How to increase virtual memory on my laptop computer?

If you are receiving warning messages on your laptop that your virtual memory is low, you can increase the size of the paging file. You should increase the minimum and maximum sizes if you are receiving warning messages that your virtual memory is low on your laptop. Fortunately, this is very easy to do in Windows 7 and only takes a few minutes.

Open the system dialog box

Click the Start button, click Control Panel, click Systems and Maintenance and then click System.

Open settings

Click on the "Advanced system settings" in the left pane. Enter the administrator password if you are prompted for one. Click on the Advanced tab. Click Settings under Performance.

Open the Change Virtual Memory dialog box

Click the Advanced tab, and then click Change under Virtual Memory. Uncheck the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box. Click the drive that contains the file you want to change under Drive (Volume Label). This will more than likely be the Local Disk C: A new dialog box opens on the screen.

Increase the virtual memory

Click Custom Size, type a new size in megabytes in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, click Set, and then click OK to save the changes. If you only increased the virtual memory, you will not need to restart your computer. If you decrease the size, a computer restart is required for the changes to take place. Microsoft recommends you increase the page file size 1.5 times the amount of memory installed on your computer. In most cases, unless you have more than 16 gb of memory, you will not need to increase the virtual memory. Windows automatically sets the minimum size of the paging file at the amount of memory installed on the computer plus 300 MB (megabytes). It sets the maximum size up to three times the amount of memory installed on the computer. Some programs, however, demand a lot of memory and in cases like these, increasing the virtual memory is needed and will help to set things right. If you find your computer acting funny after increasing the memory, change it back to its original settings. If you need to restart your computer, click the Start button, click the arrow to the right of Shutdown and then click Restart. You should not receive the virtual memory error once you increase the size.