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I read on many website that when pagefile is disabled the system gets increasingly unstable and crashes unrecoverably. Is it really unsafe to disable the pagefile?
Here is my scenario: I mainly use chrome and excel on this PC (and some gaming), it has 12GB RAM. Since the only hardware that degrades over time is SSD, I disabled pagefile entirely. So far I have seen no error but is it actually unsafe? If yes, how can 12GB RAM + 0 pagefile produce an error as compared to my laptop (4GB RAM + 8GB pagefile) as the total memory available to windows essentially remains exactly the same (or better)?
Is it safe? Yes, in the sense that no damage will come to your computer. – Bigbio2002 – 2015-01-20T19:02:36.673
but is it true that it will cause windows to be unstable? On lifehacker there is a proper article on why we should not disable pagefile! but it essentially says once you exhaust your available ram, windows wont have anywhere else to go, but this argument is valid in my laptop too, how does no pagefile make windows unstable!
– None – 2015-01-20T19:03:22.5001Potentially. Sometimes, programs will attempt to allocate more memory than is actually available, which will cause you issues without a pagefile. This question seems like a duplicate, as this issue has been covered before. – Bigbio2002 – 2015-01-20T19:05:45.393
Is it safe. Of course its safe if it wasn't safe then it wouldn't be possible to disable it. If Windows runs out of virtual memory it will complain about it. I see no direct mention in that article that says Windows will become unstable if the page file is disable. – Ramhound – 2015-01-20T19:08:17.720
whether apps/OS will fall over or not aside - I don't think 12GB is enough to run without a pagefile. I've 26GB here & that leaves the paging essentially untouched [3.3MB after the machine's been on a week] When I had only 16 it would use a lot more. – Tetsujin – 2015-01-20T19:10:29.723
@Ramhound I also think that there should be no problem at all, any application showing an error with 12 GB RAM should also show an error with 4GB ram + 8GB page. – None – 2015-01-20T19:17:56.543
@Tetsujin, offcourse more RAM is better, but is there a real risk? All tasks handled by one system should be handled by the other system equally (or better), right? – None – 2015-01-20T19:18:32.470
Pagefile is, by default, self-expanding. RAM isn't. – Tetsujin – 2015-01-20T19:20:52.330
@Tetsujin this is exactly what I was looking for! This shows why 0page system can possibly crash! Thanks!! – None – 2015-01-20T19:25:47.890
@user2746898 - virtual memory isn't the same as physical memory. Every application in nearly every modern OS believes it has access to X memory, which is actually virtual memory, in a system with X physical memory. – Ramhound – 2015-01-20T19:27:22.263
Also: http://superuser.com/questions/214669/can-windows-7-pagefile-be-turned-off-if-4gb-of-hi-speed-ram-present?lq=1, http://superuser.com/questions/14795/windows-swap-page-file-enable-or-disable?lq=1, http://superuser.com/questions/214669/can-windows-7-pagefile-be-turned-off-if-4gb-of-hi-speed-ram-present?rq=1
– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2015-01-20T19:28:10.9132Put it this way - it's always better to have the pagefile & never need it, than not have it & suddenly need it :P – Tetsujin – 2015-01-20T19:28:26.173
I would say it is safe, but not for people that have to ask if it is. The main problem being that if you ever run into a problem caused by turning it off, it won't be on the day you turned it off... It will be 2 years in the future and it will not say "you turned off the pagefile" some program will react weird or something.. Now if you got enough knowledge to debug that you wouldn't have to ask if it is safe to begin with. May sound a little arrogant but as the benefits of turning it off are rather small, just keep it if you are unsure. – Syberdoor – 2015-01-21T07:38:26.293