Getting a better understanding of paging files

Getting a better understanding of paging files

The Windows page file is the one responsible or the part of Windows that helps in balancing the memory load of the entire system. This is the virtual memory of the computer and acts as an extension of RAM to increase the memory capacity of the machine. This greatly helps if your computer is running on a very small amount of RAM like for example 256 MB or 512 MB.

If the total amount of available RAM installed on your computer is almost full and has very little left, some of the data loaded in the physical RAM will be sent over to the virtual memory or page file and vice versa. While this process is happening on the computer, the page file or virtual memory constantly expands and shrinks. It expands every time you open another application and shrinks each time a program is closed. You can customize the page file’s settings by right-clicking on My Computer then selecting Properties. Select Advanced tab then click on Settings under Performance. Select Advanced tab then click Change under Virtual Memory at the bottom of the window.