Change virtual memory size in windows 7

How to change virtual memory settings in Windows-7

Sometimes you may receive warning message that your virtual memory is very low. Then you will need to increase the size of your paging file. Here is the way to perform that task.

Page file is use as a random access memory (RAM). In most operating systems use a reserved hard disk space for its page file or virtual memory. It stores data that has not been used recently. You can gain better performance by optimizing page file size. When all physical RAM is in use, the operating system starts using page files as additional RAM. You can't gain more performance by increasing the page file size meaninglessly. That means do not exceed the maximum page file size or don't allocate bellow the minimum page file size.

If your machine has plenty of RAM, it would be unnecessary to set large paging file sizes.

By default the page file is located in the drive which you have installed the operating system. Ex. C:\pagefile.sys You can't delete page file while the system running because on a running system, page file is opened exclusively by the operating system. You can delete page file by setting allocated size to 0MB or selecting the option No paging file. But windows do not recommend. You can set page files per each drive in your system. But it is good idea to let the machine to control the page files in your system.

Steps to change the page file size in windows-7

1. Press Windows Logo key with Pause button or Press Windows logo key with R and open Run dialog box then type 'SystemPropertiesAdvanced' (without quotes) and press enter or Go to control panel and click on System, then click on Advanced System Settings. It will open System properties dialog box for you.
   
2. Click on Advanced Tab
   
3. Under the performance section, click on Settings button. It will open performance Options dialog box for you.
   
4. Under the Virtual memory Section click on Change button. It will open Virtual Memory settings dialog box for you.
   
5. Un tick Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box.
   
6. Then it will allow you to manually allocate the page file size for a selected drive.
   
7. Select a drive from "Paging file size for each drive" section.
   
8. The default selection is System managed size. So you have to check the Custom size radio button.
   
9. Type Initial page file size in MB and Maximum page file size in MB.
   
10. Then click on Set button.
11. Then click on OK button.

You can disable the page file for selected drive by checking the radio button 'No paging file. But it is not recommend. Usually the minimum page file size is installed RAM+300MB and the maximum size will be 3 times the amount of RAM installed on your machine.

* After changing the page file size, you must restart the computer to take effect.