Modding Win 7

[Access Denied]

So I've heard that you can mod 32bit Win 7 to recognise more than 4Gb of RAM. I've also hear that you can mod it so that a HDD is recognised as RAm instead of storage space or simply a page file.

Any truth to these?

 

[inactionman]

It's a limitation of it being a 32bit operating system. To fix it, just upgrade to the 64bit version!

 

[ford prefect]

A 32 bit processor uses 32 bits to refer to each byte, so that means that each memory address can only be 32 bits long, so 2^32 - 4.2 billion or 4gb. I don't really see a way around that, certainly not in the case of windows, but I could be wrong, maybe someone has thought of a solution, but probably not for windows.

 

[Zenith.UK]

I thought you were talking about modding the GUI elements like this...
Win7 Logon Layout Changer: Customize Windows 7 Login Screen User Picture, Buttons and Branding Logo Position - Tweaking with Vishal

 

[Syri]

If you've got a 64 bit CPU, you might be able to get a program that's written in assembly and runs at a low level. That could possibly swap things in and out of the "extra" memory that the 32 bit version can't see. The thing is, if you've got a 64 bit CPU, you might aswell just install the 64 bit version of Windows 7. If you bought it, you'll have both in the box. If you got it with the computer, most of them sold now that can use 64 bit actually come with it. If you got it from "other" sources, then the 64 bit version should be there too.
If it's not a 64 bit CPU, then there's simply no way for it to see any extra ram, as there will not be any software that can see it, due to the BIOS and all other hardware layers not even seeing it.
I could be wrong on this, but as far as I know, that's where things stand with 64 bit operating systems.
As for using hard drive space as ram, windows does this automatically anyway, it's what the windows swap file is. It's best to have enough ram not to need it much though, as it operates a hell of a lot slower than ram.

 

[ST^]

Why in the flying fuck would you want to use a hard drive as RAM? Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Let Windows handle it with a page file.

 

[Will]

I don't really see a way around that, certainly not in the case of windows, but I could be wrong, maybe someone has thought of a solution, but probably not for windows.

If you install a Physical Address Extension (PAE) aware kernel in linux, that will allow you to use more than 4Gb of RAM. I don't think there is an equivalent for Windows.

Probably not what the OP wanted to hear though.

 

[Ovron]

Physical Address Extension (Windows) wrt PAE.

In other words, yes it is possible under certain circumstances. Link explains stuff.

 

[Access Denied]

Thanks guys. All i wanted to know. Thought the guy who told me might've been talking shit =P