Windows won't remove unused page file

Alfred001 · 27 Sep 2023

Callender said:

Click Startup& Recovery settings and under "Write Debugging Information" click the drop down list and change to "none"

I just have to post this, because it's maddening, frustrating and hilarious at the same time.

I did this and restarted the computer, but the paging files were still there. So then I reversed it, in other words I set write debugging information back to complete memory dump, to which Win said that it won't work because I either don't have a paging file or it's smaller than 8GB, which goes again to the fact that even though under Virtual Memory the situation is C: system managed, D: none, E: none, I don't actually have a page file. When I look at the page file that exists on C: it hasn't been modified since 24.9. in other words, Windows isn't using it.

Windows is essentially refusing to carry out any instructions I give it in Virtual Memory pertaining to what to do with paging files.

Paul Black · 27 Sep 2023

Hello @Alfred001,

I have put this together for you.

If you wanted to quickly get the Pagefile(s) data for all drives, Copy & Paste the following [ ALL at once ] into Notepad and Save it as a .bat file. Then you can just run it. It will open a CMD Prompt and output the information.

Code:


@echo off

echo. & echo  ___ Pagefile(s) ___& echo.

PowerShell ^
     Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_PageFileUsage ^| %% {"""{0,-1} {1:N0} MB""" -f ' Total CURRENT Paging Size for ALL Disks:', $_.AllocatedBaseSize; $SystemTotal +=$_.AllocatedBaseSize}

echo.
PowerShell ^
     $CMD=Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_PageFileSetting ^| Sort-Object -Property {$_.Name}; ^
     $Tot =($CMD ^| Measure-Object).Count.ToString('#,##0'); ^
     $List=($CMD ^| Format-Table -AutoSize ^
     @{L='Name'        ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.Name))        {'-'} else {$_.Name}}}, ^
     @{L='Initial Size';E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.InitialSize)) {'-'} else {[Math]::Round($_.InitialSize / 1, 0).ToString('#,##0 MB')}}}, ^
     @{L='Maximum Size';E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.MaximumSize)) {'-'} else {[Math]::Round($_.MaximumSize / 1, 0).ToString('#,##0 MB')}}} ^| ^
Out-String -Width 1000).Trim("""`r`n"""); ^
     if ($List.Length) {Write-Host """`n___ Pagefile(s) - Settings [$Tot] - Sorted by [Name] ___`n`n `n`n$List"""} else {exit 1} >> %Temp%\A.txt
     for /f "delims=" %%i in (%Temp%\A.txt) do echo. %%i
     del %Temp%\A.txt

PowerShell ^
     $Tot=((Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_PageFileSetting) ^| Measure-Object).Count; ^
     if ($Tot -gt 0) {Write-Host """`n ___ Pagefile(s) - Locations [$Tot] - Sorted by [Name] ___`n"""} else {exit 1}

PowerShell ^
     $PageFile=Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_PageFileSetting; ^
ForEach ($pag in $PageFile) { ^
  if ($pag.InitialSize -eq 0) { ^
    Write-Host '' $pag.Name "- Automatic Managed Pagefile: True  [System Managed]" ^
    } else { ^
    Write-Host '' $pag.Name "- Automatic Managed Pagefile: False [Custom Managed]" ^
  } ^
}

PowerShell ^
     $CMD =Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_PageFileUsage ^| Sort-Object -Property {$_.Name}; ^
     $Tot =($CMD ^| Measure-Object).Count.ToString('#,##0'); ^
     $List=($CMD ^| Select ^
     @{L=' Name'               ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.Name))              {'-'} else {$_.Name}}}, ^
     @{L=' Install Date'       ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.InstallDate))       {'-'} else {$_.InstallDate}}}, ^
     @{L=' Allocated Base Size';E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.AllocatedBaseSize)) {'-'} else {[Math]::Round($_.AllocatedBaseSize / 1, 0).ToString('#,##0 MB')}}}, ^
     @{L=' Current Usage'      ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.CurrentUsage))      {'-'} else {[Math]::Round($_.CurrentUsage / 1, 0).ToString('#,##0 MB')}}}, ^
     @{L=' Peak Usage'         ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.PeakUsage))         {'-'} else {[Math]::Round($_.PeakUsage / 1, 0).ToString('#,##0 MB')}}}, ^
     @{L=' Temporary Pagefile' ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.TempPageFile))      {'-'} else {$_.TempPageFile}}}, ^
     @{L=' CIM Class'          ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.CimClass))          {'-'} else {$_.CimClass}}}, ^
     @{L=' Status'             ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.Status))            {'-'} else {$_.Status}}} ^| ^
Format-List ^| Out-String -Width 1000).Trim("""`r`n"""); ^
     if ($List.Length) {Write-Host """`n ___ Pagefile(s) - Usage [$Tot] - Sorted by [Name] ___`n`n$List"""} else {exit 1}

echo. & echo ^>Press ANY key to EXIT . . . & pause >nul & Exit

The above is an extract from my PROJECT: Computer Report - Comprehensive in my signature.

I hope this helps.

Berton · 27 Sep 2023

When working with the Virtual Memory/Page file/Swapfile I always have to keep in mind the needs of third-party programs in looking for its default location. Having a small, about a GB, hurts nothing but can help in smoother computing.