Moving the Windows Default Paging and Spool File

MORE INFORMATION

There are three sections of this article:

1. Moving the Paging File
2. Moving the Default Spool Directory for All Printers
3. Moving the Default Spool Directory on a Per Printer Basis and Creating Multiple Spool Directories

Section One: Moving the Paging File

Windows 3.5, Windows 3.51, and Windows 4.0

1. In Control Panel, double-click System.
2. Click Virtual Memory.
3. Set the Initial Size (MB) and Maximum size values to 0 (zero), and then click Set.
4. Select the new drive that you want to use to store the paging file.
5. Set Initial Size (MB) and Maximum size. For the initial size, Microsoft recommends using the recommended value in the Total Page File Size for All Drives box.
6. Click Set, and then click OK twice.
7. Click Restart Now.

Windows 2000

1. In Control Panel, double-click System.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Click Performance options.
4. Click Change under Virtual Memory.
5. Select the new drive that you want to use to store the paging file.
6. Set Initial Size (MB) and Maximum size. For the initial size, Microsoft recommends using the recommended value in the Total Page File Size for All Drives box.
7. Click Set, and then click OK twice.
8. Click Restart Now.

NOTE: If you move the Paging file from the system partition, Windows cannot write debug information to the disk in the event of a "Stop Error" message (blue screen error).

Section 2: Moving the Default Spool Directory for All Printers

NOTE: If you follow this procedure, a new default spool directory is applied to all printers configured on this system.

Windows NT 3.5 and Windows NT 3.51

NOTE: This value is also available in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000.

1. Start Registry Editor.
2. From the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree, go to the following subkey:

   \SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers

3. Click the Printers key.
4. On the Edit menu, click Add Value.
5. Add a value using the following information:

   Value Name: DefaultSpoolDirectory
   Data Type : REG_SZ
   String : full path to printer spool directory

6. Quit Registry Editor.
7. Go to File Manager, select the drive on which the new spool directory will be created and then create the directory on the drive defined in the Registry value DefaultSpoolDirectory. For example, if in the Registry under DefaultSpoolDirectory the value "F:\SPOOL" was entered, create a directory called SPOOL on the F: drive.
8. If the new directory is located on an NTFS drive, please assign the appropriate permissions to the spool directory. For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   137503 Default Windows Spool Directory and Permissions

9. Stop and Restart the Spooler service in the Services section of Control Panel.

To verify the correct operation:

1. Start File Manager, and then click the spool directories on the appropriate drive.
2. Start a program (for example, Write) that has a document over 100 Kb in size.
3. Print the document and, while printing, immediately press ALT+TAB to move back to the File Manager window
   
   Two files with the extensions .shd and .spl should be displayed in the right pane under the spool directory. After the print job is complete, these two files are deleted by Windows. If no files are displayed, print a larger file.
4. Verify registry settings and NTFS permissions to confirm that the spool directory resides on NTFS partition.For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   137503 Default Windows Spool Directory and Permissions

Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000

1. In Control Panel, double-click Printers.
2. On the File menu, click Server Properties, and then click the Advanced tab.
3. Type the path you want to use in the Spool Folder box, and then click OK.
   
   NOTE: Some third-party programs may block you from moving the spool file in Windows NT 4.0.

Section 3: Moving the Default Spool Directory on a Per Printer Basis and Creating Multiple Spool Directories

NOTE: Following this procedure applies a new default spool directory to a specific printer configured on this system. If you want to define this for all printers, use procedures listed in Section 2.

1. Start Registry Editor.
2. From the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree, go to the following subkey:

   \SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers \specific printer\SpoolDirectory

3. Click the Specific Printers key.
4. Verify that the value SpoolDirectory is not displayed in the right pane. If it is not displayed, click Add Value on the Edit menu.
5. Add a value using the following information:

   Value Name: SpoolDirectory
   Data Type : REG_SZ
   String : full path to printer spool directory

6. Quit Registry Editor.
7. Go to File Manager, click the drive on which the new spool directories will be created, and then create the directories on the drive defined in each of the printer's SpoolDirectory registry value.
   
   For example, if the value under SpoolDirectory in the registry is "F:\SPOOL\PRINTQ1", you must create a directory called SPOOL on the F: drive, and then create a subdirectory under SPOOL called PRINTQ1.
8. If the new directories are located on an NTFS drive, please assign the appropriate permissions to the spool directories. For additional information about the appropriate entries, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   137503 Default Windows Spool Directory and Permissions

9. Stop and Restart the Spooler service in the Services section of Control Panel.

To verify the correct operation:

1. Start File Manager, and then click the spool directories on the appropriate drive.
2. Start a program (for example, Write) that has a document over 100 Kb in size.
3. Print the document and, while printing, immediately press ALT+TAB to move back to the File Manager window.
   
   Two files with the extensions .shd and .spl should be displayed in the right pane under the spool directory. After the print job is complete, these two files are deleted by Windows. If no files are displayed, print a larger file.
4. Verify registry settings and NTFS permissions to confirm that the spool directory resides on NTFS partition.For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   137503 Default Windows Spool Directory and Permissions

NOTE: Neither DefaultSpoolDirectory nor SpoolDirectory are set by default. The global default location for all printers spool files is %SystemRoot%\System32\Spool\Printers. DefaultSpoolDirectory defines a new global default location for all printers to put their spool files. SpoolDirectory defines a new printer-specific location for spool files that overrides the global default on a per-printer basis.

An actual directory name needs to be specified; you cannot specifying only the root directory (for example: "C:\"). Instead, you must use C:\Directory, where "Directory" is the name of the directory you want to use. If you do specify the root directory as the default spool location, spooling reverts back to the %SystemRoot%\System32\Spool\Printers directory.

The Windows Resource Kit documentation does not indicate this nor does it explicitly state that only a directory will work (see p.226 and pages 637 to 640).