

The default values work well on most systems, but you might want to customize these sizes to suit your own configuration.

For example, on a system with 1GB RAM, the page file's initial size will be 1.5GB and its maximum size will be 3GB. See "Changing the Paging File's Location and Size" to learn how to split the page file.īy default, Windows 7 sets the initial size of the page file to 1.5 times the amount of RAM in your system, and it sets the maximum size of the page file to 3 times the amount of RAM. For example, if your current initial page file size is 384MB, you'd set up a page file on a drive with a 192MB initial size, and another page file on a second drive with a 192MB initial size. If you have two or more physical drives (not just two or more partitions on a single physical drive), splitting the page file over each drive can improve performance because it means that Windows 7 can extract data from each drive's page file simultaneously. Author Paul McFedries introduces new styles and techniques to maximize your Windows 7 performance. This book goes deep into Windows 7 and covers everything from security settings to startup optimization and networking. This chapter excerpt on Tuning Windows 7's Performance (download PDF) is taken from the book Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed. See "Changing the Paging File's Location and Size," later in this chapter, for the information about moving the page file.

Storing the page file on the disk with the most space gives Windows 7 the most flexibility.
