Increase Computer Speed - Reduce Page File Size

Firstly Lets know - What is a Page File?

In storage, a pagefile is a reserved portion of hard disk that is used as an extension of RAM for data in RAM that hasn't been used recently. A pagefile can be read from the hard disk as one contiguous chunk of data and thus faster than re-reading data from many different original locations. Windows NT administrators or users can reset the system-provided default size value of the pagefile to meet their particular needs.

In other OSs', the pagefile is called a Swap File or a swap partition. Page file size is not constant by default. Due to this, the operating system has to resize the file each time more space is required. This is a performance overhead. But you can optimize it to an ideal size so as to improve the system performance. All you have to do is to set the file size to a reasonable limit.Follow the below steps:-

1. Right-click My Computer, Select Properties
2. Click the Advanced tab
3. Click the Settings button under the Performance section
4. Click the Advanced tab
5. Under the Virtual Memory section click the Change button
6. "Virtual Memory" dialogue box will appear (also shown in the 3 figures below)


7. Highlight the C: drive containing page file
8. Select the Custom Size radio button and give same values in Initial size and
Maximum size fields: -

If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size (If you have 2 gb RAM, give it as mine).

9. Click Set, then OK buttons to apply the changes. Hope this will have good effect though not immediately visible.