Section 2.5: Configuring System Settings

In Control Panel you can configure the operating system settings to optimize system performance. In the SYSTEM PROPERTIES dialog box you can configure Performance Options, Environment Variables, and Startup and Recovery settings. In Performance Options you can set the operating system to be optimized for applications or background services and you can set the size of the Windows XP Professional paging file. The minimum paging file size for Windows XP Professional is 2 MB. The default or recommended paging file size is equal to 1.5 times the total amount of RAM. You might want to use a larger paging file or multiple paging files if you run a large number of applications simultaneously. In Startup and Recovery you can specify the default operating system and the length of time that the list of operating systems must be displayed before the default is loaded.