under Windows 95 than under Windows 3.1. However, the amount of paging
may be more under Windows 95 for several reasons:

*       Windows 95 aggressively writes the contents of dirty memory
        pages (pages that contain changes) during system idle time, even
        if it doesn't need the memory at that time. This causes more
        idle- time disk activity but improves overall performance.

*       Much more of Windows 95 is pageable than Windows 3.1. That's why
        it's even possible to still run applications on low-memory
        computers when Windows 95 requires a working set of 4 MB.
        However, the working set isn't the amount of memory you need to
        hold all your code and data; it's just the amount of memory you
        need to avoid an unacceptable amount of paging.

Changing the cache size (even if you could) probably wouldn't have much
effect on paging. Paging through the cache would quickly overwhelm it
and make it useless for other file I/O. Although swap file I/O
operations don't go through the cache, memory-mapped files and
executable files do. The cache, however, is designed to make sure it
doesn't get overwhelmed by such I/O operations. The cache grows and
shrinks as needed.

If the system begins to page a lot, the cache automatically shrinks.
However, often people think they are seeing a lot of paging, but they
are really seeing other disk activity, such as the Windows 95 shell
building its icon cache or the cache lazy writing. However, if your
paging is really extreme, to the point where system performance is poor,
then you probably have a hard disk that requires a real-mode device
driver. If Windows 95 needs to use MS-DOS for its disk I/O operations,
then a lot of code has to be locked down that would otherwise be
pageable, and your working set increases significantly. Paging through a
real-mode driver does increase paging, but on an 8-MB computer, it
shouldn't cause unacceptable performance.

- 509.487.8426 - @net-works.com - Spokane,WA - IP = 199.79.239.45
-FREQ your EMERALD.ZIP Today! Internet Ngroups & E-mail VIA * EMERALDNET