In the past we talked of this file system, within certain optimization tutorial si performance improvement Windows.
What is pagefile.sys and where is this file located
pagefile.sys is a system file developed by Microsoft for all operating systems Windowsincluding Windows 10. This file belongs to virtual memory (Virtual Memory) system.
Normally, when you launch an application or working in an application, the system will use RAM. Often it happens to be insufficient to open applications, and some of the volume is placed on RAM transferred to hard disk in the form of a cache, in the file pagefile.sys. It is not a rule that some applications make one virtual cache of components, only when the RAM is loaded.
An example is graphics editing application, Adobe Photoshop. You've probably noticed that when launching the application on Windows, this is a time with that splash screen in which they load components.
Part of the components of the Photoshop application are installed and run from the RAM memory, and another part are installed and executed from the pagefile.sys file, in order to keep a free space on the RAM for other applications or operations that will require it. It is true that the RAM memory has a much faster execution time than the pagefile.sys virtual memory located on hard disk (it does not really apply in the case of SSDs, which have a higher read/write speed hard disknormal ones), but this file helps enormously to the stability of the system and the speed of launching applications. Since we were talking about Photoshop, do a little experiment. After opening the computer, launch the Photoshop application. Leave it open for 2-3 minutes, then close it completely. "Close". Reopen the application. You will notice that Photoshop application's launch time was reduced considerably and the application opens much faster. This fact is due to the pagefile.sys file, which kept the application components stored on the hard drive.
You will probably think that if you have enough RAM on your computer or laptop you don't need this pagefile.sys, because RAM memory is faster than virtual memory anyway and the operating system will never use this swap. It is mostly false. Although the RAM memory is faster, consider that in addition to Photoshop, other components of the operating system and open applications also consume RAM resources. When we minimize an application in the taskbar, most of its sequences are placed in the virtual memory. Without it, the RAM memory will remain permanently loaded and as we open other applications, it will load more and more. In the absence of swap memory, programs will start to give errors, the computer will "move" harder, and eventually will not be able to open applications. when the RAM reaches 100%.
file pagefile.sys is usually found in the root of the system partition, C: \ pagefile.sys and can occupy a volume on hard disk, from a few MB to a few GB. Reach and 10-12GB in some situations.
By default it is not visible if we access the C: partition. Windows Explorer is set to keep system files invisible, and to make them visible (this is not recommended), go to Windows Explorer (window of a folder or This PC) at the board "View”>“Options”>“Change Folder and Search Options".
In the "View" tab of the Folder Options”, We uncheck the option“ Hide protected operating system files" then click Yes to confirm. After pressing "Yes" for confirmation, all folders and files will become visible.
How can we delete the pagefile.sys file or limit it so that it does not take up much space on hard disk
Our Team I do not recommend deleting and failure to use this file, but if you are determined not to take up much space on your hard drive (this would be the only real reason why someone would delete it), you should know that this file cannot be deleted by the "Delete" command. Being a protected operating system file Windows, you do not have the required privileges manual deletion or modifcarii his, than in advanced settings of virtual memory.
The easiest way to reach virtual memory settings it is to open This PC, click on “System properties"In the top bar, then on the menu that opens on the left, click on"Advanced system settings". After clicking on “Advanced system settings"Will open"System Properties". Here we click on the button "Settings" from under "Performance"And it will open"Performance Options", Where at the bottom we have the settings for"virtual memory". Click on “Change ..."
In "Virtual Memory" we can uncheck its automatic management option "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives”And we can impose our own settings and rules.
We can choose on which partition to make the virtual memory cache, which should be the maximum size this file reaches (Custom size) or we can choose "No paging file". That means deactivating the virtual memory.
Our recommendation would be to leave "System managed size". Windows 10 it does this job quite well, and if you don't have enough space on the system partition, you can choose another host partition for pagefile.sys.
