How to Get more Virtual Memory
Level of difficulty: Intermediate
The technique in computer system which gives a program or an application the impression of a contiguous working memory or an address space is referred to as a virtual memory. In fact, it could be fragmented physically and could even overflow to the disk storage. Systems which utilize this type of technique render the programming of larger applications easier and use physical memory such as the RAM more effectively than those that have no virtual memory. Virtual memory significantly varies from what is called memory virtualization because a virtual memory is capable of allowing resources to become virtualized as a memory for a particular system as compared to the large memory pool that is being virtualized into smaller pools for several different systems. Virtual memories are temporary RAM solutions for computer users. Each time the CPU requires memory but has already exceeded the installed physical memory in the computer, it would simply utilize the empty area in the hard disk as an improvised memory storage.
Materials Needed:- Windows XP
- Insufficient physical RAM
- Computer
Step 1
First you will have to locate and click on the Start button. Upon doing so, find the Control Panel and click on it to locate the Performance and Maintenance> System.
Step 2
Select the 'Settings' that is found on the tab 'Advanced' and is right under the menu Performance. It on the tab 'Advanced' that you must select Virtual Memory and then click on the 'Change' button. Underneath the Drive that has the Volume Label, look for the hard disk and then click on it. Within the hard disk is the paging file that you might want to change.
Step 3
Beneath the 'Paging File Size' of the drive that you have selected, click on and mark the 'Custom' or 'Customize' check box. You may now enter the memory size that you want to reserve in the selected disk for the computer’s virtual memory. Click on the 'Set' button in order to save the recent setting and so that the process is complete. The value that must be added should at least be 1 times more than the amount of your computer’s actual RAM. For instance, if your computer has a RAM of 1GB the paging file of your virtual memory may only be increased to 2GB. In order to prevent your CPU from constantly making modifications on your paging file, you have to type in the initial and the highest size to the same value.
Step 4
You will now need to restart Windows so that the new settings could take effect. Click on the 'Yes' button once you have been prompted to restart your computer. You may also opt to restart it later and then have it set the next time you boot up Windows.
Step 5
When you are frequently getting a pop-up window with the message 'Windows is low on virtual memory', you should not ignore it and must resolve it at once. Otherwise, your computer system could crash or it could result in your computer not operating efficiently.