Windows 10: 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.

:)

 

Solved: Windows 10 Upgrade - what worked for me

I have a 56GB SSD used for the OS. Despite ensuring at least 14GB of free space, Windows 10 (Pro) kept trying to install, then reverting back to Windows 7 (Pro). Based on the advice of another thread, I even junctioned my C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution
to my HD (this seemed to work fine). Tried the download several times, then burned the ISO disk, however, nothing seemed to work, until...

Because the SSD isn't very large, my swapfile is pointed at my data HD. On one of the latest failed installations, I noticed my SSD had again filled up. The usual c:\$ temp directories created off the root didn't exist, (remnants of an imminent or failed
installation). Looks like the install process automatically overrode my swapfile settings and again created this huge swapfile off my C:\ SSD.

Turning off the Swapfile again, I received a warning message suggesting that the swapfile should be at least 800MB. What the heck, I thought - nothing else worked, so with the full swapfile still in place on my data drive, I set a fixed swapfile on the
C:\ SDD of exactly 800MB. Ran the Windows 10 Setup.exe from the ISO disk again, and wouldn't you know - success! (Debating whether or not to eliminate the C:\ swapfile again - I'll leave it be for now and see).

Hope this helps someone!

Pete

 

Swapfile seems rather large

My PC is running Win 10 Pro 64 bit, 4GB RAM (upgraded from Win 7 Pro)

At times task manager shows my disk usage is running at 100%

My swapfile is currently 6322 MB, with the recommended figure 1394 MB

This seems a remarkably large swapfile and is considerably bigger than the recommended value. Is this normal? Is it anything to be concerned about?

 

Nope. How will windows defrag without it? What about VSS? What about software that needs it?

Source:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/a...or-anyway.aspx

 

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.

 

I've seen where someone had 32GB RAM and had problems because he thought he could turn page file off.

 

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.

 

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.

 

I killed hibernation and the hiberfil.sys file from the command prompt. I never ever use sleep or hibernation on my laptop.

 

Don't we also need at least 16 MB for dump files? for BSOD etc....?

 

Yes I do believe your correct. I haven't had a BSOD in years so I'll take my chances. *Wink 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*Smile. Why go through all the stress, right?

 

I agree however I don't need the space and for emergency reasons I keep available.

 

No.

First, that was not why the swap file was created. Windows is an inherently Virtual Memory based system. Everything is virtual memory, and windows picks and chooses what to store in physical memory. By disabling the swap file, you actually hurt performance because Windows cannot do this anymore, and cannot optimize its working sets.

In addition, certain functions will not work properly, like crash dumps. So if you get a BSOD it may not be able to write a dump and you would be in a reboot loop. Further, some software explicitly utilizes pagefiles such as Photoshop.

You can create a very small pagefile, but I wouldn't recommend that either... just let windows manage it. You get the most out of it then. Windows can then optimize its internal working sets to make the most room for caches and buffers to keep performance up.

 

So far I agree with the statement that if you have 16gb of memory then your probably safe in turning the swapfile off.