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Pagefile in Windows 10 is a hidden system file with the .SYS extension that is stored on your computer’s system drive (usually C:\). The Pagefile allows the computer to perform smoothly by reducing the workload of the physical memory, or RAM.
Simply put, every time you open more applications than the RAM on your PC can accommodate, the programs already present in the RAM are automatically transferred to the Pagefile. This process is technically called Paging. Because the Pagefile works as a secondary RAM, many times it is also referred to as Virtual Memory.
The minimum and maximum size of the Pagefile can be up to 1.5 times and 4 times of the physical memory that your computer has, respectively. For example, if your computer has 1GB of RAM, the minimum Pagefile size can be 1.5GB, and the maximum size of the file can be 4GB.
By default, Windows 10 automatically manages the Pagefile according to your computer’s configuration and the RAM present in it. However, if you ever face lagging while working on Windows 10, or you start getting the PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA or KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), managing the size of the Pagefile manually is the first thing you should look for.
Managing the Pagefile size manually in Windows 10 is simple. Here is how:
- Use an administrator account to log on to Windows 10.
- From the desktop screen, right-click the Start button to open its context menu.
- Click System.
- From the left pane of the System window, click Advanced system settings.
- On the System Properties box, ensure that you are on the Advanced tab.
- Click the Settings button from under the Performance section.
- On the Performance Options box, go to the Advanced tab.
- Click the Change button from under the Virtual memory section.
- On the Virtual Memory box, uncheck the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives checkbox.
- From the available list, click to select the drive on which Windows 10 is installed. (C: in most cases.)
- From below the list, click to select the Custom size radio button.
- In the now-enabled fields, type the minimum and maximum size of the Pagefile in megabytes (MB) according to the physical memory present in your computer.
- Click Set and then click OK.
- Restart your computer when you’re done.
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One of the many unknown reasons of a Windows 10 PC crash or BSoD is the pagefile. By default, Windows 10 manages the pagefile automatically. However, if you have manually configured the pagefile settings, this may lead to a system malfunction or crash if not configured properly.
If a Pagefile is too small, it may cause the PC to crash frequently. If it is too big, it might take up a significant amount of storage space on your hard drive. So how do you know what the right size is? This article discusses how to determine the optimal Pagefile size on your Windows 10 and set it.
What is Pagefile
Pagefile is a hidden system file on your hard drive that is primarily there to compensate for low RAM. Pagefile serves as an extension to RAM. Data that cannot be processed in RAM due to lack of space is saved in pagefile and swapped in RAM when it is free.
This Pagefile is hidden at the root of the system volume and can be seen if hidden files and folders are configured to be visible.
It is also where the Operating System itself places files and logs in case a system crashes. This is known as Crash Dump files. If there is not sufficient space within the Pagefile, the system might throw a BSOD.
Now that you get the gist of what a Pagefile is, let us discuss the optimal size of a Pagefile.
Determine optimal Pagefile size in Windows 10
Since the Pagefile is directly associated with the system RAM, and by default, its size is managed by the Windows itself, its size cannot be fixed. Each system can have a different size for the Pagefile. If a system has a lot of RAM that is not usually consumed, a PC might not even need a Pagefile as it would not need to vacate the RAM at all. However, if a system has low RAM, then the Pagefile can be significantly bigger.
For example, a PC with 2 GB RAM may have a Pagefile of 4 GB in size. Whereas a PC with 8 GB RAM may have a Pagefile size of 2 GB.
Microsoft recommends a range of minimum and a maximum size of Pagefile, and you may set the size of the Pagefile in between that range, according to the criteria that follows:
Microsoft says that a PC should have a minimum Pagefile size of RAM, plus an extra 257 MB. Meaning, if your system’s RAM is 8 GB, then your Pagefile size should be at least 8449 MB.
