How to delete the Windows 10 paging file on every shutdown | TechRepublic (2024)

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How to delete the Windows 10 paging file on every shutdown | TechRepublic? ›

Open Group Policy Editor.

Right-click on pagefile. sys, and select “Delete.” Depending on the size of your pagefile. sys, it may bypass the Recycle Bin and be deleted immediately. Restart your computer.

Choose the Advanced tab in the Performance Options dialog, and click the Change… button in the Virtual Memory section. In the Virtual Memory dialog, uncheck the “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives”.

You should never set that setting to 'No Page File' or set a manual amount either, you should always let Windows Manage your Virtual Memory, otherwise you either may not be able to boot up windows or you may experience many problems with software such as lagging.

Open Group Policy Editor.

Windows 10 Home users will need to enable Group Policy Editor or use the registry methods above. Double-click Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile. Click on Enabled. Click on OK.

These are some of the key things you need to know about Pagefile. sys. Once again, it's important to note that you should never delete this file, nor will the system allow you to. You can decrease or increase the size or move it to another drive, as shown in the demonstration.

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).

If your computer has more than one hard drive: in order to improve system performance, the paging file should be moved to another partition on a different hard drive. In this case, the operating system will process multiple input/output requests more quickly.

Click the Advanced tab, and click Change under Virtual Memory. Select the drive to use to store the paging file. Select Custom size and set Initial size (MB) and Maximum size (MB). For the initial size, Microsoft recommends using the recommended value in the Total paging file size for all drives box.

How do I stop Windows from using virtual memory? ›

This policy setting causes Windows to clear the paging file when the system is shut down. Depending on the size of the paging file, this process might take several minutes before the system completely shuts down. This delay in shutting down the server is especially noticeable on servers with large paging files.

Page files enable the system to remove infrequently accessed modified pages from physical memory to let the system use physical memory more efficiently for more frequently accessed pages.

You can accomplish this by uninstalling redundant programs or removing sizable files that are no longer required. Additionally, you can utilize the Disk Cleanup tool to eliminate temporary files and other redundant data. Once you have freed up enough space, try running the program again to see if the error persists.

As a rule of thumb, the paging file should be a minimum of 1.5 times the size of your installed RAM, and a maximum of 3 times your RAM size. For example, if you have 8 GB RAM, your minumum would be 1024 x 8 x 1.5 = 12,288 MB, and your maximum would be 1024 x 8 x 3 = 24,576 MB.

Delete a page

On the Edit menu, click Delete Page. If you're in two-page spread view, the Delete Page dialog box will appear. Select the option you want, and then click OK.

The pagefile (sometimes referred to as page file or paging file) is a Windows system file whose full name is pagefile. sys. By default, it is located in the root directory of the system drive, typically the C: drive.

Although hiberfil. sys is a hidden and protected system file, you can safely delete it if you don't want to use the power-saving options in Windows. That's because the hibernation file has no effect on the general functions of the operating system.