Windows WITH a swapfile :-)

[Holley]

One simple solution: get more memory, and run the swapfile onto a Ramdisk.  Windows requires an extensive swapfile, just try switching it off and running Word as an example!  This is the only way to stop the harddisk grinding.

For speed (on disk) a fixed size swapfile, set right after installing Windows, will do best.  A small partition at the start of an oversized drive will also work faster.  Keeping it cleared of temp files and defragmented regularly also helps ... a quick harddisk will access faster than flash memory for that kind of access pattern BTW!

[Holley]

A seperate old 1Gb drive will be slower than a newish 30+ Gb one sharing Windows!  If you create, say, a 10Gb partition at the start of a 160Gb disk it goes well quick, too!

Anyway, to set up a Ramdisk you used to run a program called ramdisk under Dos (it came with 5.0 to 6.22 IIRC), under Windows you'd need to use something like this.