How do I enable Intel Physical Address Extensions?

John Savill

January 28, 2001

1 Min Read
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A. Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Datacenter can both address more than 4GB (8GB and 64GB, respectively). You enable this feature with the /PAE switch. Perform the following steps:

  1. Use the following command to remove the system and read-only boot.ini attributes:

    C:> attrib c:boot.ini -s -r 
    
    
  2. Use the following command to open boot.ini in Notepad:

    notepad c:boot.ini 
    
    
  3. Add the /PAE switch to the end of the OS you use. For example,

    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server" /fastdetect /pae 
    
    
  4. Save the change.

  5. Use the following command to reset the system and read-only attributes:

    C:> attrib c:boot.ini +s +r 
    
    

The 4GB limitation for each program still exists; however, the OS can address more memory, so the programs won't encounter physical memory limitations and the system will experience less paging.

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