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Wow! Nice offer!

Welcome and thank you for offering your services!

WOW - thanks for the offer......you are so right on IT support. Look forward to your advice and help in the future.

Here is a question for you: how do I limit the size of the disk cache in XP?

XP's disk caching is flat out stupid, and I can't find a way to limit it like I could in 95/98.

Can you further define what you mean by "disk cache"? This term is misused in several cases.

Is it virtual memory? is it ReadyBoost? is it disk buffer? Is it Virtual Cache?

Each requires a diferent response.

NoOne,

Try this:

Go to Control Panel
Click on System
Click on Advanced
Under Performance, click on settings
Click on the advanced tab
At the bottom under virtual memory you can change the size of the cache

Hope this helps.

Darrin

That was easy!

If you are having issues freeing up disk space don't forget to delete content and set the size of your browser cache. If you haven't been cleaning it up or have it set to a high limit you may find some very useable disk space (if you tell us what browser and version you use I or somone here will tell you where to find the cache settings.)

Nice catch!

I'm so happy to see the participation of the community in these problem solving efforts.

Ah I should have been more specific. System caching is what I am interested in. Right now my system cache is taking 1,190,000~ of my 2GB of memory. I would like to limit it to something like 256MB.

Okay... The following is the only option I am aware of in the MS OS that is configurable for the System Cache. However there are utilities available on the net that seem like they may do what you want, XPCacheMan for one. You will have to pay a nominal fee for the software (unless you can find shareware somewhere), and a word of caution, do a search on problems that occur with the utility you select. And let me clarify, I am not recommending any of these utilities be used.

The System Cache (LargeSystemCache), which is enabled by default in Windows Server 2003, and disabled by default in Windows XP, controls the allocation of memory between programs and file sharing. The System Cache is designed to improve server performance by allowing information to be read from memory instead of re-reading it from disk.
NOTE: If you are using a server product as your desktop, you should disable the LargeSystemCache feature.

If you are using Windows XP primarily as a server, you may want to enable the LargeSystemCache feature.

NOTE: If your computer uses an AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) video or UMA (Unified Memory Architecture) video, you may experience random and severe performance decreases, as the drivers for these hardware components consume a large portion of available memory when the are initialized. This may cause insufficient RAM when other processes request resources, specially when transferring large files.

LargeSystemCache, a REG-DWORD data type, at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management, can have the following settings:

1 = (Enabled) Maximize Throughput for File Sharing, which uses program memory for I/O functions when the cache is full.

0 = (Disabled) Maximize Throughput for Network Applications, which uses cache memory only for I/O functions.
Additionally, the Server service uses Size, a REG-DWORD data type, at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServiceslanmanserverparameters, which can have the following settings:

1 = Minimize Memory Used.

2 = Balance.

3 = Maximize Throughput for File Sharing and Maximize Throughput for Network Applications.

To configure the System Cache using the GUI:

1. Open Control Panel.

2. Open the System applet.

3. Select the Advanced tab.

4. Pressing the Settings button in the Performance area.

5. Select the Advanced tab.

6. Choose from:

Programs - If you are using Windows XP as a workstation.

System Chache - If you are using Windows XP primarily as a server.
7. Press Apply and OK.
8. Shutdown and restart Windows XP.

Thanks for the explanation, it is clear and concise, and it is obvious you know what your talking about 🙂

Glad to help

Just wanted to post a warning about Adobe PDF files. News indicates there is a security flaw that will allow PDF files to bring executables to your PC, and that hackers can get control through the PDF documents.

Don't open PDF documents from those you don't know. There is a security patch due out from Adobe on or about the 10th of March.

Adobe constantly wants you to update. What's with that? It's annoying.

It is annoying. But software companies constantly figure out ways to make it better, to add features, to fix bugs, and to close security gaps. All important.

In many cases, I run msconfig from Start/Run, and select the startup tab. Then uncheck anything that has the words "auto" or "update" in the line. This eliminates those things from your system tray in the lower left that keep popping up, running in the background, and taking up memory space and processor time.

In most cases, anything on that startup tab can be eliminated without impacting what you need to do with your PC. Best to leave anything with the word "system" in the line checked.

You'd be surprised how much doing this will affect the speed of your PC.

Great tip. Thanks!

OK, you have my attention. If you need some FREE office space, PM me?
Pamela

Pamela,

Thanks for the offer! I'll keep it in mind. Every little bit will help to get my business on it's feet on the island.

For the most part, my consulting work just requires me to have a cell phone in my pocket where ever I happen to be, and word of mouth does the rest.

Just out of curiosity, where is your space?

News today reports a new threat coming from Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites.

An invitation gets the user to click on a link to a false UTube site, where if you click on the video, the worm will make it's way in to your computer and hijack it.

The best way to avoid things like this is to make sure that when you click on a link for a popular domain (like UTube), that the domain in the address bar appears as it should be (i.e. www.UTube.com and not something like www.othersite.com/utubevideo/etc).

Thank you SO MUCH, Vic! I got in touch with Dell and they are mailing me the needed discs...

FYI, everyone else, my laptop died and wouldn't re-boot, so I called IslandJoan, who e-mailed Vic, who called me right back...TWICE!! Stayed on the phone and walked me thru exactly what I needed to do...and yep! He DEFINITELY knows what he's doing! All this IT stuff came rolling off the top of his head! Hooked me right up! Vic is AWESOME!!!!!! Thanks, Vic!!

What a wonderful offer, luckily I don't have a question at the moment but I am awfully happy to hear that your out there!

When are you coming down? Thanks SO much for offering to help us down we, we are sorely in need of IT people. Have a safe trip down!

We will be traveling April 6th. So if you don't see me positing that day, it's cuz I'm out of touch.

Vic,

Thought I posted this but don't see it ... Compass Point Marina is the office space. We manage charter yachts and are not actually in the office much. Good location with great parking. PM when you get closer to being here.

Pamlea