How can i put Virtual RAM on my PC?

Question

hi everyone

I've heard of virtual RAM and I know what it is. I think it is very useful BUT i don't know how to get it. I've heard it's got something to do with My Computer but i don't know how to get it.

Can someone please give me an answer with step by step instructions (Cause i didn't pay attention in school)

I will be grateful for any answers
THX

P.S I'll choose best answer

Answer 1

Virtual Memory-This is system memory that is simulated by the hard drive. When all the RAM is being used (for example if there are many programs open at the same time) the computer will swap data to the hard drive and back to give the impression that there is slightly more memory.

Your PC should allready have some virtual memory on ur CPU but here is how you adjust just how much you have.
(For XP)
1.Go to Start, Control Panel.
2.Click on the System Icon (The little computer with a check mark on the screen)
A little window titled 'System Properties' should pop up.
3. Go to the Advanced tab, and on the Perfomance box it will say 'Visual effects, processor scheduling, memory usage, and virtual memory'.
Click the button in the box that says Settings.
4.When the new box opens click Advanced tab.
5. All the way at the bottom there is a little box that says Virtual memory and should show you the 'Total paging file size for all drives'.
6. Click the button that says change.
7.There you can adjust the amout of Virtual Memory ur system uses.

My Initial size is 382mb(which is the recommened amount.), and my Maximum size is 4096.

Answer 2

Virtual memory is where your PC uses hard disk space to put programs and data that aren't being used at the moment, so that there will be enough physical memory for the programs that are running.
Generally, you should have virtual memory running, because it is ON by default.
With Windows XP, right-click on My Computer and select Properties.
Select the Advanced tab
Under Performance, click on the Settings button.
Then click on the Advanced tab.

At the bottom, you will see the amount of hard disk space allocated to virtual memory. Windows typically allots 150% of physical memory size to virtual memory, as long as you have the hard disk space.

It is far better to add physical memory to a PC. You can guess that a memory chip is very much faster than accessing information from a hard drive. So the more physical memory, the faster your PC. The difference from 256MB to 512MB would be noticeable, but over 1GB is a waste unless you are running very heavy software.

Answer 3

For XP right click My Computer, click Properties. Click the Advanced tab then Settings button under Performance. Click the Advance tab again then the Change button under Virtual Memory. Word to the wise: leave the System managed size selected. Unless you know what you are doing, you could make it worse. There are many myths and suggestions as to what size you need for the amount of memory you have if you want to manually change it and everyone has a different opinion. Good luck. My opinion is to add more RAM. Its cheap and it will make your computer run a lot faster.

Answer 4

You can't-
There is no such thing as "Virtual Ram" that you can go out and buy. You may be thinking of "virtual memory"-which is Windows way of coping when you do not hav sufficient physical RAM. What Windows does is use a part of your hard drive as virtual memory, and writes files to it as if it were RAM. However, there is a price to be paid-VIRTUAL memory is so much slower to read and write than RAM that if your system does not have sufficient physical memory, reading and writing to virtual memory will slow your system to a crawl, especially if you are doing memory intensive activities, such as video editing, photo editing with multiple filters, intense gaming or any real multi-tasking. Just take your computer in and have some additional RAM installed.

Answer 5

To change the size of the virtual memory paging file
Open Computer Management (Local).
In the console tree, right-click Computer Management (Local), and then select Properties.
On the Advanced tab, click Performance Options, and under Virtual memory, click Change.
In the Drive list, click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change.
Under Paging file size for selected drive, type a new paging file size in megabytes in the Initial Size (MB) or Maximum Size (MB) box, and then click Set.
If you decrease the size of either the minimum or maximum page file settings, you must restart your computer to see the effects of those changes. Increases generally do not require a restart.

Notes

To open Computer Management, click Start, and then click Control Panel. Double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.
You must be recognized as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group on your computer and on the computer you are managing to perform this task.
You can view or change system properties on a remote computer or a local computer. To access a remote computer, right-click Computer Management (Local), click Connect to another computer, and then select the computer you want to connect to in the list.
For best performance, set the initial size to not less than the recommended size under Total paging file size for all drives. The recommended size is equivalent to 1.5 times the amount of RAM on your system.
Usually, you should leave the paging file at its recommended size, although you might increase its size if you routinely use programs that require a lot of memory.
To delete a paging file, set both initial size and maximum size to zero.

BTW, the need for MORE virtual memory means you NEED MORE RAM (memory) installed in your computer!

Answer 6

Virtual Memory is automatically enabled, when you install Windows and Windows controls the amount.