For the maximum, Microsoft suggests that the Pagefile size should be 3 times that of the system RAM, or 4 GB, whichever is larger. For example, if the RAM on your PC is 1 GB, then the Pagefile size should be a maximum of 4 GB. However, the upper limit is then restricted by the amount of storage on the hard drive. Hence, it is not advisable to set the maximum value of the Pagefile to something that would significantly affect your storage.
There is still to decide what one should set the Pagefile size to, even after Microsoft has designated the upper and lower limits. For that, we suggest that you adapt the technique below to know what the actual size of the Pagefile ought to be.
- Run your system as usual. Open all the programs, applications, and services you usually run so that the PC reaches the usual amount of Pagefile utilization.
- Now navigate to the following:
Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative tools -> Performance Monitor - In the Performance Monitor window, expand Monitoring Tools on the left, and then click Performance Monitor.
- On the right-click the blank graph on the right and then click Add counters from the Context Menu.
- Under the Available counters section, expand the Page file by clicking on the down-arrow beside it, click %usage, and then click Add at the bottom.
- Ensure that the counter has been added and is visible on the right side, then click OK.
- Now you get a real-time representation of the Pagefile being consumed, as in the image below where you can see that less than 10 percent is being consumed.
The fields at the bottom of the graph are MBs, except for the time that represents 1 minute and 40 seconds.
You can now figure out what the size of your Pagefile should be, which needs to be just over the amount that is being used.
Now that we know what the size needs to be so that the system has optimal performance and the storage space is not compromised, let us dig into how you can change the Pagefile size.
Set Pagefile size in Windows 10
You can set your Windows 10 to stop managing the Pagefile size and define the upper and lower limits yourself. Use the guide below to customize the Pagefile size.
- Navigate to the following:
Start Menu -> Settings -> System -> About - Now scroll down and click Advanced System Settings.
- In the System properties popup window, under the Advanced tab, click on Settings under Performance.
- In the Performance Options window, switch to Advanced tab, and then click Change under Virtual memory.
- In the Virtual memory window, uncheck the box next to Automatically manage paging file size for all drives. Once done, you should now be able to select Custom size and then enter the minimum and maximum values for the Pagefile size according to your observation from the Performance Monitor. Then, click on Set and Ok.
- Reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.
You can now check that the Pagefile size has been set to the minimum value you have allotted, increasing to the maximum value over time.
Closing words
For mission critical systems, it is recommended that RAM should be increased so that the system can process data in RAM which is much faster than the hard drive. But for an everyday use system, you can use pagefile settings as recommended in this article.
Download Windows Speedup Tool to fix errors and make PC run faster
Windows uses pagefiles to increase the availability of active applications, rather than letting them idle. If the page file size is low, you will get a message stating “Your system is low on virtual memory”. In this post, we will learn how to increase Page File size or Virtual Memory in Windows 11/10.
Read: What is the best Page File size for 64-bit versions of Windows?
If you get such an error message, you may have to increase the size of your virtual memory or page file or paging file – although for most users, leaving the Page File size at its default value should be good enough.
Read: How to Back up or Move PageFile.sys.
To increase Page File size via System Properties in Windows 10, follow these steps:
- In the Taskbar Search, type “Advanced System“. You will see View Advanced System Settings. Click on it.
- Or you can navigate to it via the Control Panel (Search “Advanced Settings” in the search box and then click View advanced system settings under the System option)
- In System Properties, click the Advanced tab
- In the Performance section click the Settings button
- Performance Options will open. Click Advanced tab
- Here, under Virtual memory, select Change
- Uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives
- Highlight your Windows system drive
- Select Custom size
- Change the Initial size value and the Maximum size value to a higher value
- Click Set
- Finally, Click Apply/OK all the way.
Read: You don’t have enough system and video memory to start the game
Where is Page File located in Windows?
The page file or swap file is also known as Virtual memory, and is situated on your system drive; e.,g. C:\pagefile.sys. In addition to physical memory or RAM, Windows, and its applications use it as and when required.
