virtual memory help

[bobtheduck]

got a message from windows saying my virtual memory is low and they are expanding it, what does this mean? and is it anything to worry about?

[Mobius1]

Virtual memory is hard drive space that the operating system uses to mimic RAM. When you're using all your RAM, or programs are using your RAM haven't been actively used for some time, though are open, they are put into virtual memory to free-up more RAM on your system for the open apps that you are using.

Virtual memory, also known as the "paging file" can be set under the advanced options in WindowsXP by doing the following. Start > Right-click "My Computer" > Properties > Advanced Tab > Under "Performance" click "Settings" > Under "Virtual Memory" click "change".

This allows you to specify the minimum and maximum amount of hard drive space Windows can use for virtual memory (although it needs a set amount to work correctly anyway). It is recommended that the maximum be set to approximately 1.5 times the amount of system RAM you have installed. Clearly, yours is set too low, and Windows is simply enlarging the amount it uses when it has to. Setting the current figure higher yourself might help prevent similar messages in future.

However, since your hard drive operates at a mere fraction of the speed that your RAM does, when accessing data stored in virtual memory, your PC may slow down considerably. Therefore, if you find yourself using RAM hungry applications regularly, or many apps at once, you might want to consider upgrading the amount of system RAM you have, as this will significantly increase system performance in these situations.

[wideboy]

I was using FreeRam XP Pro to monitor my RAM and found that my macine started up with only 20% memory available. I have lots of background programs running (antispyware stuff etc.). I had 512Mb ram, the paging file was 700+Mb (about right). FreeRamm allowed me to improve up to 30 or 40%. SO, I decided to buy more ram. I installed another 512Mb ram to at last get to 1Gb!! Guess what, ther is only 40% to 52% ram free!! Paging file is now 1.5Gb (again, about right). Anyone know where all the ram is going to and how I might recover more of it. Surely I should be able to have 600 -700Mb free?

[Mobius1]

I have a GB of RAM (1024MB) on my system, and after start-up usually have around 700MB free. I'm not sure why you're left with so little of yours, but I can offer suggestions that might help.

First of all, getting rid of programs that start up with the PC that you really don't need, or can activate yourself when you do need should be a priority. I use Spybot Search & Destroy's program startup manager tool to turn off start up programs that aren't essential or that I don't use. If you have many, then these will all use up some RAM (even though in most cases it probably won't be much it can pile up).

Also, in the area where you set your pagefile (as I mentioned earlier) ensure that your memory allocation is set to serve "Programs" as opposed to "System Cache".

Also, if you're into tweaking your OS, make sure you haven't disabled page filing for the core OS and that you're accelerating DLL unloading from main memory.

Other than that, I suggest opening up Windows Task Manager and looking at all your running processes after startup and seeing their memory usage. If you don't know what a certain process is, just type it's .exe name into Google or another search engine and you'll soon find out. If you find out that you don't require a lot of these, disable them if possible.

[wideboy]

Thanks Mobius1 - there ARE a lot of programs  running - will have to go through them. Thinking of 'repairing' or reinstalling Windows but worried about needing all the SP2 updates that I've already got.