I would have thought that the OS can hold the file im memory instead of writing it to the HDD – i.e. if there is no need to free up memory then keep it in memory until its needed – obviouslt memory desn't mean its being send to the CPU for processing surely? – if not needed then drop it?

The paging file (pagefile.sys) is a hidden system file that forms a key component of the Virtual Memory Manager (VMM) on Windows platforms. The origin of this file dates back to early 1990s when Windows ran on PC hardware that had limited physical memory due to the high cost of RAM and the limitations of motherboard design. (The concept of virtual memory itself, of course, is much older.) The purpose of the pagefile was to allow memory-hungry applications to circumvent insufficient RAM by allowing seldom-used pages of RAM to be swapped to disk until needed (hence the term swapfile used on earlier Windows platforms). For example, if a Windows 3.1 machine had 8MB of RAM and a 12MB permanent swap file (386spart.par) on its C: drive, then the effective memory that applications could use was 8 + 12 = 20MB.

The test Beta windows 7 worked well and wasn't a hog liek vista but I was bored with both of them and they looked naff.

Think I will buy an apple mac next! -thought I'd never say it…

Thing is windows Xp on my laptop works fine.

I think we will be arguing the toss on the page file neccessity for sometime if we dont quit 🙂 Looking at the vast numbers og site and blogs arguing the same 😉

Apple Mac user here who is now almost exclusively using Windows 7 via Boot Camp. Snow Leopard seems to be slower than Leopard, iPhoto has become so slow it's almost unusable, and the Mac's ability to play media is shocking.

Also, the Finder is driving me absolutely nuts. Why, FFS, when I click "New Folder" does it create it in the root directory, and not in the directory I have selected? Why does the search not actually search filenames? The Libraries feature on Windows is much better.

Yeh def like the libraries function on Win 7 – very easy to find photos, videos and documents 🙂

I would have thought that the OS can hold the file im memory instead of writing it to the HDD

It does. That's what the cache manager is for (see MSDN).

What (I think) retro83 was saying is that if you turn off your page file completely then that means all your allocated memory must be real, physical memory, even if it was allocated by some background process that just hangs around and never uses it.

Which means there is less real, physical memory left to use for file caching, so in theory, turning off your page file could make switching between applications faster (since they are always in physical memory), but it may also slow down disk operations (since there is less memory available for the cache manager to use to cache files).

Personally I'm not sure either way.

Looking at Resource Monitor on my Vista box I can see that I'm currently seeing around seven hard page faults per minute (i.e. seven hits to the pagefile on disk every minute).

So getting rid of my pagefile would eliminate those seven hits (which won't really take up any measurable time), but would cost me physical memory that could be used for file caching.

Yeh so If I have 4Gb usable memory and only ever use max 60% then surely not really an issue to me – although I know there are drawback i.e. file backups and corruption issues with power failuer but that too is a problem with read/writes 🙂 It would be an issue if you have stuff all memory and running memory hungry apps?

Why not try turning it off – aparently is does not eliminate all important file caching says some forums? and then look at your resource monitor then you can switch back if necc?

I think you're maybe confusing the file cache and the page file.

Turning off your pagefile won't cause issues with "file backups" or "corruption with power failure".
And it won't eliminate any file caching, unless there is not enough physical memory left to do any.

so whats the purpose of the page file then if its not a form of file caching? 🙂 But yes I have turned off my page file and my computer seems to be faster with no issues I can say to date – 5 months using Win7 RC 🙂

Edit: just found this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paging

In many popular systems, there is a concept known as page cache, of using the same single mechanism for both virtual memory and disk caching. A page may be then transferred to or from any ordinary disk file, not necessarily a dedicated space. Page in is transferring a page from the disk to RAM. Page out is transferring a page from RAM to the disk. Swap in and out only refer to transferring pages between RAM and dedicated swap space or swap file, and not any other place on disk.

On Windows NT based systems, dedicated swap space is known as a page file and paging/swapping are often used interchangeably.

Edit again: Right so if there is loads of memory then turning off the swap prob doesn't make much difference just takes up less space if you have a smaller HDD like I have with my 160Gb SSD 🙂

so whats the purpose of the page file then if its not a form of file caching?

As you posted yourself, the page file is a way of providing more total memory space to your applications than you physically have.

Plus it allows the memory from idle processes to be "paged out" from physical memory onto the disk (until they are needed) thus leaving more physical memory available for use by the active processes that will benefit from fast memory access.

Right – As above my new SSD is a bit smaller then my old 320Gb SATAT HDD so I think I'll still turn off my paging file or set it small to save space as file access on my ssd is megafast!

Well in some ways it does make sense to turn it off for an SSD, since you only get a limited number of writes in its lifetime and you want to avoid wearing it out.

But then on the other hand, SSD access is so fast that it would be great for pagefiles as hard faults will have much less penalty on it compared to a traditional HDD.

😀

Ooooooh – quandry – LOL – I guess its not really important is it Graham 🙂 Thanks for cleaning up the terminology hole in my knowledge 🙂

Yeah, if it's working for you then stick with it. 😀

I suspect if you're doing video editing and it isn't eating all your memory then it's probably 32-bit video editor software. If you get a 64-bit version of it (if there is one) then it will eat all your memory and be a lot quicker, but you'll definitely need a page file then!

Tis Sony Vega 8 (yup 32bit) and Photoshop CS3 🙂

There is a 64-bit version on Photoshop CS4 if you are evr upgrading 😀

Likewise a quick google suggests Vegas 8 supports 64-bit, but Vegas 9 is true 64-bit.

ahh OK ta – think my pockets arn't deep enough to go to CS4 🙂

so should i buy windows 7 if i have a laptop struggling sometime on vista… and i can get it for 30 quid?

Depends on the spec I guess – is it 64bit – if your running 32bit vista like I was then upgrading to 64bit Windows 7 was much better IMHO 🙂

ahh OK ta – think my pockets arn't deep enough to go to CS4

Ah didn't realise you were planning on paying for it 😀

so should i buy windows 7 if i have a laptop struggling sometime on vista…

Probably yes as it is supposed to work better on laptops and systems with limited memory (might be worth trying a trial first though!)

and i can get it for 30 quid?

Nope.

Thinks students can get it for £30? Upgrade is about £70 from home isn't it?