Read:
- Enable Virtual Memory Paging File Encryption in Windows 11
- How to delete PageFile.sys at shutdown
What happens if I increase Paging file size?
Increasing the Paging file size can slow down your computer as it adds extra work for the hard drive. It should only be done as a temporary fix when encountering out-of-memory errors. Instead, consider adding more memory (RAM) to your computer for better performance.
Also Read: MemInfo – A Real-time Memory & Page file Usage Monitor.
Anand Khanse is the Admin of TheWindowsClub.com, a 10-year Microsoft MVP (2006-16) & a Windows Insider MVP (2016-2022). Please read the entire post & the comments first, create a System Restore Point before making any changes to your system & be careful about any 3rd-party offers while installing freeware.
The paging file or virtual memory is a fixed block of space on your hard disk or SSD drive that Windows allocates to act as RAM in case your system runs out of RAM. This block is stored in Windows 11 or 10 as a hidden file named “pagefile.sys”. Windows manages the size of this pagefile automatically. Still, you can change the virtual memory size in Windows 11 or 10 to ensure your system doesn’t throw the “Your system is low on virtual memory” error.
Another vital use of the paging file or virtual memory is for creating the crash dump in the case of BSOD. The larger the pagefile size, the more information the crash dump will have. Sometimes, when your system is low on virtual memory, essential services might crash causing your computer to hang or disrupt user profile service.
Changing the pagefile size in Windows is relatively easy. You need to go to the Advanced System Properties and set the custom size for pagefile or virtual memory for your Windows 11 or 10. Just follow these steps:
Step 1: Open Advanced System Properties
First of all, launch the RUN utility (press Windows + R). Then type systempropertiesadvanced , and press Enter or click OK.
systempropertiesadvanced , and press EnterThis will launch the System Properties window on your Windows 10 or Windows 11 and open the Advanced tab. The Advanced System Properties will allow us to modify the size of pagefile or virtual memory for Windows.
Step 2: Go to Virtual Memory Settings
In the Advanced System Properties window click Settings under the Performance section.
This will open the Performance Options window for your Windows 11 or 10. Now, go to the Advanced tab and click Change under Virtual Memory to change the size of the pagefile for your Windows 11 or 10.
Step 3: Change the Virtual Memory (Page File) Size for Windows 11 or 10
Now, you will see the Virtual Memory window. By default, Windows manages the size of pagefile for each drive automatically. However, sometimes, you might need to change the size of the virtual memory or the page file to suit your needs.
To do this, first, uncheck the box next to “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives”. This will allow you to modify the virtual memory settings in your Windows 10 or 11.
Now, you can set the custom size for the paging file or virtual memory as per your requirements. Usually, the pagefile size ranges between 1.5 to 4 times of physical RAM installed in your PC. However, you can set the size as per your requirements.
So first, select the Windows drive (C in most cases) to change the virtual memory size. Next, select Custom size: and enter the value of virtual memory in MB in the Initial size and Maximum size fields. After that, click Set and OK to continue.
You may see a warning for requiring a reboot after changing the paging file size in Windows, simply click OK.
Step 4: Close the System Properties window and Restart your PC
Now that you have set the value to virtual memory as per your requirements, simply click OK on the Performance Options and Advanced System Properties windows to close them.
Finally, you will see a prompt to restart your computer to apply the new virtual memory or paging file size to your Windows 10 or 11. Click Restart Now to restart your computer and apply the changes.
SEE ALSO: How to Run Windows 11 on Virtual Machine via VirtualBox?
Change the Paging File (pagefile.sys) Size in Your Windows 11 or 10 to Boost the Performance
The paging file or virtual memory might give your system a performance boost. While there are several other ways to make your Windows 11 or 10 faster, virtual memory can also make your system fast. You can read more about the paging file here.
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Page table size = 2^20 * 4 bytes = 4 MB. 4MB is the maximum space that a single process can occupy in the Virtual Memory.
