How to do when your virtual memory minimum is too low

How to easily solve a virtual memory warning on Windows XP without professional assistance.

What causes this warning?

With just about all modern operating systems virtual memory is something that the user need not worry about. Alas, some older operating systems such as Windows XP sometimes fail to handle virtual memory correctly, thus resulting in user intervention. At first sight the warning Virtual memory minimum too low (or similarly worded warnings) can seem a bit daunting and it is quite easily fixed, but what causes it? Virtual memory is the term used to describe a process where a computer uses the hard disk as a memory 'reserve'. A computer can run several applications at once but it only has finite amount of physical RAM (random access memory). The more applications that are running, the more RAM is needed. To free up the vastly more faster physical memory for an application running in the foreground the computer 'decides' what information will not be in need of immediate access and therefore uses the hard disk almost as if it was real RAM, albeit many, many times slower that physical RAM. Most of the time this works seamlessly without the user knowing that this is happening, apart from the occasional whirring and clicking that might be heard for no apparent reason from the hard disk. However, sometimes this doesn't work quite smoothly enough and the virtual memory gets 'full'. The way to solve this is to change the usually automatically set virtual memory size to a higher amount yourself.

Stop this warning from appearing/increasing you virtual memory size.

Follow these simple steps to remove the low virtual memory warning: 1 - Click Start and the right-click on My Computer. 2 - Now click on Properties. 3 - Whilst in the System Properties dialogue box click the Advanced tab. 4 - In the Performance pane click on Settings. 5 - You will now be in the Performance Options dialogue box. Whilst there, click the Advanced tab. 6 - In the Virtual Memory pane click Change. 7 - Change the Initial size value and then the Maximum size value to a higher value. 8 - Click on Set and then click OK. 9 - Click on OK to close the Performance Options dialogue box. 10 - Now click on OK to close the System Properties dialogue box.