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How to Manage Your Virtual Memory (Page File) In Windows

Introduction

A Page File acts as an overflow for your system memory (RAM) when you have too many applications running at one time. However, it is constantly being used by Windows to store temporary data regardless of how much RAM you have installed. Having no Page File or mismanaging the size of the Page File can lead to performance issues and crashes. Furthermore, a Page File is required by many applications, including our own games.


When set correctly, a Page File will reserve a given amount of your storage drive to be used as virtual memory. You won't be able to see your Page File, but Windows will automatically make use of it. Rather than your computer freezing when you run out of RAM, Windows will store running applications in your Page File. However, even if you have enough free RAM, Windows will still move data into the Page File if it believes it is not required at that moment, freeing up RAM for active applications. RAM is a more valuable resource because it is much faster than a Page File.

Managing Your Page File Guidelines:

  • A system managed Page File will be adequate is most use cases, unless you are experiencing problems.
  • The Page File should be approximately 1.5 - 2 times the size of your total system memory (RAM).
  • A computer with 4GB of RAM will need a Page File a minimum of 6GB (6144 MB) and a maximum of 8GB (8192MB).
  • It is best to put a Page File on the fastest storage drive in your computer, which is normally the boot drive (Where Windows is installed). 
  • If you have a secondary SSD or NVMe drive (faster storage drive technologies) you may benefit from creating a second Page File on one and reducing the size of the Page File on your boot drive or reverting to a system managed size. However, you must keep the a Page File on your boot drive.


IMPORTANT: This guide is technical in nature and should not be attempted if you:			
  1.  Do not understand any of the terms used in this document;
  2.  Are not confident in your ability to carry out the instructions given.			
If you are at all unsure of this, we would recommend you ask a local computer professional or someone you trust to do this for you.

Before You Begin, it’s Important That:

  • You log on to your computer as an administrator to change your Virtual Memory Settings. If you don't have an Administrator account, ask the person who does, to do this for you.
  • You save any work you may have running as changing any settings for Virtual Memory will require you to restart your computer.
  • You have enough available hard disk space that is equivalent to quadruple the capacity of your System RAM i.e. if your computer has 4 GB of system RAM, check that you have at least 16 GB of storage space free.

How to Access Your Page File Settings:

  1. Open the Start menu and type "performance".
  2. Click on "Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows".


  1. Go to the Advanced tab and click on Change under Virtual Memory.


Note: If your Page File is system managed and matches the guidelines set out above, you do not need to make any further changes and can close this window.

  1. If you need to make adjustments, Untick "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives".
  2. Click on the drive you wish to manage, then mark the radio button next to "Custom Size".
  3. Now enter the Initial size (minimum) and Maximum size in MB (Megabytes). Please note that you system memory (RAM) is normally counted in GB (Gigabytes). The conversion is 1 GB = 1024 MB.
  4. Click on Set then OK to confirm your changes.


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