Windows 7 - Windows created a temporary paging file on your computer because of a problem that occured with your paging file configuration when you started your computer.

24 Replies

Symptom: Every time you boot your Windows 7 machine or access system settings, you receive the following error:

Windows created a temporary paging file on your computer beause of a problem that occurred with your paging file configuration when you started your computer.  The total paging file size for all disk drives may be somewhat larger than the size you specified.

Windows 7 Error - a problem occured with your paging file configuration

Solution: In this case, the page file had grown too large and corrupted itself.  I was able to resolve the issue by deleting the pagefile.sys file and having Windows recreate it from scratch.  Here are the steps on how to complete this task.

  1. Click Start, right-click Computer, and select Properties
  2. In the left pane, select Advanced system settings
  3. On the Advanced tab, click the Settings button under Performance
  4. On the Advanced tab, click the Change button under Virtual memory
  5. Clear the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box and check No paging file
  6. Click Set button next to No paging file
  7. Click OK on all open windows and restart your machine
  8. Open up Windows Explorer
  9. Navigate to the root of your system drive (C:\)
  10. Enable the showing of System Files
    1. On the View menu, click Options
    2. On the View tab, click Show All Files, and then click OK
  11. Delete the pagefile.sys file
  12. Click Start, right-click Computer, and select Properties
  13. In the left pane, select Advanced system settings
  14. On the Advanced tab, click the Settings button under Performance
  15. On the Advanced tab, click the Change button under Virtual memory
  16. Check the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives checkbox and click OK
  17. Restart your machine

24 thoughts on “Windows 7 - Windows created a temporary paging file on your computer because of a problem that occured with your paging file configuration when you started your computer.”

  2. y2kusuma

    Hi. I follow above steps until step 10, but I cannot find pagefile.sys. Perhaps Windows deleted that file after No Paging File was set during restart.

    How can I make sure that pagefile.sys really get deleted?

    Reply ↓
    1. Jack Post author

      Hi y2kusuma,

      In step 10, also look for Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). If you uncheck the checkbox and hit apply, the pagefile.sys should be visible. If it isn't, then the file does appear to have been removed.

      Hope this helps!
      Jack

      Reply ↓
  3. Rob Brown

    Of course, the first step is to check to see if you have adequate free space on the drive containing pagefile.sys. Don't ask me how I know this.

    Reply ↓
  4. Willem

    provided that de pagefile is on c:\
    open elevated command prompt
    To see the pagefile: C:\>dir /ahs
    To delete the pagefile: del /ahs pagefile.sys

    Reply ↓
  5. Paul Douglas Franklin

    I went thru steps 1-7. It again gave me a message about the paging file. I went on to steps 8-11 anyway, but when I tried to delete pagefile.sys, it said "The action can't be completed because the file is open in another program." I confirm that No paging file is indeed set. What now?

    Reply ↓
    2. Josh

      I had the same issue when attempting to delete my pagefile.sys. After doing a second reboot, I was able to delete it.

      Reply ↓
  7. junchuan

    what if i dont have the pagefile.sys in my laptop and it keeps saying widows created temporary file..............

    Reply ↓
    1. Jack Post author

      Hi Junchuan,

      The pagefile should be there if Windows is reporting it (make sure you show hidden files). If not, follow the rest of the tutorial the best you can and see if the error resides. If it doesn't, I would verify the rest of the OS isn't corrupt.

      Jack

      Reply ↓
  8. junchuan

    how do i fix it if my windows does not allow me to access into my window ? Also i tried using safe mode to do it , but i still cant find the pagefile.sys . Plus , i cant access to safe mode after a few times of using it.

    Reply ↓
  9. BryHayz

    Great article. It gave me a lot of good hints on where to look, but I kept running into the same probably - I couldn't find pagefile.sys anywhere! It wasn't being created (had all the hidden files and program files showing and nothing), and I couldn't figure it out. Finally stumbled on the below windows article, where the suggestion was made to run the below cmd prompt (see article for specifics and running it in admin mode). That ultimately did the trick. Hopefully this helps others out.

    sc config afs start= disabled

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/windows-7-set-to-no-page-file-and-i-cannot-change/992de6a8-bec2-4e74-b6d9-d418a7f5cda0

    Reply ↓
  10. Matt

    This can be related to low disk space depending on the size of the page file. Just had a users with 500mb of space left with a 750mb page file. After freeing up a few GB the issue was resolved without deleting the page file.

    Reply ↓
  11. david

    I have exactly the same issue.

    I followed your instructions and removed the paging file.

    After restarting I get the same error message, although now I cannot find the paging file.

    So what next? Is it possible that the latest updates to Windows 7 increase the amount of memory needed, so that my installed RAM is no longer sufficient?

    Reply ↓
  15. Kenneth Nicklowicz

    missed Run CMD as admin, then SFC /Scannow to insure all is ok with the filesystem. you would not believe how much stuff this one command will fix in the I.T world!

    Reply ↓

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