Windows uses a lot more pagefile that assigned.

I have setup windows to only use 1024mb page file. I use a SSD and I have 16GB RAM so I don't want a lot of information to be kept written on the HDD. I know that completely disabling page file can create problems as windows for whatever reason "needs" some page file.

But as you can see, windows always uses more than 1024mb pagefile than I allocated. This screenshot is an extreme case. But most of the time is between 1-4GB higher than ram usage (where it should be capped to 1GB)

There is a simple explanation. MSI Afterburner isn't showing pagefile usage at all but in reality the commit charge. There are other utilities that do this, including the XP Task manager. That caused a lot of confusion, even among computer professionals. It is the only explanation that fits the numbers. Nothing in the screenshots show pagefile usage but the numbers tend to show it as roughly 750 MB. I know that this is counter-intuitive but pagefile usage doesn't mean performance will be impaired. I don't have time to explain all of this.

A screenshot of the pagefile configuration would be useful.

But there is something very disturbing in that the commit charge is very close to the commit limit. With the pagefile limited to 1 GB the commit limit could be as high as 17 GB but that is still dangerously close. Nothing in the screenshots even hint at a cause.

Edit: Actually the 750 MB number I quoted above would be the size of the pagefile at the time of the screenshot. Actual pagefile usage would be less and may well be zero. There is no way to even estimate actual pagefile usage from the numbers shown.

Here is what I have setup in the page file.

Maybe I'll give a shot and select no paging file, see how my programs behave. But I have heard that if it needs a pagefile, or if a program leaks memory, it will lead to a crash when all the RAM is full (BSOD?).

Either use the standard pagefile size, system managed, or none at all.

Pagefile is on the permanent sectors of the hard drive, and cannot be erase, delete, etc.
Also it do not write all over the system partition, so there is no harm to have pagefile.

But there are plenty other 'small' size files that occupy and write all over the system partition.
Don't forget that there are files in C:\Windows\Temp and C:\Users\<account name>\AppData\Local\Temp folders.
Most of these files are of no use but it is a lot of small files size, which are occupying more storage space.

Eric3742 said:

Either use the standard pagefile size, system managed, or none at all.

Pagefile is on the permanent sectors of the hard drive, and cannot be erase, delete, etc.
Also it do not write all over the system partition, so there is no harm to have pagefile.

But there are plenty other 'small' size files that occupy and write all over the system partition.
Don't forget that there are files in C:\Windows\Temp and C:\Users\<account name>\AppData\Local\Temp folders.
Most of these files are of no use but it is a lot of small files size, which are occupying more storage space.

Also, I have moved the TMP and TEMP folders off the SSD into my HDD. So there is nothing written in AppData\Local\Temp folders.

Would be cool if I can also move the windows\temp folder. Anyone has any solutions? (getting off topic here)