

Ha! I've changed my page file and have seen improved performance I still want to change the page file settingsīefore changing your page file settings, make a note of the current settings so that you can change it back later if your computer is not performing well.
Applet viewer window size setting windows#
View and increase Windows virtual memory (page file) settings.See viewing Windows virtual memory or page file settings for further information about accessing this information. While it is true the access times on flash memory can be faster than a hard drive, the transfer speeds over USB are much slower. No, again this reduces the system performance. How about putting the page file on a USB flash drive or hard drive? Moving the page file to a slower hard drive can cause the computer to have to wait for the slower HDD to catch up to the SSD. However, today's SSD are rated to transfer 20 GB+ of data daily for 5-years and often have an MTBF of 1,000,000 hours. There are people who suggest using an HDD as a second drive for a page file, reducing the overall read/writes done to the SSD, and extending its life. I have an SSD, should I use a non-SSD for a page file? For almost every Windows user, we still recommend letting Windows manage the page file on the primary drive. If you plan on putting the page file on a separate drive, create a partition large enough for it and only keep the page file in that partition. On a different driveĬonfiguring your page file to be located o n a different drive or partition may deliver a slight increase in performance. Storing the page file on a different partition of the same drive as Windows increases the hard drive seek times and reduces system performance. Ok, but should I put the page file on another partition or drive? On a different partition Again, let Windows choose what to use instead of relying on some arbitrary formula that worked on a different computer. However, this does not take into consideration other important factors and system settings unique to your computer. There are hundreds of online sites and optimization pages that claim the page file size should be 1.5x, 2x, or something similar to the amount of memory installed on your computer. I read the page file size should be 1.5x or 2x the amount of memory installed Later versions of Windows no longer support this utility. For earlier versions of Windows (Windows XP, NT 4.0, 2000, and Server 2003) we recommend PageDefrag, which defrags locked files including the page file as the computer boots into Windows. While it is true that Windows Defrag will not defrag any file in use, there are Defrag utilities capable of performing this task. Many people recommend disabling the page file so that it can be defragged.

Should I disable the page file so it can be defragged? If the page file is missing or not available, the computer gets random errors or the programs will not work. Some programs also rely on there being a page file. Although you may think there is enough memory in your computer to handle all the programs it runs, you can still exceed that limit, which may cause program errors and even system crashes. No, the page file is what helps keep your computer stable. I have plenty of RAM, should I disable the page file? A better solution is to adding more memory to the computer. Page file size should only be increased when encountering out-of-memory errors, and only as a temporary fix.

Having a larger page file is going to add extra work for your hard drive, causing everything else to run slower. However, hard drive read/write times are much slower than what they would be if the data were in your computer memory.

Increasing page file size may help prevent instabilities and crashing in Windows. What if I doubled or tripled the page file size? Disabling or setting the page file size too small can reduce system performance and cause instability and crashes in Windows. We highly recommend all users let Microsoft Windows choose the best initial, maximum, and minimum settings for their virtual memory ( page file).
