Paging file

[albatros]

My question is if by increasing the paging file size the perfomance of my computer which runs XP will improve.

[jlreich]

Are you getting any errors about being out of memory? If not then no it won't help.

What can help is making the page files minimum and maximum the same value. That way it's static and XP doesn't need to calculate how much page file is needed every time it boots. This can noticeably speed up boot times.

What you should set it to depends on how much physical ram you have??

[Sylvander]

"XP doesn't need to calculate how much page file is needed every time it boots. This can noticeably speed up boot times"
My [perhaps faulty] understanding is that the normal Windows paging file is dynamic; which I take to mean that Windows [while in use] is constantly calculating the likely size of paging file needed and resizing it to suit.
And that by making it a fixed size, Windows doesn't need to constantly recalculate, and the processor load is thereby reduced.

[jlreich]

You're probably right Sylvander. Setting the page file has just become such a habit anytime I setup windows, I don't even think about it anymore. :)