How to reduce Windows 11 64bit Page File Usage?

[HeyItsChris]

It tends to use a lot of extra ram & I have tweaked the registry a bit but it still didn't help.

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

 

The Virtual Memory Commited amount is excessively high, I know I need to increase amount of RAM but I'd like to know how to tweak the OS to use the bare minimum amount of Page File.

 

 

[UltraMega]

I don't remember how off the top of my head but you can turn off the page file if you want to. 

 

Or get 32gbs of ram. That's the point where windows pretty much stops using the page file. 

[ENTERPRISE]

The page file is still necessary for some swap file tasks, and disabling it completely irrespective of how much RAM you may have, has been known to cause problems. I do not see anything wrong with your page file to be honest. I spent a good long time tweaking page files back in the day and ultimately, it was generally best to let Windows handle it. Skimping on pagefile only serves to free up some drive storage, and not much at that. 

[HeyItsChris]

Thanks yeah I've got 4x 16GB for a total of 64GB Mushkin Proline ECC DDR3-1600 Registered Buffered lined up for a heck of a good deal.

[UltraMega]

The way windows works it mostly just mirrors some files onto the hard drive page file to make certain tasks potentially load faster but it won't use it if it doesn't need to, though some files will always be there on reserve so it may look likes it's being used more than it really is. 

[ArchStanton]

This has been of interest to me despite having no "server" hardware.  I have seen it suggested elsewhere that manually setting the paging file size to 0 would benefit the longevity of an SSD.  If this was ever accurate, I don't believe it to be so now, certainly not in a "useful during the expected life of the product" case for an SSD in a "gaming" desktop.  I have even seen it suggested that eliminating the paging file would boost certain common benchmark scores, though no evidence was included to support this contention.

[HeyItsChris]

The picture of my Windows 11 PC & the directions below are what I wrote years ago about Windows 7 & my testing.

 

5) I found these settings to be ideal as if set low can save memory and a lot of it.  However apps will refuse to run correctly once the "low limit" is reached.  So by setting them this way it can use as much memory as needed for apps to run correctly.  As well as reduce memory consumption as much as possible.  

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]

"PagingFiles"= Leave as your default since you may already have a pagefile C:\pagefile.sys
"PhysicalAddressExtension"= Leave as 1 as it's typically enabled on 64-bit
"ClearPageFileAtShutdown"= 0 "If set to 1 will take forever to shutdown/ no good"
"DisablePagingExecutive"= 1 "reduces memory consumption"
"LargeSystemCache"= 0 "reduces pagefile usage to speed things up/ use less memory"
"NonPagedPoolQuota"= 0 "Value 0 means unlimited/ System Managed Size/ Ideal"
"NonPagedPoolSize"= 1 "Minimum value to reduce memory consumption"
"PagedPoolQuota"= 0 "Value 0 means unlimited/ System Managed Size/ Ideal"
"PagedPoolSize"= 1 "Minimum value to reduce memory consumption"
"SecondLevelDataCache"= 0 "Reduces pagefile usage to speed things up/ use less memory"
"SessionPoolSize"= 0 "Value 0 means unlimited/ System Managed Size/ Ideal"
"SessionViewSize"= 0 "Value 0 means unlimited/ System Managed Size/ Ideal"
"SystemPages"= 0 "Value 0 means unlimited/ System Managed Size/ Ideal"
"PoolUsageMaximum"= 1 "Haven't noticed if this works but might reduce memory usage"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters]

"BootId"= Leave as your default
"BaseTime"= Leave as your default
"EnableSuperfetch"= 0 "reduces pagefile usage to speed things up/ use less memory"
"EnablePrefetcher"= 0 "reduces pagefile usage to speed things up/ use less memory"
"EnableBootTrace"= Leave as your default

[HeyItsChris]

I did some tweaking to the PagefileUsage registry entry & yielded these results but I'm going to do more tweaking because its still consuming a lot of RAM.

 

From this being stock : 

"PagefileUsage"=hex:0e,00,00,00,7e,21,02,00,79,65,00,00,e2,7e,00,00,a2,1f,00,\
  00,0a,5c,00,00,51,5d,00,00,fe,4a,00,00,8e,63,00,00,cb,6a,02,00,c3,0b,02,00,\
  93,70,02,00,b9,f2,02,00,69,a5,00,00,7c,81

 

To this being the modded values : 

"PagefileUsage"=hex:01,00,00,00,01,01,01,00,01,01,00,00,01,01,00,00,01,01,00,\
  00,01,01,00,00,01,01,00,00,01,01,00,00,01,01,00,00,01,01,01,00,01,01,01,00,\
  01,01,01,00,01,01,01,00,01,01,00,00,01,01

 

*UPDATE*
In the end nothing matters, just best leave it stock & buy as much RAM as you possibly can for your machine because the Virtual Memory Commited amount is the actual memory load on the physical memory, rather than the FREE Memory or USED Memory.

 

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

AFTER COMPLETELY DELETING REG KEY : PagefileUsage

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by HeyItsChris

[pioneerisloud]

You need pagefile on modern systems anyway.  Back in like the XP days and Vista days yeah you could run without.  Some programs and games crashed though without one, and some crashed if it wasn't the right size either.  Pagefile is also actually serving a purpose, with the PC Power settings.  When you have your rig "sleep" it has to write everything from RAM to local storage anyway.  Pagefile helps make that transition to sleep much faster since you'll already have some of the stuff in pagefile already.

 

As others said, best to just let Windows handle it.  I know, I know, I hate letting Windows handle stuff on its own too lol.  If you were running 7 or older I'd tell you to manually set it to 1.5x the amount of RAM installed and call it a day (say 6144MB if you have 4GB RAM for example).  That way you still have a page file, and its of the appropriate size so nothing throws a fit.  But on a modern system (8.1 and newer)?  Nah, just let Windows handle it lol.