2. If in Doubt, Throw It Out
Parkinson's
law states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its
completion. Along the same lines, it's safe to say that files will
quickly expand to fill the amount of available space on your hard drive.
Low
disk space doesn't just make it harder to store files; without ample
room for virtual memory (discussed later) and temporary files, Windows
will slow to a crawl. Less free disk space also increases file
fragmentation as Windows scrambles to find places to put data; this in
turn also lowers performance. Keeping a healthy amount of free disk
space is vital to a well-performing system.
Additionally,
removing drivers and applications that are no longer used clears more
memory and processor cycles for your other applications, which can
substantially improve overall system performance.
If your PC is low on disk space, try NTFS compression.Right-click any folder, select Properties, click Advanced, and turn on the Compress contents to save disk space option. Note that this can degrade performance, so you'd be wise to use it only for data that you don't access or modify often. |
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Even
before you install your first application, your hard disk is littered
with files from the Windows installation that you most likely don't
need. The standard installation of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition places
more than 39,000 files, consuming more than two gigabytes of disk
space, on your PC.
Whether you need a particular file can be subjective; some might consider the 11 MB of .wav files that Vista puts in your C:\Windows\Media
folder to be excessive, while others may scoff at the notion of
worrying about such a piddly quantity. (To put things in perspective,
this is about the same size as three photos from a 10-megapixel digital
camera. It's also slightly more than the total capacity of my first hard
disk back in 1983.)
Naturally,
it makes sense to be cautious when removing any files from your system.
The removal of certain files can cause some applications, or even
Windows itself, to stop functioning. It's always good practice to move
any questionable files to a metaphorical purgatory folder before
committing to their disposal. And I don't have to tell you that backing
up your entire hard disk before you clean house is very important and not all that difficult.
The easiest way to delete the stuff Windows considers expendable is to run the Disk Cleanup tool (cleanmgr.exe), discussed in the "Disable Disk Cleanup" sidebar.
When
your PC starts running out of disk space, Windows will prompt you to
run the Disk Cleanup Wizard, which presents a list of some of the files
you can delete to recover free disk space . The disable this annoying warning, open the Registry Editor and expand the branches to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. If it's not already there, create a new DWORD value (go to Edit → New → DWORD value) called NoLowDiskSpaceChecks. Double-click the new value and type 1 for its data. Close the Registry Editor when you're done; the change will take effect immediately. |
2.1. If in doubt
Before you delete any questionable file, there are several things you can do to get a better idea of what the file contains:
Why not open it?.
Start by double-clicking a suspicious file to open it in its default application. If you then see the Open With
dialog box, it means the specific filename extension has not yet been
registered. In that case, your best bet is to drag-drop the file into an
open Notepad window.
Investigate.
Right-click the file, and select Properties. If the file has a Version tab, it's likely an application, driver, DLL, or other support file. Choose the Version tab to view the manufacturer, copyright date, and possibly the application it accompanies.
Hide it first.
If
you're not sure if something should be deleted but want to try anyway,
move it to another directory first to see whether everything works
without it for a week or so. If all is clear, toss it.
Check the date.
Check the file's Last Accessed date (right-click it and select Properties).
The more recent the date, the more likely it's still being used. For
information on removing a particular application, contact the
manufacturer of that application or refer to the application's
documentation.
| Windows'
System Restore feature can consume up to 15% of the total capacity of
your hard disk for restore points and shadow copies. |
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3. Optimize Virtual Memory and Cache Settings
One
of the most frustrating and irritating things about Windows is the way
that it can seize up for several seconds with seemingly random,
pointless disk activity. One of the causes of this behavior is the way
Windows handles disk virtual memory by default.
Normally,
Windows loads drivers and applications into memory until it's full, and
then starts to use part of your hard disk to "swap" out information,
freeing up more memory for higher-priority tasks. The file that Windows
uses for this type of "virtual memory" is the paging file (a.k.a. swap
file), pagefile.sys, and it is stored in the root folder of your Windows drive.
Because
your hard disk is so much slower than your physical memory, the more
swapping Windows has to do, the slower your computer gets. This is why
adding more memory speeds up your PC: it reduces Windows' appetite for
virtual memory. But regardless of the amount of installed physical
memory in your system, there are always things you can do to improve
virtual memory performance.
Windows'
defaults here are rather conservative and can fortunately be modified
for better performance. It's important to realize, though, that some
experimentation may be required to achieve the best configuration for
your setup. Different hardware, software, and work habits require
different settings; those with ample hard disks, for instance, can
afford to devote more disk space to virtual memory, while others may
simply wish to use this procedure to place a cap on the disk space
Windows is allowed to consume.
3.1. Part 1: Virtual memory settings
One
of the reasons the default settings yield such poor performance is that
the swap file grows and shrinks with use, quickly becoming very
fragmented . The first step is to eliminate this problem by setting a constant swap-file size.
Note
that making the swap file constant will also result in a more constant
amount of free disk space. If your hard disk is getting full, consider
this solution to restrict Windows from using up every last bit of free
space. (Or better yet, upgrade your hard disk.)
In Control Panel, open the System page and click the Advanced system settings link (or run SystemPropertiesAdvanced.exe).
Under the Advanced tab, click the Settings button in the Performance section.
