KnowledgeBase Archive

An Archive of Early Microsoft KnowledgeBase Articles

View on GitHub

Q82730: Why the Swap File is Written to at Startup in Windows 3.1

Article: Q82730
Product(s): Microsoft Windows 95.x Retail Product
Version(s): WINDOWS:3.1,3.11
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 10-OCT-1999

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows versions 3.1, 3.11 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY
=======

After starting the Microsoft Windows operating system version 3.1 on a machine
with less than 4 megabytes (MB) of available RAM or loading several Windows
applications in the Startup group, Windows accesses the hard drive for a few
seconds.

Windows is doing two things to make your applications run faster:

- All segments from the boot-time modules (Kernel, User, GDI, the display
  driver, and so on) are loaded into memory if there is enough free physical
  memory to hold the segments. This speeds up the loading of applications that
  require these segments.

- All unlocked virtual memory is written to the paging swap file. This allows
  Windows to quickly discard memory because the contents have already been
  written to the paging swap file.

Note: This disk activity does not prevent you from doing other tasks. All of
these operations are done during "idle" system time. Applications respond
normally while this disk activity is in progress.

This behavior does not change if you enable or disable 32-bit disk access.

Additional query words: 3.10 swapfile temporary permanent

======================================================================
Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbWin3xSearch kbZNotKeyword3 kbWin310 kbWin311
Version           : WINDOWS:3.1,3.11

=============================================================================

THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. MICROSOFT DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES SO THE FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY.