Addressing RAM in Win 95, 98, 2000, and XP

[Caveman]

I've learned the following through trial and error. Is it true?

Win 95 can really only use about 32 megs of RAM and anything over that is "wasted"

Win 98 default will use up to 512 Megs of RAM and anything over that will require a bit of special "tweaking"

Win 2000 and XP can address about as much as you'd want up to about 4 Gigs?

 

[Nothinman]

Win9X has an effective 32-bit limit of 4G, but because their VM sucks anything 512 and over needs tweaking to have it not crash left and right.
NT has the same 32-bit limit of 4G, but with a Intel processor with PAE (which makes it able to use 36 bits for memory addressing IIRC) they can get up to 64G, although you have to pay MS more to use OSes with that ability (i.e. NT 4 Enterprise, Win2K Adv Server, etc)

 

[Caveman]

I am particularly interested in Win 95. Are you positive of your Win 95 data...? I got my info from someone who was supposed to be a "guru". I guess he wasn't much of a guru?

 

[Nothinman]

Well if your guru thinks Win95 will only use 32M he's far from a guru.

Boot up a Win95 box with 32M and then boot it again with 64M, notice the difference you'll be able to tell.

 

[AndyHui]

Please read the FAQ: What is the maximum amount of RAM for Windows?

 

[Sharpedge]

I read the FAQ and found it very interesting. I have 512mb and running Win ME and XP pro in dual boot. I checked my vcache in Win ME and found only one entry of MaxFileCache=262144.

I remembered at PCpitstop a flag on memory coming up and this appaently was there autofix as I dont believe I entered this value.

Is this a good value or should I change it? and do I need the MinFileCache listed too?

Thanks again for your assistance.