On the Performance Options page, choose the Advanced tab, and then click Change to open the Virtual Memory window shown in Figure 5.
The
virtual memory settings are set for each drive in your system
independently. If you have only one drive, virtual memory will already
be enabled for that drive. If you have more than one drive or partition,
virtual memory will be enabled only on the Windows drive by default.
Start by selecting the drive that currently holds your paging file
(shown in the righthand column) from the Paging file size for each drive list.
Another
way to stop Windows from using the hard disk so heavily is to disable
virtual memory altogether, but the consequence of short-changing Windows
of its resources will easily outweigh any performance gains. A better
choice is to move the swap file to a different physical drive than the
one on which Windows resides; that way, when Vista accesses virtual
memory, it won't suck the life out of your primary drive. |
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To set a constant size for your virtual memory, select Custom size, and then type the same value for both Initial size and Maximum size.
The
size, specified in megabytes, is up to you. If you have the space, it's
usually a good idea to allocate two to three times the amount of
installed RAM (e.g., 4,096–6,144 MB of virtual memory for 2 GB of
physical memory), but you may wish to experiment with different sizes
for the one that works best for you.
Important: after you've made a change for any drive, click Set to commit the change before moving on to another drive or clicking OK.
Press OK on each of the three open dialogs.
If
you have only resized your swap file, the change will take effect
immediately. But if you've added (or removed) a swap file on any drive,
you'll need to restart Windows before it uses your new settings.
3.2. Part 2: Defragment the paging file
The
steps in the previous section eliminate the possibility of your swap
file becoming fragmented, but they won't cure an already fragmented one.
You'll need to defragment your virtual memory for the best performance,
but the good news is that you only need to do it once if you have a
constant-size paging file.
There are several ways to defragment your swap file:
Use PerfectDisk.
Use an advanced defragmenter like PerfectDisk. Just instruct it to defragment your system
files, and it will schedule a defragmentation for the next time you
start Windows.
Use another drive temporarily.
If
you have more than one partition or hard disk in your system, start by
moving your swap file to a different drive letter, as described in the
previous section. Then, use the command-line Disk Defragmenter to
perform a thorough defragment of your Windows drive, or whatever drive
you'd like to use for virtual memory, by typing:
defrag -w -f c:
and pressing Enter. Again. When it's done, move the swap
file to its new home, where it will rest nicely in the newly allocated
contiguous block of free space.
Turn off virtual memory temporarily.
If you don't have a second drive, your other choice is to disable virtual memory altogether by clicking No paging file and then Set in the Virtual Memory window (see Figure 5-12,
earlier). After restarting Windows, run Disk Defragmenter as described
previously to set aside a large chunk of contiguous free space. When
you're done, go back to the Virtual Memory window, and re-enable the
paging file, making sure to set a constant size.
Clear the paging file automatically.
See Part 3, next, for another way to reduce fragmentation in your paging file.
3.3. Part 3: Clear the paging file on shutdown
It's
possible to have Windows delete your paging file each time you shut
down Windows. You may want to do this if you have a multiboot system ,
wherein each operating system on your PC has its own virtual memory
settings. If the paging file from one OS is present while the other is
running, it may cause a conflict and will certainly waste a lot of disk
space.
If
your paging file becomes corrupted or highly fragmented, Windows may
load more slowly (or not at all). Deleting the paging file automatically
forces Windows to recreate it each time it starts, which may alleviate
this problem. (Naturally, if you've gone to the steps to defragment your
paging file, as described earlier in this topic, you probably won't
want to use this feature, lest it become fragmented again when it's
recreated.)
Open the Local Security Policy console (secpol.msc).
Expand the Local Policies branch and click the Security Options folder.
In the right pane, double-click the Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile.
Select Enabled and then click OK. You'll need to restart Windows for the change to take effect.
3.4. Part 4: Advanced settings for the adventurous
Like
virtual memory settings, disk cache settings in Windows Vista aren't
necessarily optimized for the best performance, but rather for the best
compromise between performance and compatibility with older PCs.
You'll
probably need to experiment with different values until you find the
ones that work best for your system. Since it's possible to render
Windows inoperable with incorrect settings here, you'll want to back up
your PC before you begin. |
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Start by opening the Registry Editor , and expanding the branches to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management. Some of the more interesting values in this key include the following:
DisablePagingExecutive
Values: 0 = disabled (default), 1 = enabled.
Enabling
this setting will prevent Windows from paging certain system processes
to disk, which effectively will keep more of the operating system in the
faster physical memory, in turn making Windows much more responsive.
LargeSystemCache
Values: 0 = standard (default), 1 = large.
By
default, Windows uses only 8 MB of memory for the filesystem cache.
Enabling this option will allow Windows to use all but 4 MB of your
computer's memory for the filesystem cache. This will improve Windows'
performance, but potentially at the expense of the performance of some
of your more memory-intensive applications.
This option can also be changed by opening the System page in Control Panel: click the Advanced system settings link, click Settings in the Performance section, and then choose the Advanced tab. The Memory usage section has two settings: Programs and System cache, which correspond to the 0 and 1 values here.
Other values in this key include PagingFiles, which is more easily set in the Virtual Memory window described in "Section 5.3.3.1" and ClearPageFileAtShutdown, more easily set in the Local Security Settings console, as described in "Section 5.3.3.3."
