It is a temporary file stored on the hard drive which contains information or data that couldn’t be loaded into the PC’s RAM memory. It is also known as a pagefile or virtual memory extension and it is used whenever the RAM’s capacity is not enough. In case the computer’s hard drive is too small and the operating system can not increase the swap file’s capacity, the computer might run slower. The location of the swap file using the latest operating systems is in the root of the partition on which the system is installed (ex.: C:\pagefile.sys).

The Windows and Unix operating systems are usually using a default swap file of a certain size managed automatically by the system or it can be configured by the user or administrator. The swap file is being cleared out whenever the PC is being shut down and it is recreated by the operating system when the computer is started again.

How to set the swap file or virtual memory

First you need to access the System’s Control Panel either by using right click on My Computer’s icon on the Desktop, then Properties or follow the path Start/Settings/Control Panel/System then click on the Performance tab and on the Virtual Memory button.You can select the drive on which the virtual memory will reside and set the minimum and maximum size to be used.