What is Virtual Memory?
Virtual memory is simulated RAM. When you have used up all your RAM, your computer will shift data to an empty space on the hard drive. The computer swaps data to the hard disk and back to your RAM as needed. When you increase your virtual memory you are increasing the empty space that is reserved for your RAM overflow.
Increase Virtual Memory in Windows XP
Step 1.Click Start, and then right click on My Computer, a pop up will come.
Step 2.Click Advance, and under heading “Performance” click Settings.
Step 3.On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.
Step 4.On the Performance Option click Advance.
Step 5.You will find Virtual Memory from there you can easily incrrease the Virtual memory .
Step 6.Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change.
Step 6.Under Paging file size for selected drive, click to Custom size check box. You can enter the amount of memory you would like to reserve for Virtual memory by entering the initial and maximum size.
Step 7.Click Set
When you will be asked to restart the computer, click Yes.
Special Note: Always choose the same amount for the initial size and maximum size. This will help you to stop your CPU from constantly changing the paging file.
TIP: To stop your CPU from constantly changing the paging file, set the initial and maximum size to the same value. For example, 500 and 500. The value should be at least 1.5 times more than your physical RAM. If your computer has 512MB of RAM increase the virtual memory paging file to 1.5*512= 768
