Vista - Virtual Memory Paging File - Change

**Brink**

How to Change the Virtual Memory Paging File in Vista

Information

If your computer lacks the random access memory (RAM) needed to run a program or operation, Vista uses virtual memory to compensate. Virtual memory combines your computer’s RAM with temporary space on your hard drive. When RAM runs low, virtual memory moves data from RAM to a space called a paging file. Moving data to and from the paging file frees up the RAM to complete its work. By default Vista will manage virtual memory automatically. This will show you how to manually change the size of the paging file.

NOTE

The more RAM your computer has, the faster your programs will generally run since Vista may not have to use virtual memory as often. If a lack of RAM is slowing your computer, you might be tempted to increase virtual memory to compensate. However, your computer can read data from RAM much more quickly than from a hard disk, so adding RAM is a better solution. Plus, Vista usually does a great job at managing virtual memory for you. Another option is have the paging file on another hard drive (step 10), not partition, instead that is as fast or faster then the hard drive Vista is installed on.
The Virtual Memory Paging File is located at: C:\pagefile.sys

This is a hidden protected operating system file. To be able to see it, see Option Two here: How to Hide or Show Hidden Files and Folders in Vista

Tip

To improve the performance of Vista, you can place the paging file on a second physical hard drive instead of the same C: drive that Vista is on. Doing this allows Vista to dump temp junk onto one drive while not having to interrupt reads or writes on the other drive. You can expect a 5 to 10% increase in speed depending on the speed of your hard drives.

WARNING

If you receive error messages that warn of low virtual memory, you need to either add more RAM or increase the size of your paging file so that you can run the programs on your computer. Vista manages the size automatically, but you can manually change the size of virtual memory if the default size is not enough for your needs or you wish to change what drive is used for the paging file.

I would not advise to turn off the page file even if you have a lot of RAM installed. Some programs will still require using the page file to run properly.

RELATED LINKS:

Here's How:

1. Open the Start Menu.
A) Right click on Computer and click Properties.

B) Go to step 3.

OR

2. Open the Control Panel (Classic View).
A) Click on the System icon.

3. Click on Advanced system settings. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: While your here, note how much Memory (RAM) you have installed under the System section.

4. If prompted, click on Continue in the UAC prompt.

5. In the Advanced tab, click on the Settings button in the Performance section. (See screenshot below)

6. Click on the Advanced tab. (See screenshot below)

7. Under Virtual memory, click on the Change button.

8. To Turn Off Automatic Virtual Memory Management for All Drives -
A) Uncheck the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives box. (See left screenshot below step 9)
NOTE: This turns off automatic virtual memory management by Vista so you can manually change the drive and size to what you want instead.

B) Go to step 10.

9. To Turn On Automatic Virtual Memory Management for All Drives -
A) Check the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives box. (See right screenshot below)

B) Click OK.

C) Go to step 15.

10. To Select a Drive to Add or Change the Paging File -
NOTE: By default, Vista uses the same drive letter that it is installed on. This system drive is usually the C: drive.
WARNING: If you have another drive listed and want to use it instead, then make sure it is as fast or faster than the drive Vista is installed on. Make sure you only use a separate hard drive, not another partition on the same hard drive as Vista is installed on. This will cause a decrease in performance if you do.
A) Click on a listed hard drive you want to change or add a paging file to for Vista to use. (See right sceenshot above)

11. To Have a Custom Paging File Size for the Selected Drive -
NOTE: You would do this if you do not want to use the automatic system managed size by Vista.
A) Dot Custom size. (See screenshots below step 15)

B) Type in a size for the Initial size in MB.
NOTE: This usually would be the amount of RAM installed on your computer plus 300 MB. (1 GB = 1024 MB)

C) Type in a size for the Maximum size in MB.
NOTE: This usually would be 2.5 to 3 times the amount of RAM installed on your computer.

D) Go to step 14.

12. To Have a System Managed Paging File Size for the Selected Drive -
NOTE: This will let Vista automatically manage the size of the paging file for this selected drive as needed.
A) Dot System managed size. (See screenshots below step 9)

B) Go to step 14.

13. To Remove the Paging File from the Selected Drive -
WARNING: Make sure that you have at least one drive selected to have a paging file on. Otherwise your computer may slow down dramatically.
NOTE: You would usually only do this if you have more than one drive that you already added a paging file to from step 11 above.
A) Dot No paging file. (See screenshots below step 15)

14. Click the Set button. (See left screenshot below)
NOTE: Repeat steps 10 to 14 if you would like to make more changes to the paging file, or add a paging file to another listed drive.

15. Click on OK. (See right screenshot below)

16. If the Paging File Size was Decreased -
NOTE: If the paging file was decreased, the computer will need to be restarted before the changes can be applied. You will not see this if you increased the size.
A) Click OK. (See screenshot below)

17. Click on OK. (See screenshot below step 7)

18. Click on OK. (See screen shot below step 5)

19. If the Paging File Size was Decreased -
NOTE: You will not see this if you increased the size.
A) Click Restart Now. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: Be sure to save and close anything open first. This will restart the computer immediately.

That's it,
Shawn

**MicroMan** · 02-22-2008

I followed this just for the heck of it.

I have Vista Home Basic.

I increased the min and max, I was told I needed to restart. The tut says restart ONLY if decreased.

**Brink** · 02-22-2008

Hi MicroMan,

Interesting. I just played with mine some more, and I could only get the restart if I decreased the min/max. I even tried multiple increases in a row, but still had no restart notice.

What were your numbers originally, and what did you increase them to? I'll try that and see if I can trigger a restart notice. Include any other details you think may apply to.

