Optimize L2 cache memory management under Windows XP

The Windows XP operating system is designed to load 256KB of Layer 2 cache inside the processor (also known as L2 cache). A lot of the processors that are available on the market today posses a lot more then256KB. This tip will allow you to modify Windows so that it can use a larger amount of cache so as to improve your performance.

Start the Windows XP registry editor by clicking “Start”, “run”, type “regedit” and click OK.

Once you are in the registry, go to the following location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Memory Management

Select the “Memory Management” folder in the left hand side and then right click on the open space in the right hand window. You will have to select “New” and “DWORD Value” from the drop down menu that appears.

A new entry will be created. You will now need to change its name and value. To change the name you can right click on it and select “Rename” from the drop down menu. To change the value you will need to select “Edit” from this same drop down menu. You will need to name this new key “SecondLevelDataCache” and change the entry to “Decimal” and give it a value of “512” if your processor has 512 KB of L2 cache, or “1024” if your processor posses 1MB of cache.

The new DWORD appears

Change the DWORD key to 512 decimal

If you don’t want to change your registry manually for fear of making a mistake then you can download these reg files.


Activate 512KB of Second Level cache

Activate 1024KB of Second Level cache