Swap file (pagefile).sys) in Windows 10 is designed to temporarily increase the RAM in case of memory shortage. By default, its size is determined by the system itself and changes dynamically as needed. Our experts tell you how to increase the swap file and maximize it.
Check the amount of RAM
Swap file size in Windows directly depends on the amount of RAM. Before proceeding to increase it, find out how much RAM is installed on your computer.
Open Windows settings by pressing “Win+i” key combination. Go to the section displayed in the frame in the screenshot.
Scroll down the side menu to the last item and select it with the mouse. In the right part of the window find the information block “Device specifications”. The line with the size of RAM installed on your PC is marked with a two in the screenshot.
You can find out right away by typing “ms-settings:about” in the “Run” dialog box. This directly opens the section about the system in Windows Preferences.
Adjusting the swap file
Once you know the amount of RAM available, let’s start adding a swap file. Its maximum size should not exceed three times the RAM.
Call the “Run” dialog window by pressing “Win+R”. Type “sysdm” in the text box.cpl”. Press “OK” or the enter key on the physical keyboard of your PC.
In the window that appears, switch to the “Advanced” tab. Click on “Options” in the “Performance” block.
An additional window containing the settings will open, where you can select the tab marked as one. At the “Virtual memory” block, click on the “Change” button.
Uncheck the box with the arrow to activate the manual paging file correction mode.
Choose the hard drive you want to work with in the area marked in the screenshot. Set the radio button to the position marked “2”. In the fields highlighted with a green checkmark, set the same values for the initial and maximum paging file size, showing them in megabytes.
Once you have set the desired parameters, click on the “Set” button. In the hard drive selection area you will see a fixed virtual memory size instead of the “By system selection” line. Finish the adjustment by clicking “OK” at the bottom of the window.
The system will warn you that you have to reboot to apply the changes.
After closing the settings window one by one go back to the desktop. Here you will see another system message. Press the button marked with a frame and send your computer to reboot.
After re-logging in, you can check the actual size of virtual memory. Our experts used Total Commander in the mode that shows hidden and system objects. Pagefile.The sys file highlighted in the screenshot is the swap file we have increased.
To sum it up
In this material, our experts have given a step-by-step algorithm of actions to be performed in order to set the maximum available virtual memory size in Windows 10.
