First, about what is pagefile.sys in Windows 10, Windows 7, 8 and XP: is the windows swap file. Because you need it? The fact is that, regardless of how much RAM you have installed in your computer, not all programs will have enough to run. modern games, video and graphics editors and many other programs will easily fill your 8GB of RAM and ask for more. This is where the swap file comes in. The default swap file is located on the system drive, generally here: C:page file.sys. This post looks at whether it is a good idea to delete the swap file and thus delete pagefile.sys, how to move pagefile.sys and what benefits it can bring in some cases.
Update of 2016: more detailed instructions on how to delete the pagefile.sys file, as well as a video tutorial and more information are available in the Windows Swap File post.
How to delete pagefile.sys
Supposedly, one of the most important questions we have is if you can uninstall pagefile.sys. Yes, you can, and now i will tell you how to do it, and later I'll explain why you shouldn't.
Then, to change paging file settings in Windows 7 and Windows 8 (and also in XP), go to Control Panel and select “System”, and then in the menu on the left, “Advanced system settings”.
Then, in the tab “Advanced”, Click the button “Choices” of “Performance”.
In performance settings, open the tab “Advanced” and in the section “virtual memory”, click on “Change”.
By default, Windows automatically manages the size of the pagefile.sys file and, In most cases, This is the best option. Despite this, if you want to delete pagefile.sys, you can do it by unchecking the option “Automatically choose swap file size” and setting it to “No swap file”. Also you can change the size of this file by specifying it yourself.
Why You Shouldn't Delete Windows Swap File
There are a couple of reasons why people decide to delete pagefile.sys: occupies disk space, that's the first. The second is that they think the computer will run faster without the swap file because it already has enough RAM..
Regarding the first option, given the size of today's hard drives, it is unlikely that it will be necessary to delete the swap file. If you have started to run out of hard drive space, it's probably an indication that you're storing something unnecessary in there. The gigabytes of game disc images, movies and other things are not necessarily stored on the hard drive. At the same time, if you have downloaded Repack of a few gigabytes and installed it on your computer, can you delete the iso file: the game will work without it. Despite this, this post is not about how to clean hard drive. It is that if the few gigabytes that the pagefile.sys occupies are critical for you, it is better to look for something else, apparently unnecessary, and chances are you'll find it.
The second point about performance is also a myth. Windows can work without a swap file if you have a lot of RAM installed, but there is no positive impact on system performance. At the same time, disabling swap file can cause nasty things to happen: some programs will crash and “they will fail” if they do not have enough free memory to run. It is possible that some programs, like virtual machines, not start at all if windows swap file is disabled.
In summary, there is no reasonable reason to get rid of pagefile.sys.
How to move the Windows swap file and when it can be useful
Despite the above about not having to change the default swap file settings, in some cases it may be useful to move the pagefile.sys file to a different hard drive. If you have two separate hard drives installed in your computer, one of which contains the programs you need and the other the relatively little-used data, moving the swap file to the second drive can have a positive impact on performance over time. times when virtual memory is needed. The pagefile.sys file can be moved in Windows virtual memory settings.
Note that this action is only sensible if you have two separate physical hard drives. If you have multiple partitions on your hard drive, moving swap file to another partition may not help, but it can slow down your programs.
Then, to summarize all of the above, the swap file is an important part of Windows and you'd better not touch it unless you know exactly why you're doing it.
