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Should I adjust page file size - Windows 7
I have a user with a computer having 4G of real memory. The page file size is currently set to 4G and is automatically controlled. The recommended size shown on the VM dialog is 6141MB. This link, https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff382717.aspx says the "default" should 1.5 times the size of the real memory, but clearly that is not the case here - it is currently set to exactly the same as the real memory.
Do to occasional slow downs on this computer with a lot of windows open, I am suspecting memory usage issues. Should I manually set the page file size to 6141M?
Do to occasional slow downs on this computer with a lot of windows open, I am suspecting memory usage issues. Should I manually set the page file size to 6141M?
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Thanks all. Much help. I'll leave the swap space setting as automatic. The computer's max memory capacity of 4G. There's plenty of disk space. It might be time to get a new computer. This one was purchased in 2009
As long as Windows is set to automatically adjust the size, the size it is at any given time doesn't matter, since Windows will expand it as needed. For example, on my 64-bit Windows system with 12GB of RAM, my pagefile is only 2.37GB in size.
The pagefile only matters if you start using more virtual memory than you have actual RAM to handle. With only 4GB or RAM, you may be running out of usable RAM. The size of the pagefile doesn't matter as long as it's big enough to hold all the virtual memory you're using. If you're utilizing the pagefile a lot now because you're constantly going over 4GB, increasing the pagefile isn't going to improve performance.
What's more, if you set the pagefile size yourself, there's a chance you could use more memory than pagefile + RAM, and the system will run out of virtual memory to use, and random applications will start crashing as they try to use memory that isn't available.
To help with performance, you have to figure out where the choke point is. Use Resource Monitor in Windows 7 to see what's being overutilized, whether it's memory, CPU, or disk. See this article for more info:
http://www.digitalcitizen.life/how-use-resource-monitor-windows-7
If you memory is constantly near 100% used, the only real way to improve performance is to either reduce memory usage (close some tabs/programs), or add more RAM to the system.