![]() That opens the Performance Options dialog box. To see your current settings, click in the search box or press Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box, and then enter the command systempropertiesperformance (with no spaces). This is the best practice and I recommend that you leave that setting exactly where it is. On a clean install, Windows 10 sets the page file to be managed automatically. In olden days, this hidden file was sometimes called the swap file**, and its primary purpose was to provide virtual memory so that apps didn't crash when you ran out of physical memory. Since its earliest days, Windows has used a page file (sometimes called a paging file*), a hidden file in the root of the system drive that caches pages of memory so they can be accessed quickly. If they're not delivered automatically via Windows Update, it's worth checking the manufacturer's support site for firmware updates before any major software update. The bottom line is that on all but the most ancient PCs, firmware updates are no longer to be feared. The UEFI platform handles firmware updates directly, making failed updates far less likely. This architecture makes UEFI updates far more reliable than those old BIOS updates, with error-checking mechanisms that can roll back unsuccessful changes automatically. On UEFI-based PCs, the portion of firmware that's hosted on the motherboard is relatively small and simple its job is to find the EFI partition and load the UEFI code stored there, then find the boot loader.īeginning with Windows 8 in 2012, Windows uses an update mechanism that delivers update packages to a known system location the UEFI firmware then installs the update package on its own, after a restart. ![]() ![]() Modern PCs no longer use a BIOS, but instead start up using the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). On that type of PC, flashing the BIOS often required rebooting with an MS-DOS disk, and if the process didn't go perfectly, you had to fuss with DIP switches on the motherboard and hope you could recover. In the 1990s and 2000s, that was a legitimate concern, as BIOS code was stored in rewritable flash memory on the motherboard. That's especially true for people who've been using PCs for decades and who have terrible memories of "bricking" a PC with a BIOS update that goes wrong. The trouble is, too many people are absolutely petrified at the prospect of updating their system firmware. As I learned from troubleshooting issues readers reported to me, several manufacturers released firmware updates in the months after that launch specifically to address upgrade issues. ![]() This is especially important when you're working with a system that was designed before the release of Windows 10 in 2015. One of my most common recommendations for people upgrading to Windows 10 is to check for system firmware updates. That's particularly true when habits are based on traumatic experiences, like a failed BIOS update that bricked a Windows PC, or when your favorite system tweaks have been engraved into your memory like a pilot's pre-flight checklist.Īs Windows 10 has evolved over the past few years, I've been paying close attention to feedback from readers, and I've assembled this list of outdated ideas that are still stubbornly popular. And yet those lessons, once learned, are hard to unlearn.
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