Which paging file to set. Step-by-step setup instructions
RAM is one of the key elements of any computer. It is in it that every moment happens great amount calculations necessary for the operation of the machine. Programs with which the user is connected are also loaded there. this moment interacts. However, its volume is clearly limited, and it is often not enough to launch and operate “heavy” programs, which is why the computer begins to freeze. For help random access memory is created on the system partition special file large size, called the "swap file".
It often has a significant volume. To distribute resources evenly work program Some of them are transferred to the swap file. We can say that it is an addition to the computer's RAM, significantly expanding it. Balancing the ratio of RAM and page file sizes helps to achieve good computer performance.
Changing the paging file size in the Windows 7 operating system
It is a misconception that increasing the size of the paging file leads to increasing RAM. It's all about the speed of writing and reading - RAM boards are tens and hundreds of times faster than regular hard disk and even solid state drive.
To increase the paging file you will not need to use third party programs, all actions will be performed by built-in tools operating system. To perform the instructions below, the current user must have administrator rights.
- Double click on the shortcut "My computer" on the computer desktop. In the header of the window that opens, click the button once "Open Control Panel."
- On the right top corner change the display parameters of elements to "Small Icons". In the list of settings presented, you need to find the item "System" and click on it once.
- In the window that opens, in the left column we find the item « Extra options systems", click on it once, answer the question issued by the system with consent.
- A window will open "Properties of the system". You must select a tab "Additionally", in it in the section "Performance" press the button once "Options".
- After clicking, another small window will open, in which you also need to go to the tab "Additionally". In chapter "Virtual memory" click on the button "Change".
- Finally, we got to the last window, which directly contains the settings of the paging file itself. Most likely, by default there will be a checkmark at the top "Automatically select paging file size". You need to remove it and then select "Specify size" and enter your details. After this you need to press the button "Set"
- After all the manipulations you need to press the button "OK". The operating system will ask you to reboot; you must follow its requirements.
A little about choosing a size. Different users have put forward different theories about the required size of the paging file. If we calculate the arithmetic mean of all opinions, then the most optimal size will be equal to 130-150% of the amount of RAM.
Correctly changing the paging file should slightly increase the stability of the operating system by distributing the resources of running applications between RAM and the paging file. If the machine has 8+ GB of RAM installed, then most often the need for this file simply disappears, and it can be disabled in the last settings window. A swap file 2-3 times larger than the amount of RAM will only slow down the system due to the difference in data processing speed between the RAM and hard drive.
Swap file is a file that is used by the Windows operating system as an additional .
For example, you have 1 GB of RAM in your system and you launched an application (game) that consumes at least 1.5 GB; the additional 0.5 GB will be taken from the page file. The system takes the swap file itself from hard drive or from a flash drive, which is much slower than RAM.
Everyone has probably heard about the sop file, but few people have any idea what it is and what the effectiveness of its use is.
I have heard a lot of myths related to the paging file and I think it will be useful for you, dear readers, to know what is true and what is not.
Let's start from the beginning, where to configure and increase the swap file?
Let's go to Start - Control Panel - System - Advanced - In the first item “Performance” select parameters.
Here we come to the point Additionally - at the very bottom there will be a “virtual memory” section in which we click “change”
Phew... finally got there. To set the paging file, click on the disk partition and check the box "Special size", set the maximum and minimum size swap file, then press set and the OK button.
Let's start setting up
Remove the swap file from system disk(the one on which Windows is installed). This is one of the main recommendations for installing a swap file. Why is that?
The fact is that the system disk is more heavily loaded than other components; 20-30 GB are usually placed on the system partition. A swap file of 1-2 GB will take up a significant amount disk space on the system partition.
It is advisable to install the swap file on separate disk. If you have only one hard drive with several partitions, then changing from system partition for an additional one, you won’t help him much, but still choose a non-system partition.
The paging file is placed on only one partition, one hard drive. By installing a paging file on several partitions, you risk placing a heavy load on your hard drive, which may later require. Therefore, I do not recommend doing this.
