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A guide to resolving the "Your system is low on virtual memory" message.

What is Virtual Memory

At a basic level, virtual memory is a portion of the hard disk (the page file) that is being used as physical memory (RAM). As you computer works, programs and files are read from the hard disk and stored temporarily in RAM. If you machine does not have enough RAM to load all the programs and files that you have open, it will use the page file as well.

If the amount of RAM + the size of the page file is less that the total amount of RAM needed to run all the programs you have open, you will see the  "Your system is low on virtual memory" message. Sometimes a program may also "leak" memory, where a program will over time use more and more RAM. If left unchecked one program may use over all of the RAM in the machine, leaving nothing for other programs to use.

Checking Virtual Memory

Note: these instructions are for Windows XP - other versions of windows will look slightly differently

You can see how much RAM and virtual memory is being used by programs with the Task Manager. To easily run the task manager press Ctrl + Shift + Esc. Once the task manager appears, click the processes tab. Click the the View menu and choose Select Columns. Tick the Virtual Memory Size box and click OK.

You will now see a list of the programs running on your machine, and the amounts of RAM (the mem usage column) and Virtual Memory (VM Size). If you click the VM Size column heading, it will re-sort the list in order of highest Virtual Memory usage to lowest. Clicking the Mem Usage column heading to see which programs are using the most RAM.

Fixing the Your system is low on virtual memory

There are a number of things you can do to fix this:

1. Restart your machine. If a program is leaking memory, a quick reboot will free up the RAM that had been taken by the leaking program.
2. Increase the amount of physical RAM in the machine. RAM upgrades can, in most cases be the, cheapest way of increasing the speed of your computer. More RAM means more space for running programs, and less reliance on the page file means more speed.
3. Decrease the amount of running programs. Every program that is open (including programs in the system tray) will use a portion of RAM. Closing unneeded programs will free up RAM for the programs to need. Examples ofapplications you need are virus scanners and firewalls. Programs that you may not need running may include constant update checkers, browser toolbars, photo management programs.
4. Increase the size of the page file. Usually Windows will manage the size of the page file by itself, but you can manually increase the size of the page file to prevent the message "your system is low on virtual memory" from reappearing soon. This is not usually recommended, as it will not increase the speed of the machine, and can mask problems with leaking programs.To increase the page file: Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel. Double Click System. Click the Advanced tab. Click the settings button from the Performance section. Click the Advanced tab. Click Change. Click the Custom size radio button. In the Initial size box I suggest you put 1.5x the amount of RAM installed in the machine. Set the Maximum as 3x the size. Click Set and OK back through all the windows. Reboot the machine.