When facing problems or to improve system performance, you can reset the virtual memory in Windows 10 & 11. Here is how to do it.
Along with the physical memory, Windows also has something called a Virtual Memory or Page File. Windows uses virtual memory every day in almost all situations. It doesn’t matter how much physical memory (RAM) your system has; Windows always uses the virtual memory to manage the system properly.
If you don’t know, virtual memory is nothing but a memory file, also known as the Page File, used by Windows to move and store less frequently modified pages and apps in the RAM. That way, the storage space in RAM increases, and more apps and pages can run without problems. That is why systems with low memory can still run many applications at once, albeit at the cost of overall performance.
As good and helpful as virtual memory is, there will be situations where it can cause problems. In that case, you have to reset the virtual memory or page file in Windows.
The virtual memory file is cleared, and Windows doesn’t have to deal with old items. It is pretty safe to reset the virtual memory if you are wondering.
Follow the guide below to quickly and easily reset the page file or virtual memory in Windows operating system if you ever want to.
Important note: The steps below will work in Windows 10 and 11.
Reset virtual memory in Windows 10 & 11
To clear or reset the virtual memory, you can follow one of the three methods. They are as follows:
- Reset virtual memory from System Properties
- Modify pagefile properties in Group Policy
- Make registry changes
Clear virtual memory with System Properties tool
By disabling and enabling the pagefile option in the System Properties tool, you can effectively reset virtual memory. Here is how to do it.
- Open the Settings app.
- Go to “System > About.”
- Click on “Advanced System Settings.”
- Press “Settings” under “Performance.”
- Go to the “Advanced” tab.
- Click “Change” under “Virtual Memory.”
- Uncheck the “Automatically manage paging file size for all drive” checkbox.
- Choose the “No paging file” option.
- Click the “Ok” button.
- Reboot the computer.
- Follow the steps from 1 to 6 again.
- Select the “Automatically manage paging file size for all drive” checkbox.
- Press the “Ok” button.
- Reboot the computer.
- You have reset the virtual memory in Windows 10 & 11.
Reset virtual memory in Group Policy
By enabling the “clear virtual memory pagefile” policy, you can easily reset the virtual memory in Windows 10 & 11. Here are the steps to follow.
- Press the Start key on your keyboard.
- Search and open “Edit Group Policy.”
- Go to the “Computer Configuration/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Option” folder.
- Open the “Clear virtual memory pagefile” policy with a double-click.
- Choose the “Enabled” option.
- Press the “Ok” button.
- Close the Group Policy Editor.
- Reboot the computer.
- With that, the virtual memory is cleared and reset.
Make registry changes to reset virtual memory
If you don’t have access to the Group Policy Editor, you can use the Registry Editor to reset the virtual memory. Windows Home users can use this method.
- Press the Start key.
- Search and open “Registry Editor.”
- Go to the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management” folder.
- Right-click on the “Memory Management” folder.
- Choose “New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.”
- Set the value name as “ClearPageFileAtShutdown.”
- Double-click the value.
- Type “1” in the Value Data field.
- Press the “Ok” button and close the Registry Editor.
- Reboot the computer, and virtual memory is reset.
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That is it. It is that simple to reset virtual memory in Windows 10 & 11.
I hope this simple and easy Windows how-to guide helped you.
If you are stuck or need some help, comment below, and I will try to help as much as possible.