The size of the paging file depends on the amount of RAM; the smaller it is, the larger the paging file. On older systems, it is recommended to install a swap file 2-3 times larger than what is actually installed on the system.
That is, for example, on a computer with 256 MB of RAM, it is advisable to increase the paging file by at least 512 MB, or even better 1 GB.
It is better to set the minimum and maximum sizes the same, since the system will be unable to take it piece by piece and calculate the sizes of these pieces. This also reduces fragmentation. But it doesn’t get rid of it!
Also, as you probably noticed, it is possible to disable the page file. Disabling the page file can significantly improve performance. To completely disable the page file, you need to have a sufficiently large supply of RAM:
For Windows XP – 3-4 GB RAM
For Windows Vista– 6 GB RAM
For Windows 7 – 6 GB RAM
In some cases, less RAM is enough, this is especially true for Windows XP. 2 GB of RAM is often sufficient. Therefore, you can experiment with disabling the page file. If you run out of RAM, you will receive a low RAM message virtual memory, also some applications will close.
If you receive such a message, then it is advisable to set the swap file. In the case of 2 GB of RAM on Windows XP, 512 MB will be enough. If you have Windows Vista/7, then set it to 1 GB but no more, so that the page file is accessed only in critical situations.
It is better to install the page file on empty partitions of your hard drive. The more free space there is, the better, the less fragmentation there will be. In addition, installing a swap file on an almost full partition can cause errors like - .
This happens because the system allocates a certain amount of memory to each application for temporary storage of its data, and in the case when the data is occupied by the swap file, you see an error. Later I will write how to get rid of this and others Windows errors. so as not to miss.
At all correct setting paging file, it’s like a competent one from specialists. It is important to consider everything: partition, volume, fragmentation, amount of free space on the partition, etc.
Also, do not forget to defragment the page file from time to time. You can do it using the program that I described.
Personally, I am skeptical about the paging file, since the system itself, at its own discretion, will use the amount of space on your hard drive it needs if it considers the RAM to be loaded or if it is insufficient.
At the same time, the hard drive begins to slow down terribly, because of the hard drive the entire system begins to slow down, and as a result, you may have noticed how the system freezes in resource-intensive applications. This happens because the hard drive is heavily loaded and begins to operate in increased load.
Also, due to increased load on the hard drive, its service life is significantly reduced, and fragmentation also affects it.
So the best option This is to buy additional RAM than to use a hard drive as it. It’s up to you to decide, but that’s all for today and have a good day :)
How to configure the swap file? What it is? How does it affect the performance of the entire system?
In Windows there is such a file, it is called a sweep file, which is an extension of the computer’s RAM, the so-called virtual memory or paging file. So, to this Windows file accesses constantly, we write something there and read something from there, in the process of executing programs. The most interesting thing is that Windows accesses this file regardless of the amount of RAM. The only thing is that when there is little memory, it is accessed more often. When there is a lot of memory, it accesses less often, but it still accesses. Even if the computer has 16 GB of RAM installed, Windows continues to work with the page file, which slows down the system.
In addition, this file has a dynamic size that is calculated each time it is accessed, which costs time. In addition, if the file is not whole, it will be read even slower. And in principle, a dynamic file cannot be whole, since as it expands it fills the voids between files. From the above, the following conclusion suggests itself: if you make the size of this file constant and write it to disk as a whole, then Windows will access it faster. And most importantly, this acceleration will extend to the operation of the entire system.
We will consider setting up the paging file at Windows example 7. Since the operating principle of all Windows is the same and the interfaces are extremely similar, everything described in this article is fully consistent with Windows 10 / 8 / 8.1 / xp. And so, to configure this file you need to click right click mouse over the computer icon and go to computer properties or through the control panel to system properties. Next, open “Advanced system settings”.
Then open the “Advanced” tab, then in the “Performance” section, click the “Options” button.
