How to Speed up Windows 95     

1) Add more RAM: Benchmark tests record TWICE the speed when 8Mb of RAM is increased to 16Mb and TRIPLE the speed when increased to 32Mb. Since all the dynamically linked libraries (DLL’s) are loaded on start up then the more RAM you have to load these into improves the boot up time. Even the DLL’s from deleted programs are still loaded. REGCLEAN.EXE program may help alleviate this problem by removing some of the rubbish.

Also, when system demands exceed RAM available the hard drive’s Virtual Memory comes into play. This is more a matter of long and slow program loading with a great deal of disk activity, and happens because:

a) Memory is clogged up with useless junk that has to be shoved out before the program can load.

b) The sizes of cache and virtual memory need to be changed; and

c) The swapfile is badly fragmented, as it uses whatever space happens to be vacant. The answer also     has three parts: -

i)  Get rid of orphan DLL’s. This is not easy as most programs available don’t do the job adequately (REGCLEAN.EXE?) and a manual removal is a tricky process that may destroy vital registry data. The most tedious but effective method is reinstall Windows 95.

ii)  Increase RAM.

iii)  The other easier method (besides more RAM) is to implement the SWAP FILE BOOSTER procedure set out below. This involves changing the Virtual Memory Swap file settings and the Virtual Cache settings (freezes their size) see page 85 of PC USER magazine – June 1997. Note: cannot be performed with a compressed drive.

2) Another improvement (but not proven by myself) is to change your default "FILE SYSTEM" settings as "Desktop Computer" to "Network Server". This can be found by going to: Control Panel, then System, then Performance tab, FILE SYSTEM button, then select Network server from the drop-down box. Now re-start the computer.

3) Changing Swap file settings to improve performance:

Firstly – DEFRAGMENT all drives with Win95.

Go to Control Panel, then left click-on System, then Performance, then Virtual Memory. Now select – ‘Let Me Specify My Own’ and nominate the drive you want (use the fastest but not a compressed drive!). Next, set minimum and maximum to the same value. This freezes the Swap file and makes it stay where it is, using carefully defragmented vacant space. The actual space you should nominate according to the rule of thumb: two-and-a-half or three times the amount of RAM you have.

4) Changing the Virtual Cache settings to improve performance:

You must have at least 16Mb of RAM. The virtual cache is another big time waster, as it tries to take up all available RAM, forcing it to page material (slowly) out to the swap file to make room for any starting program or loading image file. The upper and lower limits of this setting can be also set the same, essentially freezing the size of the virtual cache. Firstly, open the system.ini file found in the Windows folder (sysedit also contains this file). Search for the header (heading) [Vcache] in system.ini – if you can’t find the heading – create it. Under that heading, insert:

MinFileCache=4096

MaxFileCache=4096

The above is for a PC with 16Mb of RAM.

The cache size is entered in kilobytes; 4096kb is of course 4Mb. If you have more than 16Mb of RAM, it’s worthwhile increasing the cache size in proportion (about 25%). If you have 32Mb, a good cache size would be 8192.

(48Mb=12288).

(64Mb = 16384).                                            Back to PC Subjects Archive