Win 9x VCACHE Settings

VCACHE (Virtual Caching Protocol) is the dynamic disk cache system in Windows 9x.  32-bit VCACHE 
replaces the 16-bit Smartdrive system driver.  VCACHE is a hard disk Disk Cache system that is 
dynamically sized by Windows.  The cache size is based on the current available memory.
Unfortunately, Windows can misallocate memory for the disk cache and the dynamic sizing can 
result in extra overhead computations for the microprocessor, waste available memory and cause 
disk thrashing.  By being dynamic, it can use all available RAM and page the running apps to 
disk instead of flushing the cache!

Using a static or fixed disk cache setting based on your computer usage and memory would prevent 
frequent swapping of the data to disk resulting in improved performance. 

To override the dynamic cache configuration, you specify a fixed minimum and maximum size for 
the cache.  The 2 parameters MinFileCache and MaxFileCache, (measured in kilobytes) found in 
the [vcache] section of the SYSTEM.INI control the size of the VCACHE.

Steps
 
Open SYSTEM.INI
Look for a [vcache] section
If you are sure there is not one, add it
Add the following two lines to the [vcache] section
MinFileCache=x
MaxFileCache=x
Set the above x values (both of them) to about 25% of the amount of installed RAM
Close Windows
Reboot

There are more options.  Try setting the maximum cache size to 1/8 of you system memory, and 
set the minimum cache size to 1/2 the maximum.  For example, if you have 128 meg of memory 
installed set the maximum cache size to 16 meg and the minimum to 8 meg.

VCACHE also adjusts the set aside so that when burning a CD you don't have to wait on the I/O 
bus for the next block of data causing a buffer under run.  If you have a CD Burner, set the 
MinFileCache equal to the MaxFileCache value as in the above example.