Microsoft Jet Engine Initialization Settings

The Jet\3.5\Engines\Jet 2.x folder contains the following entries.

ValueName Windows NT 3.51 Type Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 Type Default
PageTimeOut REG_DWORD Integer 5
LockedPageTimeOut REG_DWORD Integer 5
LockRetry REG_DWORD Integer 20
CommitLockRetry REG_DWORD Integer 20
CursorTimeout REG_DWORD Integer 5
IdleFrequency REG_DWORD Integer 10
ForceOSFlush REG_DWORD Integer 0
MaxBufferSize REG_DWORD Integer 512
ReadAheadPages REG_DWORD Integer 8

The Microsoft Jet database engine uses the following entry to determine the path to the database engine driver.

Entry Description
win32 Location of the database engine driver (.dll). The path is determined at the time of installation. Values are of type String for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, and of type REG_SZ for Windows NT 3.51.

Additional initialization settings for the Microsoft Jet database engine are contained in the Jet\3.5\Engines\Jet 2.x folder.

Typical initialization settings for the entries in the Jet\3.5\Engines\Jet 2.x\ISAM folder are shown in the following example.

PageTimeout=5
LockedPageTimeout=5
CursorTimeout=5
LockRetry=20
CommitLockRetry=20
MaxBufferSize=512
ReadAheadPages=16
IdleFrequency=10
ForceOsFlush = 0

The following entries are used to configure the Microsoft Jet database engine.

Entry Description
PageTimeout The length of time between when data that is not read-locked is placed in an internal cache and when it's invalidated, expressed in 100 millisecond units. The default is 5 units (or 0.5 seconds). Values are of type DWORD for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, and of type REG_DWORD for Windows NT 3.51.
LockedPageTimeout The length of time between when data that is read-locked is placed in an internal cache and when it's invalidated, expressed in 100 millisecond units. The default is 5 units (or 0.5 seconds). Values are of type DWORD for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, and of type REG_DWORD for Windows NT 3.51.
CursorTimeout The length of time a reference to a page will remain on that page, expressed in 100 millisecond units. The default is 5 units (or 0.5 seconds). This setting applies only to databases created with version 1.x of the Microsoft Jet database engine. Values are of type DWORD for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, and of type REG_DWORD for Windows NT 3.51.
LockRetry The number of times to repeat attempts to access a locked page before returning a lock conflict message. The default is 20 times; LockRetry is related to CommitLockRetry. Values are of type DWORD for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, and of type REG_DWORD for Windows NT 3.51.
CommitLockRetry The number of times the Microsoft Jet database engine attempts to acquire a lock on data to commit changes to that data. If the Microsoft Jet database engine cannot acquire a commit lock, changes to the data will be unsuccessful.

The number of attempts the Microsoft Jet database engine makes to get a commit lock is directly related to the LockRetry value. For each attempt made to acquire a commit lock, the Microsoft Jet database engine will make as many attempts as specified by the LockRetry value to acquire a lock. For example, if CommitLockRetry is set to 20 and LockRetry is set to 20, the Microsoft Jet database engine will try to acquire a commit lock as many as 20 times; for each of those attempts, the Microsoft Jet database engine will try to acquire a lock as many as 20 times, for a total of 400 attempts.

The default value for CommitLockRetry is 20. Values are of type DWORD for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, and of type REG_DWORD for Windows NT 3.51.

MaxBufferSize The size of the database engine internal cache, measured in kilobytes (K). MaxBufferSize must be a whole number value between 9 and 4096, inclusive. The default is 512. Values are of type DWORD for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, and of type REG_DWORD for Windows NT 3.51.
ReadAheadPages The number of pages to read ahead when performing sequential scans. The default is 16. Values are of type DWORD for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, and of type REG_DWORD for Windows NT 3.51.
ForceOSFlush Any setting other than 0 means a commit or a write will force flushing the OS cache to disk. A setting of 0 (the default setting) means no force flush occurs. Values are of type DWORD for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, and of type REG_DWORD for Windows NT 3.51.
IdleFrequency The amount of time, in 100 millisecond units, that Microsoft Jet will wait before releasing a read lock. The default is 10 units or one second. Values are of type DWORD for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, and of type REG_DWORD for Windows NT 3.51.