NOTE: Before you start, it's recommended that you back up any files that you may change in the process. (system.ini, etc.) Please CLICK HERE to read about warnings and suggested ways of configuring your swap files. Also, if you do not feel comfortable enough with editing files and changing your system properties, you should not attempt this tweak! The risk probably isn't worth it....
We can not be held responsible if something goes wrong.....so use at your own risk--and be careful ;-)

   If you use and multi-boot among different versions of Microsoft Windows (which include Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition (ME) and Windows or WfWG 3.10/3.11) you're probably wasting lots of disk space, because each of these Windows releases uses different names and locations for their swap files. For example:

• Windows NT/2000/XP uses PAGEFILE.SYS as its permanent page file, located by default in your WinNT/2000 folder (unless you have specified a different drive or partition for its location). Windows XP places it in the root of the drive in which it's installed on and has a much better interface than its predecessors for swapfile settings. It's much easier to change settings with XP!
  
• Windows 95/98/ME uses WIN386.SWP as its permanent swap file, located by default in your Win9x/ME folder.
  
• Windows/WfWG 3.xx uses 386SPART.PAR as its permanent swap file, located by default in C:\ root, or WIN386.SWP as its temporary swap file, located by default in your Win31 directory.
  

   But there's a way to stop wasting all of this disk space, and force all versions of Microsoft Windows on your computer to share the SAME FIXED page/swap file. (excluding NTFS filesystems)

Just follow these steps:


1. If you have Windows NT/2000/XP:
   Start Control Panel -> System -> Performance -> Virtual Memory -> Specify Pagefile settings -> (for XP, Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Performance Settings) select IDENTICAL Maximum and Minimum sizes, and change its location to point to your fastest FAT16 drive/partition. *(Read below about recommended sizes and placement of the swapfile.)
   
   
2. Then, if you have Windows 9x/ME:
   Reboot into Windows 9x/ME.
   
   
3. In Windows 9x/ME:
   Start Control Panel -> System -> Performance -> Virtual Memory -> check the "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings" box -> select the SAME IDENTICAL Maximum and Minimum sizes as you did in WinNT/2000, and change the swap file location to the SAME FAT16 disk/partition you selected for WinNT/2000.
   Don't reboot Windows 9x/ME when prompted! Click No or press Esc at the prompt dialog box.
   
   
4. Open the Windows 9x/ME SYSTEM.INI file (located in your Windows folder) with Notepad -> scroll down to the [386enh] section -> make sure ALL lines listed below are present:
   PagingFile=X:\PAGEFILE.SYS
   PagingDrive=X:
   MinPagingFileSize=xxxxxx
   MaxPagingFileSize=xxxxxx
   
   Where X: is the drive/partition letter you selected for the Win9x/ME swap file, and xxxxxx represents both the Maximum and Minimum sizes (which should be IDENTICAL) of PAGEFILE.SYS in KiloBytes. Modify/add them to show actual values, depending on your system configuration and preferences. Example using drive E: and an 80 MB fixed swap file:
   PagingFile=E:\PAGEFILE.SYS
   PagingDrive=E:
   MinPagingFileSize=81920
   MaxPagingFileSize=81920
   
   
5. If you also have Windows 3.x or WFWG 3.x, go on to the next step.
   If not, just save the file, and you're done!
   
   
6. For Windows 3.x or WFWG 3.x:
   Highlight and copy all the lines that you have edited to the Clipboard.
   Then open the Windows/WfWG 3.xx SYSTEM.INI file (located in your Win31 directory) with Notepad -> scroll down to the [386enh] section -> delete ALL lines listed above (you might not have them all, depending on your particular Win31 swap file settings) -> paste the lines you copied from the Windows 9x/ME SYSTEM.INI.
   Reboot one more time into the Windows version of your choice. Carefully delete ALL unused (obsolete) swap files from ALL your drives/partitions (WIN386.SWP, 386SPART.PAR, etc.)
   This should do the job!
   
   

If you have any questions or have a problem (either related or unrelated to this), feel free to either ask us a question HERE or ask a live person HERE or send an email HERE.


*NOTES:   Do NOT place the common swap file on a FAT32 drive/partition unless you've installed both Windows 98 AND Windows 2000 on a FAT32 drive/partition and these are the only Windows operating systems you're using. In any case, don't place it on an NTFS drive/partition, as only NT can access an NTFS drive/partition! Both FAT32 and NTFS will not be recognized by Windows releases other than the one you set it up on, because Win31 doesn't support FAT32/NTFS, Win9x doesn't support NTFS, and WinNT doesn't support FAT32. Windows 2000 and Windows XP are the only Microsoft OSes that supports ALL these file systems.
  Ideally, the pagefile needs to reside on a disk separate from the disk that holds the system files. As mentioned before, it also helps to put it on your fastest drive/partition.
  It is also suggested that you set the Initial size and Maximum size fields to the same value. Be sure to choose a value high enough to give you a sufficiently sized swap file. You might want to start with the recommended default value, then use Performance Monitor to watch the pagefile and ensure that the system doesn't approach its pagefile size limit. Setting Initial size and Maximum size to the same value prevents the pagefile from growing while users access the system and from slowing users down as the system searches for and allocates space.

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