January 22, 2018October 30, 2026 by harlan

Shrink the Windows Page File on VMs with a Group Policy Registry Preference

I run a lot of virtual machines on a tight budget with thin-provisioned storage, so wasted disk space bothers me. A large default page file on every Windows VM adds up quickly. To keep it in check, I set a fixed page file size with a registry preference in my “Server Optimization” GPO.

GPO Location

Computer Configuration
  Preferences
    Windows Settings
      Registry

Registry Item Settings

Action	Update
Hive	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key path	SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Value name	PagingFiles
Value type	REG_MULTI_SZ
Value data	`c:\pagefile.sys 1000 1000`

The value data sets the page file on C: to a fixed 1,000 MB (initial and maximum size). On the Common tab, I leave all options (stop processing on error, remove when no longer applied, apply once) set to No.

Slap that in your GPO, and the change takes effect after the next Group Policy refresh and reboot.

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