Allocation and de-allocation alone shouldn't need a restart, but just because you see the space being claimed doesn't mean that's all there is to it. Since it's tied to memory management, which is quite complicated, it doesn't surprise me but I wouldn't know what that exactly reason is (and finding someone who truly understands memory management on Steam is unlikely).

If it asks you to restart, I'd restart. There are a lot of things that ask for a restart and may seem to be fine before restarting, but then it can cause problems if something else needs to make a certain change. If you've ever seen a message that (not word for word) amounts to something like "I can't do that right now because a restart is already required for a prior change", that's an example of why it might be needed.

Windows requires restart which is more likely a leftover from 95/98 when Windows was not able to readjust the page file automatically but today a resize of the pool can also cause re-arangement of the pages and still be running.

First disable page file entirely then restart your pc usually. After this recreate your page file your desired size..

Your methods leads to hdd fragmentation.

Originally posted by Çapgun:

First disable page file entirely then restart your pc usually. After this recreate your page file your desired size..

Your methods leads to hdd fragmentation.

on a ssd it makes zero difference if a file is fragmented or continuous

on a hdd yes it would, but pagefile is all random reads/writes so fragmented there would be a small difference

whats more important on a hdd for pagefile is its location on the disk
tools like bootvis would move page and system files toward the outer rim of a hdd where its has shorter seek times and faster read times to decrease boot time
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/bootvis.html

To avoid errors that it.

When you restart it wipes your memory / RAM so there no issue that remain present, as well ensure operations works as intended.

To add this can be left old from previous OS, as we used to use MBR this part of a problem why needed to restart, as it's not flexible as GPT. By chance if using HDD do what this person suggested, otherwise if using SSD it doesn't matter.

Originally posted by Çapgun:

First disable page file entirely then restart your pc usually. After this recreate your page file your desired size..

Your methods leads to hdd fragmentation.

Its because the changes to the pagefile are made in the registry, the registry is read when the system boots so any changes made there do not take effect until the registry is read again which is the next time system boots.

Nothing will happen if you do not reboot straight away, just the changes made will not be implemented until you do.

Originally posted by _I_:

Originally posted by Çapgun:

First disable page file entirely then restart your pc usually. After this recreate your page file your desired size..

Your methods leads to hdd fragmentation.

on a ssd it makes zero difference if a file is fragmented or continuous

on a hdd yes it would, but pagefile is all random reads/writes so fragmented there would be a small difference

whats more important on a hdd for pagefile is its location on the disk
tools like bootvis would move page and system files toward the outer rim of a hdd where its has shorter seek times and faster read times to decrease boot time
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/bootvis.html

+1👍. Im from old school. Still using wd hdd. Still I dont trust ssd.

Best way use high capasity ram. Always my opinion.

Originally posted by Çapgun:

Originally posted by _I_:

on a ssd it makes zero difference if a file is fragmented or continuous

on a hdd yes it would, but pagefile is all random reads/writes so fragmented there would be a small difference

whats more important on a hdd for pagefile is its location on the disk
tools like bootvis would move page and system files toward the outer rim of a hdd where its has shorter seek times and faster read times to decrease boot time
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/bootvis.html

+1👍. Im from old school. Still using wd hdd. Still I dont trust ssd.

Best way use high capasity ram. Always my opinion.

Maybe don't want to hear it from me, but it's understanding people had distrust with SSD, but honestly SSD in last 10 years have been way better, and far more reliable than HDD for AVG consumer, unless you're running a data center doing PBs writes which I recommend NAS HDD at that point.