Windows XP Tweak: The Swap File

From the same Notebookreview article from the previous post, here's a tutorial on how to disable or reduce the swap file if you are running Windows XP. This will let you recover as much as 25% of your SSD drive space.

Since the Asus Eee PC has such a limited amount of internal storage space, I highly recommend disabling the swap file, or severely reducing it. To change the swap file size, click on Start --> Settings --> Control Panel.

In the Control Panel select the Performance and Maintenance --> System. Now go to the Advanced tab at the top of the window, and in the Performance group click Settings. In the next window click the Advanced tab, and in the Virtual memory section click “Change”. Now select Custom size and set the Initial and Maximum sizes to a value such as 200, and click Set. You can also select “No paging file” if you have at least 1GB of RAM. Now click OK. You are be finished. Those who opted to completely disable the swap file you have one more step.

The swap file isn’t generally removed after you disable it, this must be done manually. To find the swap file, and delete it, you will need to modify some folder settings. From your desktop or Start menu, open up My Computer --> Local Disc C:. Open that section. From the menu bar select Tools --> Folder Options. In the window that loads up, click on the View tab --> Show hidden files and folders. Next uncheck the option that states Hide protected operating system files. A warning should appear, just click “Yes”. Now click OK to save your settings. Now in the window that is open, search for the file named pagefile, delete it, and empty your trash bin. Congratulations! You just freed up like 25-30% of your hard drive space!