In the window that opens, select the “Advanced” tab and click the “Change” button.
The "Virtual Memory" window opens.
This window is split into two parts. In the first, most important part, the paging file is configured. The second, smaller part displays size recommendations and total size existing file paging on all disks.
At the very top of the "Virtual Memory" window there is an item "Automatically select the size of the paging file." If this item is checked, the settings window becomes unavailable and all paging file modes are selected by the system. For execution manual settings the checkbox in this item must be unchecked. By default, the system places the paging file on the system disk, usually drive C, and its size is dynamic, that is, changing depending on needs from 16 MB minimum to as many (MB, GB, TB) as needed system. The maximum page file size is theoretically limited only free space the disk on which it is located. Naturally, it is basically impossible for a system to work quickly with such a file. In practice, the maximum volume rarely reaches the recommended one.
Imagine a steam locomotive pulling a train with carriages containing various loads. At each station the locomotive stops and work begins on forming a new train. Some cars are uncoupled, others are coupled. And each time a different number of cars. As you understand, the procedure is quite long. Tolley is a train with a fixed number of cars or trolleys. The train pulled up to the station, they loaded the trolleys with cargo and the train moved on. At the next station the necessary trolleys were turned over, i.e. were released and the train moved again without delays. So here, too, a fixed size of the paging file works faster than a dynamic one (there are no calculations related to volumes). All that remains is to determine how much volume we need.
As you remember, the hard drive in a computer is the most slow device. Ideally, during program execution, it is desirable that there are no calls to it at all; this is the only way to achieve maximum performance systems. But the fact is that Windows is designed as a multitasking system and, moreover, capable of implementing multitasking mode when small volumes memory. This is precisely facilitated by the paging file, into which inactive tasks are unloaded. When memory is low, for example 512 MB, the system accesses the page file every time it switches from task to task (from program to program). And what more programs we have it enabled at the same time, the larger the swap file will be required. In reality, you will need a volume of about 2.5 GB. Of course, this is a conditional approximation and it very much depends on the volume of programs used.
Now imagine that we doubled the amount of RAM to 1 GB. What will happen now? Several programs, for example 2-3 (depending on their size), will be able to work entirely in memory. The system will start accessing the paging file only when there is not enough memory, and this will happen if you add the number of active ones. As a result, 2 GB will be enough for you.
Let's now double the memory capacity - up to 2 GB. Have you noticed what's happening? The amount of memory used migrates from the page file to RAM. That is, now we should have enough paging file within 1.5 GB. And if the memory is doubled to 4 GB, 1 GB should be enough for everything. Based on this sequence, we can assume that if you have 8 GB or more, you can completely abandon the paging file. And this theory is true to some extent. But everything depends, as I said, on the load on the system, i.e. on the number of active programs and on their severity, that is, volume. For example, with 2 GB of memory, the system creates a page file of 2.7 GB, but recommends 3 GB.
So I suggest starting to try with volumes equal to those recommended by the system. Further, depending on your needs, if this volume is too much or too little, then you can always reasonably reduce or increase it based on previous paragraph and bring the paging file to the ideal size. And so you have received enough information to make the right decision regarding volume.
But the question is, how to make the swap file intact? The thought arises: is it possible to defragment the paging file? The system does not defragment the swap file directly. But there is a way to make it so. And so, the first thing we need to do is disable the swap file created after installing Windows. Let's do it like this.
Select the item “without paging file” and click the “Set” button. The system will curse and display a warning window:
How to configure the swap file - Warning
Since we are doing this intentionally, we click "Yes". And a new window appears asking us to reboot the system for the changes to take effect.
How to configure the swap file - Reboot suggestion
Click "OK" and reboot the system. Windows now boots without a page file. To new file swap appears to be intact, it is necessary to defragment the disk space. Since we strive for maximum system performance, we will place the file on drive C (this is the case with one physical disk). Therefore, we will defragment Disk C. To do this, open the My Computer tab. Point the mouse at drive C, right-click and select properties. Open the "Service" tab and click on the "Defragmentation" button.
