Registry Tip #15: Registry Size Limit

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The maximum size of Windows NT and Windows 2000 registry is limited by 25% of the paged pool size, by default. It can be set as high as 80% of the paged pool size (not recommended). The maximum paged pool size is:

OS version

Max Paged Pool Size

25% Paged Pool Size

80% Paged Pool Size
Windows 2000
370MB
93MB
296MB
Windows NT4
192MB
48MB
154MB
Windows NT4
Terminal Server
192MB
48MB
154MB
Windows NT3.5
128MB
32MB
103MB
Windows NT3.1
32MB
8MB
27MB

Except for certain very large enterprise domain controllers, this key does not need to be changed. The registry setting for Windows NT / Windows 2000:

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
Name: RegistrySizeLimit
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 25% of paged pool size (default)
Value: 4-0xFFFFFFFE Number of megabytes allocated
Value: 0xFFFFFFFF 80% of paged pool size