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. Some products or services require a page file for various reasons. For specific information, check the product documentation. A page file is required to make sure that the database cache can release memory if other services or applications request memory.
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. For more information about system crash dumps, see system crash dump options. When large physical memory is installed, a page file might not be required to support the system commit charge during peak usage.
For example, bit versions of Windows and Windows Server support more physical memory RAM than bit versions support. The available physical memory alone might be large enough.
Alongside this is the amount of RAM installed on your computer. RAM holds all of the information relating to open programs, like a working storage area. RAM helps to keep activities on your computer fast by holding regularly accessed data. Plus, RAM is much faster than your old hard drive, and faster even than your solid-state drive. You want your RAM in use. But if you begin running out of RAM, your computer can begin to take longer to complete regular tasks.
The page file also known as a swap file is a file on your hard drive. When your RAM becomes full, Windows moves some of the excess data into the page file. As such, the page file acts as a type of virtual memory, enabling some swapping of data between your hard drive and RAM.
Windows attempts to use the page file efficiently. That means it looks for the data you are not using at the time but is still held in your RAM. For example, if you like me! Moving the data for these files frees up active RAM space for the applications you are using potentially helping them to run faster and smoother , and is easily retrievable from the page file when you open the window. The page file is self-managing.
Hard page faults are a standard function of the operating system. They occur when the following items are read:. High values for these counters excessive paging indicate disk access of generally 4 KB per page fault on x86 and x64 versions of Windows and Windows Server.
This disk access might or might not be related to page file activity but may contribute to poor disk performance that can cause system-wide delays if the related disks are overwhelmed. Therefore, we recommend that you monitor the disk performance of the logical disks that host a page file in correlation with these counters. Be aware that a system that has a sustained hard page faults per second experiences KB per second disk transfers.
No performance counter directly measures which logical disk the hard page faults are resolved for. Not all the memory on the modified page list is written out to disk.
If a system is configured to have more than one page files, the page file that responds first is the one that is used. This means that page files that are on faster disks are used more frequently. Be aware that actual page file usage depends greatly on the amount of modified memory that the system is managing.
This means that files that already exist on disk such as. Only modified data that does not already exist on disk for example, unsaved text in Notepad is memory that could potentially be backed by a page file.
After the unsaved data is saved to disk as a file, it is backed by the disk and not by a page file. Skip to main content. This browser is no longer supported. Download Microsoft Edge More info. Contents Exit focus mode. Please rate your experience Yes No.
Any additional feedback? For most circumstances, the default setting of letting Windows handle it is fine. But when you own some older hardware, or you have a unique hard drive configuration, you want something more specific set up. If you are choosing to set a custom amount, you need to take your total RAM amount and multiply it by 1.
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