How to configure the paging file - Disk defragmentation
The defragmenter program will start. Select drive C and click "Disk Defragmenter".
How to set up a paging file - Defragmentation of drive C
If suddenly for some reason you don’t have a Windows defragmenter installed or you’re not happy with it, then it’s okay. For example, download the free Auslogics Disk Defrag and defragment drive C, as shown in the figure below.
How to configure the swap file - Auslogics
How to configure the swap file - Setting the file size
Select a defragmented drive C or another specially prepared empty hard drive. Select the "Specify size" section and enter the "Original" and Maximum" sizes in megabytes in the boxes. I'm in in this case indicated the system recommended size of 3070 MB. The numbers must be the same; this is important for creating a fixed size of the paging file. Next, click the set button. The indicated numbers will be displayed in the C drive line, as in the figure. Next, click the “OK” button. Reboot the computer. Windows will now create a new, unfragmented page file in a new location at boot time.
Attention: VERY IMPORTANT point!!!
If you have two or more Hard Drives(not sections, namely physical disks), That better file Place the swap space on a different drive than the one where the system drive C is located, preferably on the fastest one. This will significantly speed up the performance of the entire system. To do this, you need to prepare the first partition on another disk. It is advisable that the disk be empty and then the paging file will be located at the very beginning of the first partition and will immediately take up the whole space. This will give another small increase in the acceleration of the entire system.
After setting up the paging file in this way, the system will start working faster, and in the case of two disks, much faster.
Happy ACCELERATION. I hope that you understand "How to configure the paging file?" and for you now this is not a big problem.
If you have questions, ask in the comments.
Proper optimization of a computer allows it to quickly cope with assigned tasks, even with not the most powerful hardware. One of the most important moments Optimization for a small amount of RAM is to configure the paging file. Most users leave it up to Windows to decide what size paging file to use to keep their computer running perfectly. This approach is fundamentally wrong, and self-configuration paging file will increase system performance.
What is the Windows paging file and why is it needed?
Each computer has RAM installed, the purpose of which is to temporarily store data in quick access for the processor. HDD can also act as storage for quick access to data, but its speed is significantly lower than that of RAM. The paging file is an area of the hard drive allocated for temporary storage of information. When free RAM runs out, the computer will write information to the paging file, and then can read it from there.
If we consider the operation of the paging file as an example, we can note the following scenario. When running several applications that actively consume RAM, some of them will be inactive (minimized). In such a situation, there is no point in storing them in RAM, thereby loading free place, and the Windows operating system will move inactive programs to the page file. Active programs will be in RAM in order to be processed faster. When the user accesses a previously inactive program, its data will be moved from the page file to RAM, and some information from RAM will be sent to the page file.
When your computer does not have enough RAM to store data and the page file is not enabled or configured incorrectly, applications may crash or " blue screens death" when trying to run a productive program.
How to choose the right page file size
As noted above, the paging file is free space on the hard drive that is used to store data for quick access. Large capacity hard drives are inexpensive, and it may seem that if you install big size swap file on fast HDD or SSD storage, then you can minimize the amount of RAM installed in your computer, but this is not the case.
As practice shows, the Windows operating system large file paging and low, constantly busy RAM will access the hard drive more often. This will lead to the following consequences:
Accordingly, on each computer assembly you must select right size swap file. By default, Windows is set to let the operating system independently choose how much memory to allocate to the paging file. Similar method optimization is not ideal, and better for the user configure the amount of allocated memory yourself.
On right choice The size of the paging file is influenced by many factors: the number of applications simultaneously used on the computer, the resource intensity of the tasks being performed, the number of programs running in the background, and much more. But first of all, you should focus on the amount of RAM installed in the computer, based on the following postulate: the less RAM in the computer, the larger the paging file should be.
