Ok.... I have XP Pro installed and to date I always use a small partition @ the start of my slave drive for a set pagefile. about 3.5 gigs. I wonder if I dual boot Windows 7 and XP will I be able to use the same pagefile for Windows 7? Seeing as both Windows 7 and XP uses a pagefile, but they aren't running @ the same time?
You might encounter problems as W7 has enhanced file and folder and drive security, and if you create a pagefile under one OS and try to access it from another the security parameters, permissions ,etc will be off.
However, You may *seem* to use the same one - as each OS that you boot into may over write the other one.
This is going to be tricky, to be sure....
Well I thought Windows created an up to date pagefile each time it started up? Which led to think maybe it could be used by any Windows OS. Hmmm... I wonder if I should attempt this path anyway.. :)
Do you have any reason to keep the pagefile after use?
It can be yet another security leak, as it stores cookies etc as you work.
One way out of your dilemma, could be to clear the pagefile everytime you have finished. It adds a small amount to your switch off time, but nothing serious.
If that solution interests you, do this
Start Regedit. Navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Select ClearPageFileAtShutdown from the list on the right.
Right on it and select Modify.
Change the value to 1 to enable.
Reboot your computer.
If you use Dave's method to remove the pagefile then you're in effect making a new pagefile every time you boot - and thus removing it every time you shutdown / restart. This will have a bit of a performance impact, but the main thing is that you will still not be using the *same* pagefile.sys file.
Last edited by Romulinx2; 22 Jan 2009 at 01:23. Reason: info update
@davehc - No I don't do anything with it, I'm also a linux fan and almost every linux version out there uses a seperate small partition for the swapfile. I'm quite positive thats why most linux distro's are so quick. I'd like to give Windows 7 a partition for the swapfile also.. I just thought it may be able to use the same one.
@smarteyeball - Hehehe... although it's not rocket science to reinstall everything now is it? :) It's just time consuming...
@ RomulinX2 - I've been doing it for years.... But now it sounds like davehc is saying it's a security risk? No don't tell me this now......
Not removing the swap file on your system *can* be a security risk.
It is not *definitely* a security risk, it is also dependent upon a variety of factors, including but not limited to:
what sort of info you actually store on your machine (usernames and PWs for sites, banking info, etc) as well as browser cache settings, etc.
In addition, it is a risk only if someone gets a hold of the file / drive and is able to extract data from it.
Then again it is only a risk if they can actually make out the data that is extracted.
A variety of factors. The bottom line, though, is that *sharing* swap *files* is not a good idea.
Sharing the space is fine - but the files themselves? Bad bad idea.
Also, *nix is not faster only* because of the small swap file at the beginning of the system, although this helps a bit. Other factors that help out in the speed factor are *much much smaller kernel code (on a P4 I was compiling kernel code in less than 45 minutes - I am pretty *positive* that compiling XP's kernel alone back then would have taken much much longer) and thus smaller apps as well - even a full blown GUI is not nearly as large as the Windows system -0 last I checked The latest KDE can be obtained on *CD ROM - but both W7 *and* Vista came on DVDs. Now, I know you'll say that those are OSs and that there are plenty of *nix distributions on DVD - and I'll turn right back around and say that those DVDs have a *lot* more installed with them than an OOB Windows install has with it.
If your system OSs are not all that mission critically important, have a go at it and see what happens - at worst you'll need to reinstall again, at best it *might* actually work simply because this is a Beta and W7 is going to be looking for multi-boot situations to deal with.
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