The IT Alchemy Lab really doesn't have any set "purpose" to speak of. It is more about the IT technologies and issues I come across in my day-to-day business, meetings and chats (lunches, coffee and drinks) with my IT colleagues and friends.

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Friday, September 19, 2008

How to boost XP performance with 4 Gigs of RAM

XP Professional is Required

By default, Version 5 processes on Windows can allocate up to 2.0GB of memory for storing data and code.

The 4GB address space offered by the operating system is split in two areas of 2GB each: the first 2GB is for user mode, and the other 2GB isg reserved by the kernel.

With XP Pro, it is possible to increase the default allocation capabilities up to 3.0GB (3GB for user mode, 1GB reserved for kernel). Such capability requires additional tunings in order to be effective:

A modification of boot.ini file is needed to activate this capability at the system level.
The boot.ini switch /3GB needs to be added in order to make 3GB available for user mode applications.
For example:


[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB" /fastdetect /3GB
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

Microsoft's Site

Memory Limits for Windows Releases: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_xp
Forums Page
FAQ Detailing these enhancements http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/148261-45-limitation

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