Wow I just learned Bleachbit is bad for SSD, is Ccleaner bad too?

[Wirko]

Page file is used only when system memory has been filled.

Yes. But. The definition of "filled" in an ecosystem of an OS and user applications with user data is anything but simple.

This is an excellent introduction to virtual memory and all related things. It appears to be the last blog post by some guy named Brian Catlin - unfortunately he didn't continue writing posts like this.

The Out-of-Memory Syndrome, or: Why Do I Still Need a Pagefile? – Azius

azius.com

For me, the short takeaway is this: do keep the page file and let Windows manage it. Windows will grow and shrink it however it likes, no worries, it basically just reserves virtual memory by doing this. Windows does it to accomodate applications that are poorly written, poorly optimised, unable to adapt to more or less RAM, allocating gigabytes just for fun, or flawed in any other way in how they manage memory. The size of PF doesn't indicate how much data is actually written to it - it may be very little. People who wrote Windows know what spinning rust is, they understand it's best to avoid sending gigabytes to it just for fun.

Everything OK so far. But if the PF does suffer a lot of writing then there's something more wrong. Really poorly made applications or games. Or, well, an actual lack of RAM, but that isn't trivial to determine for certain. I'd start worrying if my PC wrote more to the PF, per day, than the amount of RAM it has (16 GB). Also if it spent more than about a minute per day writing to and reading from the PF.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

View attachment 269539

@ShrimpBrime Note that Hard Faults are accesses to page file (you probably knew, bot not everyone does). Yes, I have a lot of things open for my 16GB, but let's close some things:
View attachment 269544
Hm, page file still in use. Why would it be using page file? I cannot tell. I can tell what my system-managed page file looks like though:
View attachment 269549

I have a 2TB BX500 as disk C. This is a domain computer, so the C drive has around 20GB used. I also download large files regularly to local and move them to the domain as part of my job:
View attachment 269550

She's been running a while now without significant degradation. Long story short, if anyone is remotely concerned about page file damaging your SSD, just get the next size up or an extra and move it over.

Now, I fully understand disabling page file for an overclocking session like @ShrimpBrime does, if it causes memory errors, but I strongly recommend against it for anyone not running their system at the edge of stability.

Yessir.

To allocate drive space is one thing. To actually utilize the space is another.

I don't have my main rig setup set up at this time. But none of this shows the actual page file in use.

Do the following steps to inspect page file usage in Performance Monitor:

1. Via the Windows start menu, open Administrative Tools, and then open Performance Monitor.
2. Expand Monitoring Tools.
3. Click Performance Monitor.
4. Right-click on the graph and select Add Counters... from the context menu.
   Result:The Add Counters dialog is opened.
5. From the Available counters list, select Paging File.
6. Click on the down-arrow icon to the right of Paging File.
7. Select % Usage under Paging File and then click the Add button to add the counter on the Added counters list.
8. Click OK to close the Add Counters dialog

Then open a whole lot of you tube tabs and programs, games.
Fill the system memory.
A faster way is to pull memory sticks and do the above.

Once you've gotten all the system memory used up page file should start being used once that happens.

to everyone else just reading.

I AM NOT SAYING THAT YOU SHOULD DISABLE PAGE FILE.
Just to make that clear, now I've said it 3 times....

 

[OkieDan]

Because it can cause instability or crashing.

If it hasn't done that for you, then its because Windows haven't required it, in which case you also gained nothing by disabling it.

In the past I've disabled swap file, understanding the potential consequences, because it was really annoying waiting for Windows to move data out of swap from HDD back into RAM and deletingfrom swap just to close an application I started a long time ago. Windows will (or did in past) throw stuff in swap file even if you weren't anywhere close to running out of free memory. Windows probably still does this, but it's not a bother to me for the past decade after moving to SSD.