Minimize the paging file on windows 10 for better performence

Minimize the paging file

The Windows paging file supports system crash dumps and enables the system to use physical RAM more efficiently by writing some file content to disk if the main memory is near capacity.

On most Windows 10 System with 8 GB of RAM or more, the OS manages the size of the paging file nicely. 2.5 GB is typical on 16 GB systems, and 5 GB on 32 GB systems.

However, the more memory installed, the smaller the paging file you need because it's unlikely the computer will use all its memory at one time. That means you can reduce the size of the paging file. To minimize the paging file, follow these steps:

1. Open System Properties. (Right-click the Start menu, select System and then click Change Settings, or use the Control Panel.)

2. In the System Properties dialog box, on the Advanced tab, click the Settings button in the Performance section.

3. In the Performance Options dialog box, on the Advanced tab, click the Change button in the Virtual Memory section.

4. In the Virtual Memory dialog box, jot down the minimum allowed, recommended and currently allocated paging file sizes in the last section. Then, unchecked the box that says "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives." If more than one drive appears in the available drives list, click your system drive (the one on which Windows is installed, which is usually C:).

5. Click Custom Size, and then type values into the Initial Size (MB) and Maximum Size (MB) boxes, making the maximum size 1 GB (1,000 MB) or up to 4 GB (4,000 MB), depending on the amount of installed RAM.

6. Click Set, then OK.

After these steps, close all open dialog boxes and restart your computer.

Better yet, if you have multiple physical drives (not just multiple partitions of a single drive), you can increase system speed by splitting the paging file across two drives. Allocate about 300 MB of the paging file to the system drive, select the second drive in the Virtual Memory dialog box, set the initial size and maximum size values and click Set.