computer dunce needs help ... please

[excelsior]

once a week i go into internet options, via the control panel, and clean out my temporary internet files. that is the total of my 'housekeeping' knowledge.

however - it is obviously not enough because occasionally i get a little bubble appear in the bottom of my screen saying .. "the system is low on virtual memory - windows is expanding your --" etc. etc. etc.

my question, therefore is :- what more can i do to free up memory and/or clean out excess and old internet files and programmes? WITHOUT accidentally deleting something i shouldn't?

remember - janet & john answers please.

thank you for any help

[bongoboy]

I assume you have anti spyware software as well as anti virus as well as a firewall running.
To clean out your pc and registry etc download this free programme and use it to free up your registry and also optomize your pc.
http://www.ccleaner.com/download
Don't worry it's easy to use.

[excelsior]

i hope so .. i'll have a look.

thank you very much bongoboy, and happy new year

[bongoboy]

Forgot to say that you may have too many programmes running at start up.
To check,click on start >run and type in "dxdiag"(without the quotes).Then click on the start tab and untick any programme you don't need running when your pc starts up.
You could start by right clicking anything on your taskbar that is running that you don't need and stop it by right clicking and pressing exit.

[ACtheTROLL]

you don't really need worry
XP and Vista both prefer to have anout 20-25% free disc space + approx 1.5x your system ram (for system files)
first let's make a point
there is a difference between storage and memory .... storage is what you use the hard disc for
MEMORY is what the system uses to do it's job.

When you deal with graphics or spreadsheets ... all the calculations and communications between mouse, keyboard, screen etc are stored in the memory - and then overwritten when the job is done.

The program you are using also likes to live in memory.

when all this stuff needs more space (memory) than you actually have fitted to the machine - windows starts to write the information to a pagefile on the hard disc.

the system "knows how much disc space to reserve (on average) .... so if you do something different that needs more - windows will expand your - etc etc

CC cleaner is a good idea (once a month should be often enough!!)

it sounds like you could do with (either/and)
fitting more RAM
http://www.crucial.com/uk/index.aspx?cpe=CHAWK uk

backing up and removing

[webdude]

You haven't said which operating system you have - both Windows XP and Vista utilise virtual memory to dynamically save data as your PC is operating. On a standard PC configuraiton this virtual memory is in fact your hard disk, not the RAM (ignore the techical terms for now).

The message you are getting is because your operating system cannot find enough hard disk space in which to operate the virtual memory. If you only have one hard disk i.e. drive C, then that disk will contain all of your programs, plus all of the data which you yourself have created. By default, the operating system automatically asigns the drive and the size of the dynamic file space, so you have no control.

First use My Computer to find out how much space is free on your hard drive by clicking Properties for the C drive. If you have less than 25% free, then your only solution is to remove all and any software programs which you no longer use, in order to free up memory on the hard drive. Then click the Start menu and click Accessories, then System Tools, then Disk Clean Up, and this should then tell you which other files you can safely delete in order to save space and give the virtual memory the space it needs to operate properly.

This is not a registry or RAM memory problem. If the above does not solve your problem you will need to upgrade to a larger hard disk.