Relocate your virtual memory: Among the largest system files in your Windows folder is the one that Windows uses for virtual memory–disk space that complements your system RAM to let Windows act as if your PC has more memory than it does. Fortunately, you can tell Windows to put this file (known variously as the swap file or the paging file) on another drive.

In Windows 98 and Me, right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Click Performance, Virtual Memory and check Let me specify my own virtual memory settings. In the 'Hard disk' drop-down list, select an alternative drive. Set the 'Minimum size' and 'Maximum size' to the same number. Click Yes to acknowledge the scary warning, select Close, and click Yes to restart your PC.

In Windows 2000 and XP, log in as the administrator. Right-click My Computer and select Properties. Click Advanced, and in the Performance box choose Performance Options (in Windows 2000) or Settings (in XP). In Windows XP, click Advanced. In Windows 2000 and XP, click Change and select the drive currently being used for virtual memory. Set its initial and maximum sizes to 0 in Windows 2000, or click No paging file in XP, and then click Set. Select the drive you want to use for virtual memory, make the initial and maximum size values equal, and click Set (see FIGURE 3). When you're done, click OK twice to close the dialog box and to acknowledge the restart message. Then click OK twice more to close the remaining dialog boxes. Finally, click Yes to restart your PC.

Relocate your print spool: Reader Ron Evanoff of Newmarket, Ontario, writes to ask about another space issue: "Because my C: drive is pretty full, I get an error when trying to print a photo to my printer. The error indicates that my system drive is out of space. I have plenty of space on my D: drive. Can I move the spool file to that partition?" The answer depends on which version of Windows you use.

When you print a document, the application first sends the data to your hard disk. (Click here for tips on customizing these settings.) By default, Windows creates the spool (temporary) file in the Windows\Spool\Printers folder. Windows 2000 and XP make it easy for you to choose another location for this file. Let current jobs finish, and when no print jobs are pending, select Start, Settings, Printers in Windows 2000 or Start, Printers and Faxes in Windows XP.

In Windows 2000 and XP, choose File, Server Properties, Advanced. In the 'Spool folder' box, type the path to the spool folder you prefer–for example, D:\Spool (see FIGURE 4). (Type the path to an existing folder; Windows won't create the folder for you.) Click OK and then Yes to acknowledge the prompt. This procedure affects all printers set up on your system.

To set a different spool folder for a specific printer in Windows 2000 and XP, you'll have to edit the Registry. First, back it up (see instructions); then choose Start, Run, type regedit, and press <Enter>. In the left pane, select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers. In the Printers key (represented by a folder icon), select the key for your printer. In the right pane, double-click SpoolDirectory. (If you don't see this icon, right-click in the right pane, choose New, String Value, type SpoolDirectory, and press <Enter>.) In the 'Value data' field of the Edit String dialog box, type the path to your new spool folder. You must specify a folder (such as 'd:\spool'), not the root of a drive. Click OK and exit the Registry Editor. (If you specified a nonexistent folder, create it manually, as Windows won't do it for you.) Choose Start, Run, type services.msc, and press <Enter>. From the list of services that appears, select Print Spooler, then Action, Stop. When the spooler stops, choose Action, Start and exit Services.

To redirect the print spool (and other temporary files) to another drive in Windows 98 and Me, create a folder for these files on another drive. For example, you might create a folder on your D: drive named Temp. Then choose Start, Run, type notepad c:\autoexec.bat, and press <Enter>. If the file doesn't exist, Notepad will ask if you want to create a new one; click Yes. If the file contains lines that begin 'set temp=' or 'set tmp=', edit those lines with the new path to your temporary folder (for example, set temp=d:\temp). If your autoexec.bat file contains no such line, add anywhere in the file a line that reads set temp= d:\temp, where d:\temp stands for the actual path to your new temporary folder. Add another line that reads set tmp= d:\temp (again, replacing d:\temp with your path). Make sure that each of these commands is on a line by itself. Now save the file and restart your computer to see the change.

[Scott Dunn - http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,112039,00.asp]