windows - Hard drive degredation from large memory usage and paging files?

I've had a question(s) regarding computer degradation going through my head for a while and haven't found many good resources for researching it.

1) First off, when is the virtual RAM/paging file on a hard drive used by Windows? Is it used when the RAM is full? Or does it use the Virtual RAM/paging file as intermediate caching between the RAM and actual hard drive space all the time?

2) If I were to run many applications on my computer at the same time and have a bad habit of doing this for the entire lifetime of the computer, does it use more of the virtual RAM/paging file than if I were to have fewer programs running? Just to note, the RAM never fills up on my computer but it is used heavily.

3) By extension of question 2, if the virtual RAM/paging file is used more heavily, would that result in rapid hard drive degradation?

I have seen a pattern among all of the computers that I have owned or used in the past 5 years. I am the kind of person to leave my web browser up with 40 tabs among other programs which will eat up 40% of my memory typically. Over time my computer will slow down, browsers start crashing, programs start seizing up or crashing themselves, eventually the computer becomes essentially unusable. I have been trying to rack my mind to come up with a solution other than to purchase a new PC to have it die on me in the next couple years as well. This is the only thought that has come to mind that might have a simple hardware fix...Windows ReadyBoost...Maybe? I'd like to be able to discuss this so I can learn something about all of the above.

Thanks.

Answer

When the RAM on a computer is mostly filled up, the computer takes the part of the RAM that has been left unused for the longest period of time and transfers it to the paging file on your Hard Drive. The Hard drive is much, much slower then your RAM, which means that your computer will slow down if you have too many programs open. However, this is solved by simply closing the program that you are not using in order to free up space in the RAM.

The only long term thing that can happen from using the paging file too much is that your hard drive will crash, and this requires, really, really bad abuse, (or an old SSD with no wear leveling, which 99% likely, you don't have) way worse then what you are doing here. A slow computer is not a long term result of having stuff in your paging file.

From what I have read about it, Windows Ready boost might help. Other things you can do include uninstalling programs you are not using, defragmenting you Hard Drive, or simply buying more RAM. RAM is basically the cheapest way to make your computer faster, these days, every computer should have at least 2GB of RAM. I personally prefer 4GB, which is the maximum that a 32-bit system can support.