anyone tried optimizing windows memory usage for lightroom/cs2?

[bowlesbe]

This is really a windows thread, as I dont know if you can do this stuff with macs..

I did a bit of research on how to maximize memory usage for newer computers and two strategies stood out as commonly employed, summarized below (copyed from http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=1404)

These two strategies seem to be described on MANY websites.

One person, I found on adobe forums, found that just moving the page file to a differnet drive made a HUGE difference.

Has anyone done these things or is experienced about such topics?

I was thinking about just getting a 4G flash drive, and moving the paging file to that...


Disable Paging Of Core Files
You can improve Core System Performance in Windows NT/2k/2k3 on systems with large amount of RAM, by forcing the core Windows system files to be kept in memory and not paged to disk.
To appply this tweak, open the Registry and edit the value in the key below.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management
To enable: DisablePagingExecutive=dword:00000001 (Data Type: REG_DWORD, set to 1 to enable tweak and stop core processes from being paged to disk)
To disable: DisablePagingExecutive=dword:00000000 (Data Type: REG_DWORD, set to 0 to disable tweak, this is the Windows default setting)
Note: In Windows 2000, there is a bug with enabling this tweak, you might need to update to the latest Service Pack, or install the hotfix described by MS here: MS KB Article 32605


Optimize the Pagefile
If you have more than one hard drive, it is a good idea to put your pagefile on the non-windows drives. Also, it is not a bad idea to set the pagefile to a constant size (1 to 2 times the available RAM), so it wont get fragmented.
Right-click on My Computer -> select Properties -> the Advanced tab -> Performance, Settings button -> Advanced tab, Virtual memory, Change button -> choose the drives and size available for pagefile(s).
I usually use a non-windows drive, and same Initial/Maximum size to avoid fragmentation of the pagefile. Another method to avoid fragmentation is to clear the pagefile on shutdown, by changing the following Registry setting:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\
"ClearPageFileAtShutdown=1" (1 clears the pagefile at shutdown, 0 is the Windows default).
Related Resources:
MSKB 314834 (Windows XP)
MSKB 182086 (Windows 2000)

[philmar]

Thanks for the speedguide link.

I have put my Windows pagefile on a non-windows drive (and a drive that is NOT the Photoshop scratch drive). It helped immensely in large batch processes that often slowed down when it went to pagefile. I also set the pagefile to a constant size ( 2 times the available RAM)

I haven't tried any of the other suggestions. I have 4 GBs of RAM so I haven't felt the need to speed much else up. I will do the /3gb switch some day.
I definitely will be tweaking XP to eliminate the many bloated services like messenger, error reporting ect.

Anyone else done any of the suggestions?