Most of the threads in this forum are regarding problems with their OS etc. but I'd like to break the "tradition".
I'd like to discuss with people (or any extra-terrestrials visiting GID!! ):
1. What exactly does a pagefile do? I think I know the basics though.
2. How much is enough, I think it is OK to say that it complements the RAM, so if u have a big enough RAM, then I think the lesser pagefile u need; but that is not the case. It is something like: The more u have, the more u need.

Please write (read type) in ur comments.

Regards,
Netnut.

PageFile:
In storage, a pagefile is a reserved portion of a hard disk that is used as an extension of random access memory (RAM) for data in RAM that hasn't been used recently. A pagefile can be read from the hard disk as one contiguous chunk of data and thus faster than re-reading data from many different original locations. Windows NT administrators or users can reset the system-provided default size value of the pagefile to meet their particular needs.

In linux, page file is known as swap partition, a separate partition.

page file is approx. 1.5 times the RAM size.

I dont think so.
If you have a very large RAM which you are not going to use the whole, then the pagefile can be lesser in size..
But I'm not sure.

But windows always uses some part of the pagefile, whether the RAM storage is available or not.

Regards,
Paramesh.

To followup Paramesh, a pagefile is basically virtual memory. The more RAM you have, the less virtual memory you need to use.

Well, the PF is set as default at 1.5 times the size of the RAM isn't it? So then why is that? A person having 1GB of RAM by default would have 1.5GB of PF! (i'm guessing that). So that's the ambiguity that I wanted to clear away, so is there a problem if I reduce my PF?

You can make your PF any size you want. The 1.5x "default" size came about in the old days when you didn't have very much RAM. When you have <256MB on your system, creating a virtual drive of nearly 512MB was a big deal. Also, it was a way to cheat when you wanted a program that required 256 and you only had 128MB; you could setup your system to give you 256MB (if your hard drive was big enough) and that way your system was now meeting the software specs. Of course, some programs saw through that and wouldn't work but sometimes you got lucky.

Once you're memory starts reaching the 512-768MB range, you won't really see much happening to your page file in use. Unless you have memory intensive apps like video/music editing or 20-layer Photoshop files, nearly all your work will take place in RAM.

If you lower your PF settings and your system doesn't respond like you want, then you know to change the settings back to 1.5x.