If you have low ram use virtual memory works in xp i dont know if you are using vista or windows 7
Step 2: Manually manage computer memory
When your computer's physically installed random-access memory (RAM) is running low, Windows adds available memory by using a paging file, generally known as virtual memory, on the hard disk to simulate physical RAM. By default, the virtual memory paging file that is created during installation is 1.5 times the physical RAM on your computer. Therefore, a computer that has 1GB of installed RAM will have 1.5GB of virtual memory.
You can manually change the size of the paging file to make it larger or smaller. You can also optimize virtual memory use by dividing the file space between multiple drives and by removing allocated space from slow or heavily accessed drives. To optimize your virtual memory space, divide it among as many physical hard drives as possible. When you select drives, follow these guidelines:
* Try to avoid having a paging file on the same drive as the system files, usually drive C.
* Avoid putting a paging file on a fault-tolerant drive such as a mirrored volume or a RAID-5 volume. Paging files do not require fault tolerance, and some fault-tolerant computers experience slow data writes because they write data to multiple locations.
* Do not put multiple paging files on different partitions on the same physical disk drive.
How to manually change the size of the virtual memory paging file
You must be logged on as an administrator or as a member of the administrator’s group to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may prevent you from completing this procedure.
To manually change the size of virtual memory, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then under Performance click Settings.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then under Virtual memory click Change.
4. Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change.
5. Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, type a new paging file size in megabytes (MB) in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, and then click Set.
6. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply changes.
Note After you change the size of the paging file, you may be prompted to restart Windows. If you are prompted to restart, the changes will not take effect until Windows is restarted.
Notes
* To have Windows select the best paging file size, click System managed size. The recommended minimum size is the same as 1.5 times the RAM on your computer, and 3 times that figure for the maximum size. For example, if you have 256 MB of RAM, the minimum size is 384 MB, and the maximum size is 1152 MB.
* For best performance, do not set the initial size to less than the minimum recommended size under Total paging file size for all drives. The recommended size is the same as 1.5 times the RAM on your computer. It is good practice to leave the paging file at its recommended size as performance can decrease if a paging file is too large. However, you may increase its size if you frequently use programs that use lots of memory, such as graphics programs or games.
* We strongly recommend that you do not disable or delete the paging file because this can lessen the computer's performance. However, if you decide to delete a paging file, set both the initial size and the maximum size to zero, or click No paging file.
