Optimize Operating System Paging File on Windows 7 | Faster 7 Part 11

The paging file is an intimidating portion of the operating system.  Most people don’t fully understand what “memory” or “RAM” is, let alone what it’s backup within the kernel operating system is.  Paging file, despite it’s notorious reputation, is not that complicated.  When your computer runs out of memory, it needs something it can fall back on.  For the operating system, this is known as your paging file.  The operating system sets aside hard drive space to handle multiple applications running simultaneously.  Many people who lived before the era of quiet hard drives could really tell when their paging file was under full use, it was that really nasty crunching sound you would hear coming out of your box.

This isn’t to say all crunching sounds are your computer using your paging file, but when your computer is locking up and you hear a constant crunching, it is a typical symptom of running out of system memory.  Think about it this way, your hard drive is a spinning disk with moving parts, it can only move so fast.  Your real computer memory has non movable parts and has extremely quick access times.  This is why your hard drive needs to work extra hard to play the part of memory.  Not a good thing at all.  My first recommendation, optimize your paging file, but still, if you need more memory, BUY SOME – it’s cheap.

All of that geeky tech talk aside, optimizing your operating system paging file on Windows 7 is not that difficult, and really only has one more step than your other Windows operating system counterparts.

Optimize Operating System Paging File on Windows 7

1. Go to your ‘Desktop’

2. Right click on ‘Computer’

3. Select ‘Properties’

4. Make note of the GB value of your ‘Installed Memory (RAM)’ category under ‘System’

5. Click on ‘Advanced system settings’ on the left hand bar.

6. Make sure the ‘advanced’ tab is selected.

7. Under ‘Performance’, select ‘Settings…’

8. Select the ‘Advanced’ tab again.

9. Under the ‘virtual memory’ section, select ‘Change…’

10. Uncheck ‘automatically manage paging file size for all drives’

11. Choose the ‘custom size’ radio button.

12. Before entering a value, select the ‘start’ button

13. In the search bar, type ‘calculator’ and press enter (or go to All Programs > Accessories > Calculator)

14. Once your calculator is open, enter ‘1024’ and multiply it by the GB value of your ‘Installed Memory (RAM)’ you made note of earlier.

Note: For example, if you had 3 gigabytes, it would be ‘1024 * 3 = 3072.

16. Now, multiply your new value (3072 in this case) by 1.5 to get your new paging file memory size (4608 in this case)

17. Return to ‘custom size’ and enter your new value in both the ‘Initial Size’ and ‘Maximum Size’ boxes.

18. Be sure to click ‘set’

19. Click ‘apply’

Whew! I know that seems like too many steps, but they are extremely easy to do.  This tweak will keep windows from automatically adjusting your paging file, and using up resources in the background to do so.  Stay tuned for more tips on speeding up your Windows 7 operating system.