07 January, 2012

Increase your virtual memory size

If you keep getting a “your system is running low on virtual memory” message then you are not alone. This is a common Windows error that shows up when your computer does not have enough memory or virtual memory to perform your computer tasks. When you are working on your PC and notice performance getting gradually slower and slower. Programs might even become harder and slower to open and close. You might even have to wait forever for Web pages to be displayed. And then you see the error message “virtual memory is too low”. There are a few ways to fix this problem.

What is virtual memory?

Virtual memory is the space your computer uses when it’s short of RAM (Random Access Memory), which is the memory used when running programs like Microsoft Office Word or Microsoft Office PowerPoint.

1. Go to the  Start menu in the left corner.
2. Choose Control Panel from the menu. Switch to classic view.
3. T hen double click on the System icon.
4. In the left sidebar, click Advanced system settings link. You might be prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
5. Go to the Advanced tab. See the screen shot below.

6. Under the heading Performance, click Settings. See above screen shot.
7. Click the Advanced tab, and then, under Virtual memory, click Change. See screen shot below.

 8. Clear the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box.
9. Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change. Select it by making it blue.
10. Click Custom size, type a new size in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, clickSet, and then click OK.

Note Apparently increases in size usually don’t require you to restart your computer for the changes to take effect, but if you decrease the size, you’ll need to restart your computer. However it asked me to restart when I increased my size. Make sure you do not disable or delete the paging file.
If this does not get rid of your problem then there might be a problem with your computer RAM (random access memory). You should check your RAM to see if the right amount is showing in Windows.

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