In trying to tweak out every once of speed from my outdated system(which I've upgraded to 256MB RAM), I've read tweak instructions at more than one source that say I should set my MaxFree Mem to 1/4 of my RAM (in kilobytes). In doing a scan of my system, I found mine set at 33kb. Some people are telling me that zero is Ok. Will changing my Max(not my Min) to 65000kb improve my speed? (450MH CPU, Windows98SE)

Keep in mind that you can not get blood from a quarter. Yes, I believe that setting will make your PC run like a 1.7ghz Athlon CPU max and 450mhz min.

Oh, come on guy? Sarcasm isn't what I was looking for. I'm not talking about making my system run like I had a Gig CPU, just squeezing out ANY little bit more speed, that's all. Has Anybody tried that(Used that tweek?)and seen any difference?

65536kB should work fine, give it a try. I don't think zero will help (disabling vcache) . You probably won't harm anything by trying. Warning: 512MB is the maximum or the vache calculations overflow and weird things happen. W98 and previous do not effectively use more than 512MB of real memory. See the msft knowledge base for more.

Chrstphr, thanks--have you tried that? Do you have yours set at 1/4 of your RAM? Someone told me that doing that was only for 95, but the tweaks I read were supposed to be for 98. I didn't mean setting vcache to zero by putting that value there, what I meant was not putting anything in the vcache line and let Windows do "It's own thing". THAT's what I'm wondering which would be faster. Have(are)yours set at 65536?

Joe, I'm sorry if I gave you the idea that a setting of 0 is OK. I did not say it was. I said I didn't think a setting of 33 kb (which is what you said your program reported) would cause your initial problem. I experimented with low settings, one of which was zero, to see if they would cause your initial problem. I concluded that a low setting would not cause your initial problem... But that does not mean I recommend a low setting. My recommendation was and is, the same as Microsoft's, Hmmm's, and others... Let your Windows 98SE manage the vcache (in other words, no settings in [vcache]). That's what I do (128 MB of RAM). Maybe a reader with the same amount of RAM as you (256 MB) will tell us if they restrict their vcache or let Windows manage it. If you want to experiment, I say more power to ya... Try the settings you are wondering about and see if they make a difference. I did. I've been running with a maxfilecache setting around 64000 since I read your earlier post on the subject a couple hours ago. I have noticed no difference in performance. (I tried all the higher settings that you mentioned... 64000, then 65000, then one fourth of 256 MB which is 65536.) I hope others will post their opinions.

I would make the same suggestion. Remove the MaxFileCache entry and run for a new days. Then put one in that is 1/4 of the ram and again, run for a few days. Compare. If there is no difference, remove the line. That will allow windows to use as much vcache as it needs, when and if it needs it. If you have available memory, you may as well let windows use it for file caching. BTW I don't know where you got the "MaxFree Mem" from. This parameter has nothing to do with trying to keep memory free (heaven forbid).