Windows XP - Increase the cache for input/output operations

By default, your Windows XP reserves a part of the Working memory for all input/output operations of the user, programs or the operating system itself. This part is specially tailored to the main memory and already offers a decent speed in this respect. Unfortunately, this recognition routine, which is executed at every system start, does not know how your computer is being used.

For example, video and image processing, games or CAD programs require considerably more input/output operations, which slowly leads to a bottleneck with the Windows XP default setting. It is advisable to significantly increase this part of the working memory. And this is how you proceed:

1. Click in succession on Start > Execute and type in the command line that pops up regedit on. The popular program for changing the Windows registration reveals itself.

2. Now scroll through the keys HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEM CurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management and double-click on IoPageLockLimitwhich is located in the right-hand pane.

3. Now enter if you have 128 megabytes of RAM, 16384 in the window that appears. Do not forget to click on Decimal.

You must use the numbers from the table below for your working memory size...

Important note: If you cannot find the value IoPageLockLimit, you must right-click in the right-hand pane and create this value yourself using the New/DWORD value.

In the left part of the table you will find the different memory variants and in the right part the corresponding values, which you enter in IoPageLockLimit.

Reason for the inconsistent values from line 4: From 256 MB RAM, it is highly recommended to set up a 64 MB frame for IO operations, as the load on the RAM no longer plays a major role here.

Now that you have clicked OK If you have confirmed this, closed the Windows registry editor and restarted your computer, Windows will immediately use the new value, resulting in a drastic improvement in performance for programs with high input/output operations.