Thank you,
Shawn

**MicroMan** · 02-22-2008

it was somewhere around 3300 to start, sorry I didn't keep track.

I uped it to 4500-7000, then changed it again to 5000-7000. That's where it's at after reboot.

**Brink** · 02-22-2008

I'm not sure what may have triggered the restart for you since you only increased the sizes. I tried with what you stated and still did not get a restart notice. Must be a fluke. If you increase it more again, does it give you a restart notice?

Shawn

**chuckbam** · 07-31-2008

I was testing a dedicated SATA paging file drive and my PCMark05 bench reduced. I am back to system managed (default).

I do believe I get better performance with Prefetch: Cache Boot Files Only: 2 ... I think Prefetch is no better than the Adobe quick launch I delete in the startup. I disable indexing also. I don't know how having the hard drive running all the time in an Idle process speeds up a computer.

**swarfega** · 07-31-2008

Having pagefile on C: is a really bad idea because it will cause fragmentation and thereby slowing Vista down because of having to move the hard drive arm around more for the same files.

solution 1: make pagefile a static size. In other words if you have 4Gbs of phsyical memory, create a pagefile of 4096kb in both min and max size.

solution 2: buy a small fast hard disk and move the pagefile over. In this scenario it wont matter whether the pagefile is fixed or variable as it wont affect the drive that Vista is on and thereby reducing fragmentation. With hard disk prices so cheap at the moment it would make sense to follow this approach. [In my case I got the Western Digital Raptor 36gb 10,000rpm hard drive]

**chuckbam** · 07-31-2008

da Cleaner, I hear ya about fragmentation. I just moved my MMC recording to a dedicated drive. Talk about fragmentation writing and deleting large media files It took a good while just to move them over.

Right now, in the case, I have 2 RAID 0 and a single 250 Gb. I m going to hold off till I go Nehalem and dump a RAID and replace w/ 2 1TB drives.

**swarfega** · 07-31-2008

ah nice. btw Im swarfega, da cleaner is a custom title

**chuckbam** · 07-31-2008

Sorry swarfega, I just thought "da cleaner" was a cool name.

I have been doing a little reading and the new large drives seem to have some very good performance. I need more and more HD space all the time (like many of us). The 750 GB drives are really going down in price and 1.5TB will soon be out.

I plan to do a new build in Spring 09. I think by then the 1 TB drives will be a good deal. I may keep one RAID 0 as my C drive with 2x 500GB drives I am using now. But, that may change. I like Seagate drives.

I plan to have 12 GBs of memory. And cross fire my little HD3850 512MB. A second one by then should be cheap. It supports PCI-x 2.0 and I am not a gamer. I do- do a lot of video editing and converting etc.

I want the lower end Bloomfield 2.66 GHz 4 cores and Hyper-Threading. may be the lower end Bloomfield, but in no way will it be a low end LGA1366 CPU.

OK pagefile, hmmm, will I really use it much?

02-22-2008
MicroMan Vista Home Basic 32bit 11 posts	Re: Virtual Memory Paging File - Change I followed this just for the heck of it. I have Vista Home Basic. I increased the min and max, I was told I needed to restart. The tut says restart ONLY if decreased.
My System Specs

02-22-2008
Brink Vista x64 Ultimate SP2, Windows 7 Ultimate x64 25,919 posts	Re: Virtual Memory Paging File - Change Hi MicroMan, Interesting. I just played with mine some more, and I could only get the restart if I decreased the min/max. I even tried multiple increases in a row, but still had no restart notice. What were your numbers originally, and what did you increase them to? I'll try that and see if I can trigger a restart notice. Include any other details you think may apply to. Thank you, Shawn
My System Specs

02-22-2008
MicroMan Vista Home Basic 32bit 11 posts	Re: Virtual Memory Paging File - Change it was somewhere around 3300 to start, sorry I didn't keep track. I uped it to 4500-7000, then changed it again to 5000-7000. That's where it's at after reboot.
My System Specs

02-22-2008
Brink Vista x64 Ultimate SP2, Windows 7 Ultimate x64 25,919 posts	Re: Virtual Memory Paging File - Change I'm not sure what may have triggered the restart for you since you only increased the sizes. I tried with what you stated and still did not get a restart notice. Must be a fluke. If you increase it more again, does it give you a restart notice? Shawn
My System Specs

07-31-2008
chuckbam Vista Ultimate 64-bit 76 posts	Re: Virtual Memory Paging File - Change I was testing a dedicated SATA paging file drive and my PCMark05 bench reduced. I am back to system managed (default). I do believe I get better performance with Prefetch: Cache Boot Files Only: 2 ... I think Prefetch is no better than the Adobe quick launch I delete in the startup. I disable indexing also. I don't know how having the hard drive running all the time in an Idle process speeds up a computer.
My System Specs

07-31-2008
swarfega Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 403 posts	Re: Virtual Memory Paging File - Change Having pagefile on C: is a really bad idea because it will cause fragmentation and thereby slowing Vista down because of having to move the hard drive arm around more for the same files. solution 1: make pagefile a static size. In other words if you have 4Gbs of phsyical memory, create a pagefile of 4096kb in both min and max size. solution 2: buy a small fast hard disk and move the pagefile over. In this scenario it wont matter whether the pagefile is fixed or variable as it wont affect the drive that Vista is on and thereby reducing fragmentation. With hard disk prices so cheap at the moment it would make sense to follow this approach. [In my case I got the Western Digital Raptor 36gb 10,000rpm hard drive]
My System Specs

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