JSI Tip 3515. A great RAM disk and more.

In tip 0020, I introduced Microsoft's RAMDISK driver for Windows NT 4.0.

Microsoft has released a Windows 2000 RAMDISK.

To install the driver:

01. Unzip RAMDISK.EXE to a temporary folder.

02. Start / Settings / Control Panel.

03. Double-click the Add/Remove Hardware applet.

04. Select Add/Troubleshoot a device.

05. Select Add a new device.

06. Select No, I want to select the hardware from a list.

07. Select Other devices.

08. Press Next.

09. Press Have Disk.

10. Browse to the folder (from step 01) that contains the Ramdisk.inf file.

11. The system will copy Ramdisk.sys to %Systemroot%\System32\Drivers and load the driver.

12. When Prompted to restart, reply NO.

13. Copy/paste the following entries into a RAMDISK.REG file:

NOTE: See The RAM disk enhanced.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

\[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Ramdisk\Parameters\]
"BreakOnEntry"=dword:00000000
"DebugLevel"=dword:00000000
"DebugComp"=dword:ffffffff
"DiskSize"=dword:01f00000
"DriveLetter"="R:"
"RootDirEntries"=dword:00000200
"SectorsPerCluster"=dword:00000002

\[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment\]
"TEMP"="R:\\"
"TMP"="R:\\"

\[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment\]
"TEMP"="R:\\"
"TMP"="R:\\"

\[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\]
"Cache"="R:\\"

\[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\]
"Cache"="R:\\"

\[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Environment\]
"TEMP"="R:\\"
"TMP"="R:\\"

\[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\]
"Cache"="R:\\"

\[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\]
"Cache"="R:\\"

14. Double-click the RAMDISK.REG file. The keys in the RAMDISK.REG file provide the following functionality:

Parameters                    -  Sets the RAMDISK to drive R: as a 30.9MB partition.
Session Manager\Environment   -  Sets the System TEMP and TMP environment variables to drive R:.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment -  Sets the current user TEMP and TMP environment variables to drive R:.
Both HKCU Shell Folders       -  Sets the current user Temporary Internet Files to drive R:. 
HKU\.DEFAULT keys             -  Sets the default user TEMP, TMP and Temporary Internet Files to drive R:.

15. Shutdown and restart Windows 2000.