How To Increase Your Computer’s Virtual Memory

RAM is an inevitable part of your computer. RAM or Random Access Memory is the location from where the currently executed programs run. Therefore, if your computer has higher RAM capacity, it can run more programs without the computer hanging up.

So, what would you do if your computer has low RAM capacity? Even though you may add extra RAM to your motherboard, it requires extra slots in it. RAM is also a costly hardware component. In such situations, the virtual memory technique incorporated in your Windows operating systems can come handy. Virtual memory is a file saved on your computer’s hard drive, which can act as a form of memory similar to RAM. This memory will be used as and when needed, by your operating system.

According to Windows help center, virtual memory is always used by your operating system. However, if you intend to run programs that demand higher amount of RAM, you can always increase the size of the virtual memory manually. In this post, we will take you through the steps to increase your computers virtual memory.

Steps Involved

• Choose the Start menu of your computer by pressing the Windows logo key on your keyboard. 
• From the Start menu, select Control Panel. 
• Select the option System Maintenance if you are using a Windows Vista computer. If you are using a Windows 7 computer, select the option System and Security.
• Choose the option System and then go to Advanced System Setting in the left pane of the window.
• In the window for System Properties, select the tab Advanced. 
• Click Settings, which you will find under the heading Performance.
• The above step will open the window for Performance Options.
• Click the tab Advanced in this window.
• You can find the existing size of your Virtual memory given as Total paging file size for all drives.
• Select the button Change.
• Choose the option Custom Size.
• Enter the Initial Size and Maximum Size of the virtual memory in the corresponding fields. 
• Select OK and choose the option Restart now. Once the computer restarts, your machine will have increased virtual memory.

We hope that the above mentioned steps have helped you increase the virtual memory of your computer, and thereby increase its performance. If you have any queries related to virtual memory, you may contact the Windows help center or our technical support team for assistance.