If we take the average figures for the paging file size for computers, we can name the following values:
- 1 GB of RAM: paging file – 2048-2048 MB;
- 2 GB of RAM: paging file – 1512-1512 MB;
- 4 GB of RAM: paging file – 1024-1024 MB;
- 8 GB of RAM or more: no swap file needed.
Excluding when large quantities RAM swap file, you increase the speed of your computer. This is due to the fact that the operating system does not have to access the disk, and all temporary data will be stored in RAM.
As you can see above, the size of the paging file is indicated in two numbers, for example, 1024-1024 MB. This is due to the fact that in Windows settings can be installed original size swap file and maximum. On older computers where hard disks did not exceed tens of gigabytes in size, it made sense to set the initial size of the paging file lower than the maximum. Now that disk space is not so expensive, it is better to choose identical values for both columns. This is due to the following factors:
- This reduces fragmentation hard section disk allocated for the paging file;
- The Windows operating system does not have to constantly recalculate the size of the paging file. Due to this, the number of disk accesses from the system is reduced, which improves the overall performance of the computer.
Important: Some applications in the Windows operating system require installed file swaps. If the computer is running without a page file, programs may simply not start. In such situations, the system will notify you of this, and you will need to make appropriate changes to your computer settings. 
How to increase or decrease the page file
Paging file settings can be made on any version of the operating system Windows systems. To do this, you need to go to the virtual memory settings menu:
Important: If you have several installed on your computer hard drives, it is recommended to create a paging file not on system media. Exception from of this rule can only be if system drive is a solid state (SSD) with high speed work, in comparison with others hard drives computer.
To changes made the paging file size has taken effect, you will need to restart your computer.
Surely many have heard that somewhere on the hard drive there is hidden file“incredible” size, which “constantly grows, eats up your precious memory and is generally not needed.” We are talking about the swap file, which is used by virtual memory. Let's start with the fact that if the memory of your hard drive is measured in terabytes or at least hundreds of gigabytes, then there is no need to worry about it. Although, of course, tinkering with the settings, figuring out what’s what, and also trying to optimize the operation of virtual memory is very useful. So, what is virtual memory? To put it simply, this is your RAM + swap file. What is a paging file (virtual memory file) and why is it needed? It is used to store information when there is not enough RAM. Data is temporarily moved back and forth. Optimizing virtual memory If you properly optimize the operation of virtual memory, this gives absolutely obvious advantages. - Reduced disk fragmentation; - The page file will not grow at all - if its size is fixed. In addition, you can move the paging file, for example, from the system drive (C:) to another drive where the main memory is, if everything is full on the system drive. Disabling the page file Theoretically, the paging file is completely unnecessary if there is enough RAM. IN Windows versions, previous to Vista and 7, 1-2 gigabytes of RAM were, as they say, for the eyes. For seven you need a little more, respectively - 4-5 gigabytes, so as not to think about it at all. In any case, you can test this. If you disable the page file, of course, provided that you have a lot of RAM, then the system should speed up a little. Accessing RAM takes significantly less time than accessing a hard drive partition. Now we’ll step by step disable the paging file in Windows 7, and at the same time we’ll look at the rest of the steps to optimize virtual memory. Right-click on the “Computer” icon, which is located on the desktop or in the “Start” menu. Select the “Properties” item. Here on the left select “Advanced system settings”. 
Now you need to select the “Options” button in the “Advanced” tab. 
Here we also open the “Advanced” item. 
Next – “Change”... So we got to the virtual memory tab. 
Select “Specify size” and indicate the same number in both windows - the best is what is indicated below as “recommended”. 
Now the page file will not grow at all. If we want to disable it completely, then check the “Without paging file” option. 
As you can see, there is now no paging file on any disk (opposite D: - “missing”). We can also move the paging file from the system disk to another. To do this, select disk D. Specify the size and click “Set”. 
After all manipulations are completed, click “Ok”. And if changes are made to the virtual memory parameters, a window will appear: 
That's all. After the reboot, everything will be as you chose.