Systems that get heavy usage may experience pagefile fragmentation, which can have an adverse impact on performance. One way to get around this, especially if the system has multiple hard drives (or hard drive partitions), is to have Windows automatically relocate the pagefile on each reboot and delete the old file.
One way to do this is through the use of a pair of scripts – one that runs at shutdown (which can be set through the Group Policy snap-in) and another that runs at startup (which can simply be placed in a user's Startup folder). The script to run at shutdown, SHUTDOWN.VBS, edits the Registry to set the pagefile to another partition, so that on the next reboot a new file is created. The startup script, STARTUP.VBS, deletes any old pagefiles.
To make things simple, STARTUP.VBS will try to delete both files—but won't be able to delete the file in use by the system, and will then simply either skip ahead to the other file or terminate normally. (The ON ERROR RESUME NEXT statement at the top will prevent it from balking.)
SHUTDOWN.VBS
on error resume next
drive1="C:"
drive2="D:"
pagefile="pagefile.sys 0 0"
dim strpagefile
set WshShell=Wscript.Createobject("Wscript.shell")
location="HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession
ManagerMemory ManagementPagingFiles"
strpagefile=WshShell.RegRead(location)
if isnull(ubound(strpagefile)) then
msgbox("No pagefile present! Creating one.")
wshshell.run "reg add ""HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory
Management"" /v PagingFiles /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d ""c:pagefile.sys 0 0"""
else
if ubound(strpagefile)>0 then
wshshell.regdelete(location)
wshshell.regwrite(location),drive1 & pagefile, "REG_MULTI_SZ"
else
if left(strpagefile(0),3)=drive1 then
newfile=drive2
else
newfile=drive1
end if
wshshell.regdelete(location)
wshshell.run "reg add ""HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory
Management"" /v PagingFiles /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d """ & newfile & "pagefile.sys 0 0"""
end if
end if
STARTUP.VBS
on error resume next
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set f2 = fso.GetFile("c:pagefile.sys")
Set f3 = fso.GetFile("d:pagefile.sys")
f2.delete
f3.delete
Serdar Yegulalp is the editor of the Windows 2000 Power Users Newsletter.
