What is a Paging File or Pagefile as Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2014-05-07
·
1,039 words · ~5 min read
0:00
the paging file or page file as many folks call it has nothing to do with
0:03
books or personal grooming implements but rather it is a ghost file on your
0:07
computer's hard drive you can't normally see it and you can't manually access it
0:12
but it is constantly having data written to it temporarily then wiped when it's
0:16
not needed anymore it acts as an overflow for your system memory or RAM
0:20
which holds the data needed for all of your running programs and while it's
0:25
much much slower than RAM it's better than having your system completely lock
0:29
up when you launch one too many Chrome tabs and run out of system memory to
0:33
access the settings for your page file open up the control panel go to system
0:36
in security then system then Advanced system settings then the advanced tab
0:40
then the settings button under performance then the advanced Tab and
0:43
finally the change button under virtual memory there are lots of cool dials and
0:48
switches in here so what do they all do well nothing until you uncheck
0:53
automatically manage paging file size for all drives then you can add and
0:57
remove paging files on any of your partitions set a custom minimum and
1:02
maximum size and even turn it off entirely so let's start with the most
1:07
hotly debated Topic in here that no paging file checkbox many users feel
1:12
that Windows is underutilizing their RAM when it pushes a minimized program out
1:17
of memory and into the paging file causing the system to stutter a little
1:21
bit when you maximize it again some people have so much RAM that they could
1:26
never expect to use it all at once so they're like yeah awesome bring it on
1:30
more responsiveness now to be clear pressing this button will do what you
1:35
think it does it will force Windows to keep all the running programs in your
1:39
Lightning Fast system memory and while that may sound very tantalizing to these
1:43
folks and while I've personally run my system with no paging file in the past
1:47
and not observed any ill effects there are many reports from knowledgeable
1:51
folks of strange behavior on systems without a paging file including even
1:56
applications that flat out refuse to run even though the PC he still has plenty
2:00
of RAM on top of that SuperFetch which was introduced with Windows Vista uses
2:06
system memory to cach frequently used files and make your system more
2:09
responsive in other ways well that will have less RAM to work with and be less
2:13
effective as well so there's a trade-off there all right so you're telling me I
2:18
shouldn't turn it off well what about an optimal size the general rule of thumb
2:22
on the internets is one and a half times to two times the total amount of system
2:26
RAM but I could make it huge right more memory is always better right even if
2:31
it's just virtual right well no not necessarily if your system had so many
2:36
running applications at one time that you needed all of your system memory and
2:40
a paging file 10 times that size then it would probably be operating so slowly
2:45
anyway that it wouldn't really help best to just leave this one to the system to
2:49
figure out on its own as well all right fine then so lus what was the point of
2:53
this stupid video you showed me cool buttons and dials then you told me not
2:57
to touch them can I do anything to optimize this thing the answer is yes
3:02
moving your paging file to a separate Drive entirely can help performance in
3:07
much the same way that using a separate physical disc for a scratch disc helps
3:11
performance the higher performance the secondary Drive the better beware though
3:16
in addition to your main paging file Microsoft recommends retaining one
3:20
paging file on the boot partition for system dumps in the event of a crash
3:24
your OS will automatically make use of the one on the separate drive more
3:28
frequently and use the one on the boot partition less frequently in order to
3:32
get the best performance possible but that's all done in the background so
3:36
ultimately guys there are two takeaways from all this number one is don't
3:40
disable your paging file unless you're willing to run that risk and number two
3:44
is if you're determined to have fewer pages in your life then or at least
3:47
higher quality ones then you should head on over to squarespace.com tequ by using
3:52
their website builder you can create a clean beautiful website that's focused
3:56
on the content you want your audience to see without letting cluttery and
4:00
unnecessary nonsense get in the way they have over 20 templates to choose from
4:04
that are optimized for desktop phones and everything in between and it's as
4:07
simple or as customizable as you want with everything from drag and drop site
4:11
building tools to an advanced mode that lets you add your own HTML CSS and
4:15
JavaScript code as well if you head over to squarespace.com tequ you can get 10%
4:20
off your first purchase with offer code Tech Quicky 1 and what's more if you
4:24
grab an entire Year's worth they'll throw in the first year of a domain for
4:28
you as well I use Squarespace for linusmediagroup tocom so if you want to
4:32
see a fairly quick and dirty site and check out what that looks like you can
4:36
head over there or you can see for yourself and just grab a trial and go to
4:41
it and then you'll know for sure if you like it Anyway remember guys that
4:45
squarespace.com tequ and offer code tech qui1 for 10% off guys like this video if
4:50
you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment and let me know what your thoughts were if they're just too
4:54
complicated for this and as always don't forget to subscribe to Techquickie for
4:58
more fastest Possible episodes just like this one