Windows 10: Turn off Page file?

[MikeBwca]

I've always been looking for ways to improve system performance.

What are your opinions/experiences with turning off the paging file in Windows 10?


I tried turning off the page file. It was on the C: drive. And, I have 16gig memory. So I thought... why not. I would have thought that with 16g, the page file would not be used, but I was wrong.

The result...
- The few glitches in BI had 99.9% been eliminated (Still testing this). I'm thinking that BI is faster than the page files ability to write/read? I have no idea! And, no idea why turning off paging would stop BI from crashing.
- C: drive utilization plummeted to 0-3%, and, is no longer clicking wildly. I had though this sound was coming from the BI drive. Turns out the BI drive is usually 1% utilized).
- Hard drive usage & clicking is almost non existent.
- Windows Shuts down/Starts up faster.
- System response is better. On example is putting the monitors to sleep is almost instantaneous. Previously, it usually would take at least a few seconds.

[Thixotropic]

Hmmmm, that sounds very interesting, I would have guessed the opposite in terms of the stats you reported.

EDIT: Found some simple info on turning off the page file, I think I'll try this later today.

How to disable the pagefile in Windows 10:

Press Win+Break.
Click on the Advanced system settings link.
Go to the Advanced tab.
Press Settings button
Go to the Advanced tab.
Press Change.
Unset the checkbox labeled Automatically manage paging file size for all drives if it is set.
Switch to No paging file.
Press Set.
Press YES.
Press OK 3 times in other windows.


From: https://tunecomp.net/win10-page-file-disable/

I've always been looking for ways to improve system performance.

What are your opinions/experiences with turning off the paging file in Windows 10?


I tried turning off the page file. It was on the C: drive. And, I have 16gig memory. So I thought... why not. I would have thought that with 16g, the page file would not be used, but I was wrong.

The result...
- The few glitches in BI had 99.9% been eliminated (Still testing this). I'm thinking that BI is faster than the page files ability to write/read? I have no idea! And, no idea why turning off paging would stop BI from crashing.
- C: drive utilization plummeted to 0-3%, and, is no longer clicking wildly. I had though this sound was coming from the BI drive. Turns out the BI drive is usually 1% utilized).
- Hard drive usage & clicking is almost non existent.
- Windows Shuts down/Starts up faster.
- System response is better. On example is putting the monitors to sleep is almost instantaneous. Previously, it usually would take at least a few seconds.

[Thixotropic]

Hmmmm, very interesting results. A littler early to know for sure, but after I turned off the page file a few things changed.

1) Almost no signal drops. For the first 24 hours or so there were virtually ZERO "lost signal" events. One of the Wyze V2 cams dropped a couple of times and the doorbell dropped a couple of times, but other than that the cams have been rock solid.

2) The BI "CPU" metric dropped from about 35% to between 25% and 31%. I don't know if this is because there was less recording activity or because of disabling the page file, but it's consistently lower.

I also see a new update is available: 5.0.9.2

Hmmmm. Not sure about running the upgrade, the last time was not a good experience. Has anyone tried this version yet?

[MikeBwca]

Yes, I'm on 5.0.9.2, and it's running fine (for me).

I'll be getting a SSD drive in a few days, and will be migrating my Windows 10 to it. After, I'll enable the paging file on the ssd, and compare.

[scoob8000]

I've had mixed results over the years with disabling the page file. Windows 7 and 10. Hard drive and SSD.

Most of my computers now have a SSD for the operating system, and a spinning drive for big stuff. I keep the page file on, and on the SSD but I keep the size to a set size (not system managed).

Early on in SSD's it was normal to limit writes to them, so we'd put the swap file on the spinning drive. But that's slow, and modern SSD's are so much better with lifespans. (You'll likely upgrade before the drive is ever worn out).

[MikeBwca]

I migrated my OS drive to a 2tb Seagate Barracuda 120 SSD. Wow! No comparison.

I re-enabled the paging file, and used 'Performance Monitor' to monitor the paging file. Turns out, in my normal day-to-day stuff I do, the paging file does not get used! So, this whole thing was pointless.

I'm thinking of getting 1 or 2 more SSD's for BI, but will first test it on my spare 500gig ssd.