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Windows 95 handles disk caching and virtual memory much differently than
previous versions of Windows. In both cases, if left at default, Windows
95 dynamically sizes the disk caching size and virtual memory according o
how it sees the system needs it. I think that it sucks up too much RAM from
the disk caching and that means too little left for applications. So some
excessive disk activity occurs due to applications being swapped out to
virtual memory to soon and too often. Then in addition to this, there is
the extra activity of the virtual memory resizing itself. I have made a
VERY noticeable improvement on my 8 MB system by fixing the virtual memory
at 20 MB and more importantly limiting the size of the disk cache to a
maximum of 2 MB. To control the size of disk caching (despite the
implication by Microsoft that you can't) you add two lines in the
system.ini file in your windows 95 directory in the [vcache] section:
MinFileCache=0
MaxFileCache=x
Where x= the max size of disk caching in KB
In my case x=2048
I think that if you guys with 8 MB systems (and maybe even higher) who are
having excessive disk activity make changes like these, you will be
pleasantly surprised. Previous to doing this I was getting disk swapping
sometimes even when I was accessing the Start menu. Not so after the
changes. I suspect some of the people who are not having this problem
somehow got some kind of migration of vcache settings from the existing
windows setup they had in their old system.ini. For fine tuning, you can
use the System monitor that comes with Windows 95. |