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Feb 5, 2010 By Jared Heinrichs 2 Comments

Learn Best Practices for Optimizing the Virtual Memory Configuration

In a default installation, Windows creates the page file in the root folder on the same drive that holds the Windows system files. The size of the page file is determined by the amount of RAM in your system. By default, the minimum size on a 32-bit (x86) system is 1.5 times the amount of physical RAM if physical RAM is less than 1 GB, and equal to the amount of physical RAM plus 300 MB if 1 GB or more is installed. The default maximum size is three times the amount of RAM, regardless of how much physical RAM is installed. On a PC with a processor that supports Physical Address Extension (PAE)—which is to say, on any PC that is capable of running Windows 7—the maximum size of the page file is 16 TB. You can see the page file in a Windows Explorer window if you configure Windows to show hidden and system files; look for Pagefile.sys in the root of your system drive.

To see the current configuration of your system’s virtual memory, open the System dialog box in Control Panel and click the Advanced tab. Or, for a handy undocumented shortcut, click Start, type systempropertiesadvanced (with no spaces), and press Enter. Under the Performance heading, click Settings. In the Performance Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab. And under the Virtual Memory heading, click Change.

By default, Windows creates a single page file and manages its size. The Currently Allocated num¬ber near the bottom of the dialog box shows how large the file is. If conditions on your system change (say you run an unusually large assortment of memory-intensive applications), Windows might increase or even decrease the size of the page file. All this happens without you’re knowing as long as you leave the Automatically Manage Paging File Size For All Drives option selected.

If you don’t want Windows to automatically manage the page file, you have the following options:

  • You can move the page file to a different volume if you have more than one volume.
  • If you have more than one volume, you can establish more than one page file.
  • For any page file, you can choose between System Managed Size and Custom Size.
  • If you choose Custom Size, you can specify an initial size and a maximum size.
  • You can remove a paging file from a volume by selecting the volume and choosing No Paging File. (In fact, you can do this to get rid of all paging files, although doing so is not recommended, even on systems with a lot of RAM.)

Should you get involved in managing the page file? If you have more than one physical disk, moving the page file to a fast drive that doesn’t contain your Windows system files is a good idea. Using multiple page files split over two or more physical disks is an even better idea, because your disk controller can process multiple requests to read or write data concurrently. But don’t make the mistake of creating two or more page files using multiple volumes on a single physical disk. If, for example, you have a single hard disk that contains volumes C, D, and E, splitting the page file over two or more of these volumes, might actually make your computer run more slowly.

If you are short of hard disk space, you might consider setting a smaller initial page file size. Monitor peak usage levels over time; if the peak is well below the current page file size, you can consider reducing the initial size to save disk space. On the other hand, if you’re not short of disk space, there’s nothing to be gained from doing this and you might occasion¬ally overload your custom settings, thereby degrading the performance of your system.

Should you enlarge your page file? Most users won’t need to do this. But you might want to keep an eye on the green line in the Memory chart on the Overview tab of Resource Monitor. If that line is spiking off the top of the graph a great deal of the time during your normal work, you might consider increasing the maximum size of your page file. (Note that you should disregard page file spikes and disk activity in general that takes place while you’re not actually working. This is likely to be the result of search indexing, defragmentation, or other background processes and does not indicate a problem with your actual work performance.

Thanks to the Microsoft Blog to originally post this info: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff382717.aspx

Filed Under: Windows 7

Feb 2, 2010 By Jared Heinrichs Leave a Comment

How to backup a ICC Profile on Windows 7

I have created an ICC profile in Windows 7 after I calibrated my screen. I wanted to back it up so that if something every were to happen I wouldn’t have to re-calibrate things. Windows to my knowledge give you and easy menu driven wizard to back up a profile. I did some searching and it seems like the only way to back it up is to go to the:

“C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color”

folder and copy the file with the same name as the profile.

All the files are named with an extension of .icm

If you want to know how to import the calibration right click the file and select “Install Profile”.

image

Open “Color Management. I’ve listed them from the easiest to hardest IMO.

  1. START ORB – SEARCH LINE – Color Management
  2. Control Panel – All Items View – Color Management
  3. START ORB – SEARCH LINE – dccw and then hit Enter
  4. File is located: “C:\Windows\System32\dccw.exe”

Under the devices tab select the monitor you want and then apply the profile.

Filed Under: Computer Hardware, Windows 7

Jan 29, 2010 By Jared Heinrichs Leave a Comment

How to calibrate your monitor in Windows 7

Windows 7 has a built in monitor calibration program called the “Color Management”. This program can be run or invoked in several ways and is VERY easy to use as long as you can read and look at pictures. 😉 Here are the four ways I know how to open “Color Management. I’ve listed them from the easiest to hardest IMO.

  1. START ORB – SEARCH LINE – Color Management
  2. Control Panel – All Items View – Color Management
  3. START ORB – SEARCH LINE – dccw and then hit Enter
  4. File is located: “C:\Windows\System32\dccw.exe”

 

Color management allows you to import and create new ICC profiles for your monitor VERY easily. To run the “Calibrate Display” wizard click the advance tab and hit the big “Calibrate display” button.

image 

One thing to note: if you are running more then one monitor on your system it is important you are running the calibration test window on the screen you want to configure. While this might seem logical I have seen people “configure” both monitors from the same screen. They obviously #failed and I hope I can help them.

If your monitor company gives you and ICC monitor profile file save the file to your desktop. Right click the file and select “Install Profile”.

image

Back in the “Color Management” tool:

  1. Click on the device’s tab
  2. Put a check in the box “Use my settings for this device”
  3. Click “Add” and then file the ICC profile you installed from the step before.
  4. Hit Close.

 

image

Hope this helps with your monitor calibration. If you need more accurate calibration for things like photoediting you should look at devices like the Spyder 3 Pro.

Filed Under: Windows 7 Tagged With: How To

Jan 12, 2010 By Jared Heinrichs 13 Comments

How to turn a Windows 7 PC into a Kiosk

Requirements

Windows 7 Professional or higher. You can not do this with the home versions.

Steps to lock down the Kiosk Computer

How to lock down the computer basically leverages local Group Policy (although there is no reason you can’t do this in global group policy on your Windows Small Business Server 2008 machine) to allow users to only run certain applications.  Thus preventing users from getting into trouble and lowering your total cost of ownership on that client PC (or your whole network).

If you have a shared or public computer you might want to allow users to use only specified programs. Today we take a look at a setting in Local Group Policy that allows you to set only specified programs to run.

First click on Start and enter gpedit.msc into the search box and hit Enter.

Navigate to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ System. Then under Setting scroll down and double click on Run only specified Windows applications.

image

Set it to Enabled, then under the Options section click on the Show button next to List of allowed applications.

image

A Show Contents dialog comes up where you can type in the apps you want to allow users to run. When finished with the list, click OK then close out of Local Group Policy Editor.

image

If a user tries to access an application that is not on the specified list they will receive the following error message.

image

This is a nice feature for limiting what programs users can or cannot access on the computer.

Filed Under: Windows 7 Tagged With: How To

Dec 21, 2009 By Jared Heinrichs Leave a Comment

Windows 7 refuses to get IP address from DHCP server but works if you enter manual IP address.

First off I’d like to say this is not really a Windows 7 error. The cause of this is issue is normally caused by installing something like an old Shrewsoft VPN or Cisco VPN clients. These clients tend to install “virtual network adapters” and they can reek havoc on the network settings on your machine.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Windows 7

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