Virtual Memory

[BenLi]

I have run into some slowdowns with my computer. A website suggested i turn off virtual memory to speed up the computer. I have 2 gb of ram, so is it okay to turn off paging files? Also, it suggested that turning off the virtual memory and defragmenting will speed up the computer?

[cool dude]

defragmenting is good and should be done periodically. speed wise most likely you want see much of an improvement by defragmenting. your speed problems are mostly caused by either viruses or spyware. a free good virus scanner is avast. a really good spyware program that is my favourite is spyware doctor, unfortunately not free. a free spyware program is spybot search and destroy which is decent but doesn't find nearly as much spyware as spyware doctor.

[agnivohneb]

cool dude wrote:

a free good virus scanner is avast.

This is true, avast! is very easy and fast compared to norten avast loads faster and runs faster. and its 100% free unlike norten were you have to buy it each year.

cool dude wrote:

defragmenting is good and should be done periodically.

Not only is it good to defrag your system but also check and see what programs you have running in the backgroung and ask yourself if you really need it running.

Clearing your cache and temp folders is another thing you can do

[md]

Ahh the joys of Linux; no need to worry about viruses (for the most part), no defragging because the FS handles it for you (yay xfs!) and temp directories which are kept in memory!

Clearing your cache won't make things faster; it will actually make them slower as then everything will need to be downloaded again. However it will solve any problems if something in your cache is corrupted.

[edit] to the OP, yes you could probably get away with disabling paging, however windows is pretty bad at memory management so you might find that you run out of memory if you run lots of things.