What does page file usage mean?

Page files can be used to "back" (or support) system crash dumps and extend how much system-committed memory (also known as "virtual memory") a system can support .

Is disabling Pagefile safe?

Your options. The big problem with disabling your pagefile is that once you've exhausted the available RAM, your apps are going to start crashing , since there's no virtual memory for Windows to allocate—and worst case, your actual system will crash or become very unstable.

Is it okay to delete pagefile in sys?

Pagefile. sys is an extremely important file when it comes to keeping your Windows computer running smoothly. It helps give your PC's RAM more breathing room when physical memory can no longer hold more data. You can delete it, but only do so when you know your computer's RAM has enough capacity to stand on its own .

How do I adjust the pagefile?

In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab and click Performance Options. In the Performance Options dialog, under Virtual memory, click Change. In the Virtual memory dialog box, select a drive. Under Paging file size for selected drive, type new values for initial and maximum sizes for the disk.

Should I disable paging file with 32GB RAM?

No. Don't disable page file even if you have 128 GB of memory or more . Set it at the very least to a fixed size, 256-512 MB or so should be enough.

Should you disable Pagefile with SSD?

It is perfectly OK to have a Pagefile on an SSD . and this will NOT adversely affect the SSD's lifespan either. (wear leveling takes care of that). SSD's are a good place for the page file for performance reasons, but if you need to move it to an HDD, that's okay too.

Does Pagefile reduce SSD lifespan?

So it's very unlikely to have any significant affect on the life of a modern SSD drive . The one good reason not to put a pagefile on an SSD drive is if SSD space is precious (because you have a relatively small SSD) and you don't expect to use the pagefile very much (because you have lots of RAM).

How much pagefile should I use?

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).

What pagefile size for 16GB RAM?

The paging file is typically 1.25 GB on 8 GB systems, 2.5 GB on 16 GB systems and 5 GB on 32 GB systems.

What is the recommended page file settings?

Cause: A Windows best practice is to set the paging file size to equal to or greater than the total amount of available physical memory . Garbage collection is typically more effective at automatic recovery of heap memory when managed heap size approximates paging size.

Where is the page file located?

The pagefile is by default located in the root directory of the system drive, typically the C: drive . The pagefile is part of Windows' virtual memory system, which abstracts the physical memory through the use of virtual addresses.

High page file usage (2024)

Article
01/11/2017

Question

_{Wednesday, January 11, 2017 7:34 AM}

Hi everyone,

From our monitoring tool i am getting errorHigh page file usage 95 %

My virtual machines memory is 4 GB and during virtual machine creation i have created one drive double the size of my page file i.e 8GB and moved the page file to E drive. Now i can see my page file size 95%

Please guide me how to troubleshoot it.

All replies (9)

_{Saturday, January 21, 2017 1:22 PM ✅Answered}

If the system determines that pages need to go to the page file because you have insufficient memory available, there is not anything you can do. It has to page. If you know that the application would run better with more memory, and you cannot get more memory, you will need to live with the high page file usage.

What do you mean 'clear any cache in pagefile'? The paging algorithm automatically clears 'stale' pages and ensures that the most used pages are available in memory. So 'cache' is in physical memory, not on the page file.

I do not know what that specific registry setting does. I have never been a fan of munging the registry to try to change the behavior of the operating system (if that is what that particular setting does). I would never assume that I know how to make the operating system run better than the engineers who have been working on this for many years.

. : | : . : | : . tim

_{Saturday, January 21, 2017 3:12 PM ✅Answered}

If you know it is an application that is causing the paging, preventing kernel paging is not goingto help the application.The default setting works to your advantage. Your application needs more memory. The default setting allows kernel/driver files to page, freeing up more memory for your application so you application has to page less. Preventing kernel code from paging is telling the system to keep in memory things that may no longer be needed, thereby occupying memory that could be utilized by your application.

Your application needs more memory in order to page less. If you can't increase the size of RAM, you need to free things up. I would not try to play with memory management - lots of really smart engineers have worked on those algorithms for years. Another option is to look at everything else that is taking up memory on the system and see if it is really needed to reside in memory. Here again, the memory manager does a pretty good job of moving things out that aren't needed in order to give memory to the applications that are asking for memory. But if you have some services/agents running that have to run on a regular basis, that means they will be fighting for the same memory you want to give your application. If the service/agent is not needed, it will free up a certain amount of memory.

That is a laborious process. The easiest way is to increase RAM. You say it is not in your hands. I would then find whose hands it is in and have a negotiation session.

. : | : . : | : . tim

_{Thursday, January 12, 2017 7:50 AM}

Hi everyone,
From our monitoring tool i am getting errorHigh page file usage 95 %
My virtual machines memory is 4 GB and during virtual machine creation i have created one drive double the size of my page file i.e 8GB and moved the page file to E drive. Now i can see my page file size 95%
Please guide me how to troubleshoot it.

Hi,

You could follow this blog to analyze high page file usage:

High page file usage (2024)

Question

All replies (9)

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