How to Increase the Virtual Memory of Your Computer
Level of difficulty: Easy
The kind of program you can use and the speed of your computer rely on its random access memory or RAM, which may sometimes be referred to as the “memory.” If you are planning to use high-edge programs or multi-task using memory-consuming applications, then you should consider increasing your computer's RAM. However, doing this might require you to buy another physical RAM. Fortunately, you can now use the sleeping space of your hard disk to add speed to your computer through setting the virtual memory.
Materials Needed:- Computer
- control panel
Step 1
Determine your computer’s RAM and hard disk space. Decide also on how much virtual memory you will create. The best way to do this is to compute the minimum required memory by the programs you will be using.
Step 2
Click the 'Start' button and from the pop-up menu, choose 'Settings'. Clicking that will display a drop down menu where the Control Panel is. Click that and the Control Panel window will open.
Step 3
Choose the 'Performance and Maintenance' icon. If you cannot find this icon, jump to Step 8.
Step 4
Look for the 'System' from the 'Performance and Maintenance' option and open that.
Step 5
The System window will appear. Go to the 'Advanced' tab. There, you can see the three Settings buttons for Performance, User Profiles, and Startup and Recovery. Choose the 'Settings of Performance' section.
Step 6
The 'Performance' options window will appear. You can see there the tabs 'Visual Effects', 'Advanced', and 'Data Execution Prevention'. Go to 'Advanced' tab.
Step 7
This 'Advanced' tab has 'Processor Scheduling', 'Memory Usage', and 'Virtual Memory' options. Click the 'Change' button in the Virtual Memory section.
Step 8
In other Windows XP versions, you can go to this section by respectively clicking 'Start', 'Settings', 'Control Panel', 'System' icon, 'Advanced' tab, 'Performance Settings' button, 'Advanced' tab, and 'Virtual Memory Change' button. You can also use another shortcut to go to this section. Right click on the 'My Computer' icon, choose 'Properties', and follow the same pattern.
Step 9
Choose the drive containing the paging file. This specific file works to give instruction to your computer on what it should do whenever it runs out of physical memory.
Step 10
You can use any drive for your paging file. However, the most commonly used drive is the C: drive.
Step 11
Choose the Custom Size. There, you can find the field Initial Size and Maximum Size.
Step 12
Enter your desired virtual memory size, usually in megabytes.
Step 13
You can put any value but the recommended is to enter the same value in these two fields. For example, if you put 600 in Initial Size, then you should put 600 also in Maximum Size. This will prevent your CPU from constantly changing the paging file. Another recommended way to determine the Initial Size is by adding 50 percent to your current physical RAM’s size.
Step 14
Click 'Set' and 'OK' then restart the computer.