With the increase in the amount of RAM installed in computers one questions seems to come up often: should you disable the Windows pagefile? Many online are starting to talk about disabling the pagefile to improve performance of a Windows system. For years people have been talking about how to manage the Windows pagefile, and now the discussion changed to talking about if you should disable the Windows pagefile.
While your computer may have a lot of memory, and the pagefile may seem useless, but it is an important aspect in the operation of the Windows operating system. Disabling the pagefile may actually hurt you more than it helps you. Let’s take a closer look at this important aspect of Windows, and then talk about if you should really disable the Windows pagefile.
What is the Windows Pagefile?
The Windows pagefile (pagefile.sys) is a file that is stored on the hard drive in your computer. In most computers it is located on the C drive, but it can easily be moved to a several drive, or even multiple drives.
The main purpose of the pagefile is to hold the least used data from memory when memory becomes low. As more applications are loaded, each one will get loaded into memory, which reduces the amount of memory that can be used by other applications.
In order to avoid running out of memory for other applications, Windows will send the least used “pages” of memory to the pagefile. If the application that has information stored on the pagefile is used again, Windows will swap the information from the pagefile into memory.
What do I mean by least used data in memory? If an application has been minimized for some time, then the memory it is using could be a good candidate to be sent to the pagefile. This is one reason you may notice a slight delay when opening a minimized application on your computer.
I Have Enough Memory – Should I Disable the Windows Pagefile?
As I mentioned above, if available memory runs low, then some of the least used data stored in memory will be sent to the Windows pagefile. For those with a lot of memory, and don’t run many applications at a time, then disabling the Windows pagefile may sound like a great idea. I mean without the pagefile, everything will stay in the much faster RAM instead of being moved to the hard drive.
It may sound like a good idea, but in reality, it really isn’t. Windows also uses memory for caching and other system services in addition to the memory used by your applications. If you disable paging, then applications that are loaded but are needed all the time will remain in memory. This will use up memory that could be used by Windows or opened applications.
While you may think you have a lot of memory, you will need to realize that software such as games, image editors, and video authoring software can use a lot of memory. If you disable the Windows pagefile, other applications that are loaded, but aren’t being used at the time will be using up memory from the larger applications.
There Could Be Problems If You Disable the Windows Pagefile
In addition to the above idea of having applications that are loaded taking up memory from running applications, a problem could occur in such a situation. The problem being that you eventually run out of memory.
When a computer runs out of memory, and you disable the Windows pagefile, then applications will start to crash. When they crash, they crash hard. There is no chance to save data when this happens. If a pagefile was in use, then memory could be freed by Windows moving the least used data to the pagefile.
Another memory issue can occur if an application has a memory leak, which means that the longer the application is running, the more memory it will consume. Only until the application exits will the memory be released. You can imagine what happens once it consumes all the available memory. Not only can the offending application crash, but so can other applications that are also loaded.
How Big Should the Windows Pagefile Be?
The discussion on the size of the pagefile has been around since Windows started to use pagefiles. Everyone seems to have their own opinion, but the only problem is their opinion usually specifies a specific size compared to the amount of installed RAM.
In computers, one size doesn’t fit all. This also holds true with regards to the size of the Windows pagefile. The best way to determine the size is to load all the applications that you will typically run at any one time.
Once all the applications have been loaded, open up the Windows Task Manager and then click the “Performance” tab. In that tab you will see a peak commit charge value. This value tells you how much memory and pagefile is in use by the loaded applications.
Use this value as the minimum size for your pagefile. For the maximum size, I suggest that you double the minimum size. This will allow your pagefile to grow if you do require more memory for your applications.
As you can see, if you disable the Windows pagefile you can cause problems with your system. Disabling the pagefile really doesn’t affect an current running applications, and may have a detrimental affect instead. I recommend that you don’t disable the Windows pagefile to keep your system running smoothly.
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on July 22, 2011 at 9:52 am
I have had so many problems with them over the years that windows is just turning me off. Don’t know if I need to run to apple or not but I’m thinking about it just for this reason.
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on July 25, 2011 at 8:33 am
Interesting. I have never really had any problems with a pagefile. Did you have any specific problems with regards to your Windows pagefile?
on July 23, 2011 at 8:39 am
In Windows NT and Windows 2000 I always had a fixed size page file, but in Windows 7 I let Windows chose what is best for me. I have 6 GB of RAM installed and Windows 7 has reserved about 6 GB of disk space on my boot drive. The only problem is that I have a 60 GB SSD drive as my boot drive which means that it is using 10% of my boot drive.
