Is the “Maximize data throughput for network applications” setting still valid on Windows 2008?

Question

On Windows 2003 you could choose between:

• Minimize memory used
• Balance
• Maximize data throughput for file sharing
• Maximize data throughput for network applications

These options used to be found under:

Control Panel -> 
    Network Connections -> 
       NIC Properties ->
           File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks ->
               Server Optimization tab

On Windows 2008 Server it appears you can't set this property any more. Do I set this somewhere else, or, are these options no longer valid under Windows 2008?

Answer 1

Seems that this option has disappeared from the user interface. But it is still available as registry setting (Microsoft Technet documentation):

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management 
DWORD: LargeSystemCache

and

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters
DWORD: Size

I'm not sure if changing the default values will have an effect on the system.

Description

Specifies whether the system maintains a standard size or a large size file system cache, and influences how often the system writes changed pages to disk.

Increasing the size of the file system cache generally improves server performance, but it reduces the physical memory space available to applications and services. Similarly, writing system data less frequently minimizes use of the disk subsystem, but the changed pages occupy memory that might otherwise be used by applications.

Option setting                   Large System Cache value  Size value
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Minimize memory used                                    0           1
Balance                                                 0           2
Max throughput for file sharing                         1           3
Max throughput for network app                          0           3