Kasuhitomi's guide on how to increase/alter your Virtual Memory!

NOTE: Want to know what Virtual Memory IS? Click here: Definitition of "Virtual Memory" by Wikipedia's standard

Disclaimer: I am not responsible to your computer, or you (if you get in trouble) for altering your computer's Virtual Memory. Everything here is just from what I know, I've never had any problems doing this, but if done in-correctly, things might happen, I'm unsure (doubt it though). Also, I did not came up with this, I learned this. ;]

Step 1: Go to your "My Computer", right click it. You should be able to see 7 tabs on the top, click on "Advanced"! =)



Step 2: Now you should see several boxes beneath, one that says Performance, User Profiles, and Startup and System Recovery. Please click on "Settings" in the Performance section.


Step 3: Now you should see several more boxes, Processor Scheduling, Memory Usage, and Virtual Memory. You want to scroll down to Virtual Memory, and then click on "Change"!


Step 4: Where it says Custom Size, make sure you have that selected. In "Initial Size (MB)", feel free to change that and clock it up to 10000 MB. Then change "Maximum Size (MB)" to 11000 MB, make sure you click "Set"! Click on Ok, then on Apply afterwards, and then if the computer asks for you to restart your computer (and it should), restart your computer for it to take affect.



Enjoy!

But why would you do this? What benefit does it give?

But why would you do this? What benefit does it give?

Able to open more applications (at once) than normal.

I've managed to navigate through it on Vista, but I'm still wary if I should set it to your specific mbs. You have any idea?

I'm sorry, but messing with Virtual Memory, for the average Mapler, is NOT recommended. This is an advaned feature that should be left alone, except in rare circumstances. Setting virtual memory to 10GB is ridiculous. >_o

I'm sorry, but messing with Virtual Memory, for the average Mapler, is NOT recommended. This is an advaned feature that should be left alone, except in rare circumstances. Setting virtual memory to 10GB is ridiculous. >_o

Well, I won't deny that. It's for advance-computer users.. not for the average person, but I've tinkering with it along with my friends in school, and it's no harm as long as you use it properly, I guess. =S And yes, 10 GB is high, but it speeds up your system and allows you to open multiple applications. For me, it's not a biggie. xP;

@ClawofBeta: Okay, Vista, I'm not sure about. I've only managed to do this on XP. On Vista, the results could be different, but if you want to tinker with it, make sure you write down the default Initial Size and Maximum Size number.

Windows can't even use 10 GB of virtual memory unless it's 64-bit Windows, which most people don't have. In any case, that much is excessive.

Default values are 1.5x physical memory and 3.0x physical memory, which are normally perfectly fine. Unless you're actually getting "out of memory" messages, there's no need to mess with the defaults.

Windows can't even use 10 GB of virtual memory unless it's 64-bit Windows, which most people don't have. In any case, that much is excessive.

Default values are 1.5x physical memory and 3.0x physical memory, which are normally perfectly fine. Unless you're actually getting "out of memory" messages, there's no need to mess with the defaults.

Actually, on my current computer, I do get "Out of Memory" messages pretty often. xD; This was before I changed the V-Memory though. >_>b

How much RAM do you have? You shouldn't run into those errors unless you're on a computer with less than 512(?) MB of RAM, and doing some hardcore memory-intensive stuff, such as Photoshop, video editing, or running some virtual machines -- especially in Windows XP. If that's not the case and you're getting such an error, you probably have malware or a program with a memory leak installed. ;x

Er, that's with RealPlayer on, a couple Internet Explorer windows on (about 3-4), and a Photoshop CS3 open. >_>;;

Regarding my RAM, it's 0.99 GB (or 1GB of RAM, same thing). >_>

All those are horrible.

Realplayer = get a real media player for god's sake.
IE = Firefox/chrome plz.
CS3 = Gimp? Lol.

Adding more space to the page file is quite useless. It doesn't speed up your PC. All it does it moves programs from your RAM, that aren't currently active, and places them on the harddrive if another program needs the RAM. Keeping the virtual memory at the default settings is good enough, if you ever need more virtual memory, Windows will let you know and adjust the settings itself.

All those are horrible.

Realplayer = get a real media player for god's sake.
IE = Firefox/chrome plz.
CS3 = Gimp? Lol.

Ever hear of the term called "example"?

Even then, Photoshop is the best image editing program you will get. And as for the media player and the internet browser - are we at the point now where we are telling people what browser to use? Just wow.

This doesn't really do much... the default on all systems is already "let system manage the size" and it is best the keep it that way. If you are running out of RAM running photoshop then I suggest getting a better computer or close other applications when working in photoshop. When computers get to the point of utilising virtual RAM it will slow down to a crawl due to the fact that it is constantly switching data from the hard drive to RAM.

Best way to solve RAM problems is to get more RAM, they're cheap nowadays.

Ever hear of the term called "example"?

Even then, Photoshop is the best image editing program you will get. And as for the media player and the internet browser - are we at the point now where we are telling people what browser to use? Just wow.

Read his post again, i never saw "example" being used there. Those are all things he actually runs.

There is absolutely NOTHING nowadays that IE has over firefox. Especially for someone who's writing a guide on how to speed up computers, he should know what programs do and do not take up too many resources. Firefox is very light and WAY more secure.

I don't really know how much resources CS3 takes up, but damn does it take up a lot of space. Took me almost an hour to uninstall the trial. Gimp should do the trick, as well as take up less room.

Realplayer...yeah...might as well go with WMP. Better yet, get your iPod/iPhone/zune/anything and listen to that when you do stuff. Most media players take up a lot of resources especially if you're playing maple at the same time. It has a noticeable effect.

There are a few things this is good for:
1 - if you set your min = max = approx 2x ram, then it prevents fragmentation
2 - if you have a hdd that has fast RPM or transfer rate, it helps to have the pagefile there
3 - prevent the possible "You're running low on disk space" crap if you partition your drive