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on July 25, 2011 at 8:37 am
I don’t think I have changed my pagefile settings in Windows 7, as well. In XP I have changed the Min and Max settings. While I don’t have an SSD drive (I’m hoping to get one soon), if I did I would probably transfer my pagefile to another hard drive within my computer to reduce the read/write on my SSD.
on July 24, 2011 at 11:28 pm
I’ve had my share of problems with pagefile. Once i got my 3gb RAM i figured i won’t need pagefile anymore. Those days i was using Photoshop a lot. And the difference between pagefile and no pagefile was huge! Photoshop would open twice as fast. This was until i had a complex project to work on. Photoshop takes extra resources every operation you make. At a two-hours image manipulation, with hundreds of operations made on the pic, my dear Photoshop went bye bye with no warning.
Two minutes later i was enabling pagefile again.
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on July 25, 2011 at 8:40 am
Photoshop does like to use a lot of memory. Video editing software and games are the same. The last thing you need would be your program to just disappear because of the lack of a pagefile. It is always better to be safe than sorry.
on July 25, 2011 at 8:11 pm
Last time I’ve been researching heavily about the exact fixed size that we should put as the pagefile.. I think it was 2.5 * the RAM you have or something. But nowadays, I just can’t be bothered and put them as automatic (or more like “System managed”?)
I remember setting it to low (or I think my harddrive was running out of space), and things got so choppy
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on July 26, 2011 at 8:13 am
Many have used a fixed width, but then you are taking up hard drive space that may not be fully utilized. Setting a min and max is a good tradeoff between setting a fixed value and having Windows manage the pagefile.
I have run low on pagefile in the past as well, and it does get choppy as Windows starts to modify the pagefile while you are using an application.
on July 27, 2011 at 10:05 pm
Hi. Thanks for sharing this. It’s a very interesting detailed instructions.
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on July 30, 2011 at 4:06 am
Thanks For Sharing
I Disable Page File Because It Save Memory
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on July 30, 2011 at 10:54 pm
Actually, disabling the pagefile will use more memory as Windows would need to keep applications in memory that it would normally store in the pagefie.
on August 1, 2011 at 1:52 pm
The pros and cons of removing the pagefile entirely depend on the user’s needs. My guess is that general users who use the computer for movies, music, Internet don’t have to temper with the Windows pagefile, but an advanced user who needs the most performance should try working with and without the pagefile and compare the performance.
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on August 18, 2011 at 11:14 pm
Hi there. Now i know why my old laptop keeps on losing the memory. Found the culprit! Thanks to ya!
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on August 22, 2011 at 4:49 pm
This is a very interesting and well explained article. I’ve never had issues with a Page file but it’s never too late to be aware.
on August 24, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Very good instructions you share here. Everyone knows their needs and according to them decide to disable or not the page files. Personaly I didn’t had issues with them but you could never know what might happen.
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on October 28, 2011 at 9:58 pm
Hi, I disabled page file completely long time ago and never experienced any problems.
But I’m also someone who like taking control of my operating system. I disabled UAC, Hibernation, System Restore, Search Indexing, RDC, Disk Defragmentation, Superfetch, Intel PROSet Monitoring System, Aero Snap, Windows Event Log, Menu Delay, File Access Timestamps, GUI Boot. I’m delighted to have my Windows the way I (personally) like it.
Michael
on October 31, 2011 at 8:19 am
While I don’t use hibernation, I used to disable System Restore but have learned never to disable it, or UAC anymore. I recently had Windows Update have trouble updating my system and had to use System Restore to back out of the update, which could have been problematic without it. My software firewall prevented the update from completing.
I always keep Windows Event Log running, and you should to, as it can help find problems that may occur in your system. I have solved many problems simply because I looked into the event log and Googled the event log message. I’m not really sure you want to disable Superfetch or File Access Timestamps, through.
You must have a lot of memory to disable the page file, but if you do then disabling it probably won’t do much for you, so why not keep it enabled? BTW, I believe Windows still does use a small page file even if it is disabled.
on April 17, 2012 at 11:13 pm
Hey thanks for sharing, now I know about Pagefile
now I would like to check the Windows Pagefile at ny PC
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