Is it time to ditch the swapfile

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  1. Posts : 7,254
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
       #1

    Is it time to ditch the swapfile


    The swap file was created in the early days of Windows when hardware was expensive so rather than getting a new hard drive, you had the swap file to help you out.

    With Windows 10 due next month, I wonder if its time to ditch the swap file and and disable it completely.
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  2. Posts : 27,164
    Win11 Pro, Win10 Pro N, Win10 Home, Windows 8.1 Pro, Ubuntu
       #2

    swarfega said:
    The swap file was created in the early days of Windows when hardware was expensive so rather than getting a new hard drive, you had the swap file to help you out.

    With Windows 10 due next month, I wonder if its time to ditch the swap file and and disable it completely.
    Nope. How will windows defrag without it? What about VSS? What about software that needs it?
    Since Windows 95, Windows-based operating systems have used a special file that acts as a sort of "scratch pad" to store modified pages that are still in use by some process. Page file space is reserved when the pages are initially committed, however the page file locations are not chosen until the page is written to disk. So, in simplistic terms, the page file is used by Windows to hold temporary data which is swapped in and out of physical memory in order to provide a larger virtual memory set.
    Source:
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/a...or-anyway.aspx
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  3. Posts : 15,027
    Windows 10 IoT
       #3

    I have it disabled on my PC's that have an SSD. They each have 8 GB of RAM. No issues that I am aware of.
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  4. Posts : 27,164
    Win11 Pro, Win10 Pro N, Win10 Home, Windows 8.1 Pro, Ubuntu
       #4

    I've seen where someone had 32GB RAM and had problems because he thought he could turn page file off.
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  5. Posts : 15,027
    Windows 10 IoT
       #5

    Some software will nag you if it can't find a page file, regardless of how much RAM you have. Adobe comes to mind. I've had no nag screens or popup messages etc. Even when gaming on my desktop PC. As always, YMMV.
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  6. Posts : 1,099
    Win 10 pro Upgraded from 8.1
       #6

    Cliff S said:
    I've seen where someone had 32GB RAM and had problems because he thought he could turn page file off.
    I have 16GB RAM and SSD, I had the page file turn off for quite some time with out issues. I believe that with out the page file it just forces what would be written page file be kept in RAM? I also did configure a small 1 gb page file as I learned that some programs intentionally do write to the page file. I haven't noticed any difference with or with out. SSD have built in Over Provisioning for garbage collection and I have set off another 25 GB of unused space for Garbage collection. I don't use Sleep mode at all. it only takes this notebook about 15 Seconds to boot. I do leave the hiberfil file 16GB there just incase some thing should cause me to lose power and my battery run down completely.
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  7. Posts : 15,027
    Windows 10 IoT
       #7

    I killed hibernation and the hiberfil.sys file from the command prompt. I never ever use sleep or hibernation on my laptop.
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  8. Posts : 27,164
    Win11 Pro, Win10 Pro N, Win10 Home, Windows 8.1 Pro, Ubuntu
       #8

    Don't we also need at least 16 MB for dump files? for BSOD etc....?
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  9. Posts : 15,027
    Windows 10 IoT
       #9

    Yes I do believe your correct. I haven't had a BSOD in years so I'll take my chances. Looking at the dump files never did me any good anyway.
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  10. Posts : 27,164
    Win11 Pro, Win10 Pro N, Win10 Home, Windows 8.1 Pro, Ubuntu
       #10

    alphanumeric said:
    Yes I do believe your correct. I haven't had a BSOD in years so I'll take my chances. Looking at the dump files never did me any good anyway.
    I haven't either. And if I did, there's always a Macrium image handy:). Why go through all the stress, right?
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