- What is the size of the page table?
- What is RamMap page table?
- How do you determine page table entry size?
- What paging size should I set?
- What is size of each page?
- What is paging page size?
- What is PTE in page table?
- What is large page in RamMap?
- How much memory is in a page?
- Can page size and frame size be different?
- Can page size and frame size be different Why What is the typical size of page and frame size?
- How many bits are in a page table entry?
- What should pagefile size be Windows 10?
- What is paging size Windows 10?
- Do I need a pagefile with 16GB of RAM?
What is the size of the page table?
The page table needs one entry per page. Assuming a 4GB (2^32 byte) virtual and physical address space and a page size of 4kB (2^12 bytes), we see that the the 2^32 byte address space must be split into 2^20 pages. This means the page table must have 2^20 entries.
What is RamMap page table?
The page tables are in-memory structures that are used by the CPU’s MMU to perform address translation from virtual addresses (again, not the pagefile) to physical addresses, and by the OS to keep track of virtual address space and help resolve page faults.
How do you determine page table entry size?
Number of bits in a page = Logical Address — Page Offset = 24 — 12 = 12 bits. Number of pages = 2 ^ 12 = 2 X 2 X 10 ^ 10 = 4 KB. Let’s say, Page table entry = 1 Byte. Therefore, the size of the page table = 4 KB X 1 Byte = 4 KB.
What paging size should I set?
Ideally, your paging file size should be 1.5 times your physical memory at a minimum and up to 4 times the physical memory at most to ensure system stability. For example, say your system has 8 GB RAM.
What is size of each page?
Yes, it refers to each page being 4096 bytes (4*1024). Are they considering 4 bytes (per word), OR 4 bytes means it has 4*1024 words which each word having some size say 4 bytes? It can be smaller on 32 bit processors, but normally a word is 32 bits or 4 Bytes.
What is paging page size?
In a paging scheme, virtual address space is 4 KB and page table entry size is 8 bytes.
What is PTE in page table?
Each page table entry (PTE) holds the mapping between a virtual address of a page and the address of a physical frame. There is also auxiliary information about the page such as a present bit, a dirty or modified bit, address space or process ID information, amongst others.
What is large page in RamMap?
Large pages will occupy 512 contiguous 4K pages (assuming large page is 2MB on the architecture) In RamMap, large pages allocated will show up in the Use column as AWE. A single large allocation (> 2MB) does not require the large pages themselves to be contiguous.
How much memory is in a page?
Pages are typically 512 to 8192 bytes, with 4096 being a typical value. Page size is virtually always a power of two, for reasons to be explained below. Loadable modules are also divided into a number of page frames. Page frames are always the same size as the pages in memory.
Can page size and frame size be different?
The PAGE FRAME size is always the same as the PAGE size.
Can page size and frame size be different Why What is the typical size of page and frame size?
A page is a region of virtual address space, and a page frame is a region of physical memory. A page which maps a region of physical memory must have the same size as that piece of physical memory, otherwise there’s no point. They also typically must be aligned correctly.
How many bits are in a page table entry?
Each page table entry is composed of a 20-bit physical page number (PPN) and a series of control bits. All page-table entries and the page directory are stored in main memory.
What should pagefile size be Windows 10?
On most Windows 10 systems with 8 GB of RAM or more, the OS manages the size of the paging file nicely. 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. For systems with more RAM, you can make the paging file somewhat smaller.
What is paging size Windows 10?
Pagefile in Windows 10 is a hidden system file with the . SYS extension that is stored on your computer’s system drive (usually C:\). … For example, if your computer has 1GB of RAM, the minimum Pagefile size can be 1.5GB, and the maximum size of the file can be 4GB.
Do I need a pagefile with 16GB of RAM?
1) You don’t «need» it. By default Windows will allocate virtual memory (pagefile) the same size as your RAM. It will «reserve» this disk space to ensure it’s there if required. That’s why you see a 16GB page file.