Thread: Proper use of Windows 7 Virtual Memory

How do you enable Windows 7 Virtual Memory?
1. Click on your start icon.
2. Right-click on 'Computer' and choose 'Properties'
3. In the left bar, you click on 'Advanced System Settings' and a new screen should pop-up.
4. Go to the 'Advanced' tab and click on 'Settings' in the Performance area and a another screen should pop-up.
5. Click on the 'Advanced' tab again and click on the 'Change' button.
6. Check that you want to use a custom size.



Now you can enter your Initial Size and Maximum size. Don't enter here any number you want, because that would be useless.
If you know how much RAM you have in your computer, you should do this times 1.5 and no more than 3.0.
For example, you have 4GB of RAM in your system. That would be 4096MB times 1.5 = 6144MB, you can enter this is your 'Initial Size' box. For you Maximum size you can do 4096MB times 3 = 12288MB, you can enter it in your Maximum Size box.
REMEMBER: 1GB = 1024Mb


I hope you found it useful if you didn't know about this. I've done this with my system and you notice the difference, it responds a bit faster. Feel free to correct me.

I dont think increase this will make any difference to your PC respond time but it will help reduce disk fragmentation

@p5ycho : Memory will be save in a pagefile.sys in the disk which 's size is changing constantly depend of how much VMemory needed...set a stable size will eliminate the change

@C0re if you run out of 4GB of RAM you are doing some heavy computing.

Virtual memory is used when your RAM runs low on available space, not when its completely full. And New information is not stored to Virtual Memory. Windows automatically moves data in your RAM that is used less often to Virtual Memory (pagefile) - So then your active programs continue to use RAM for is processing needs. When you begin to use data that is in your Virtual Memory more often, its then moved back to the RAM and replaced with data that is less used. Its sorta a trade out method. So you are hardly ever reading information directly from the Virtual Memory. While Data read from the VM is obtained at a slower rate, it does not impose a large effect on the speed of your computer.. since the data in your VM is not used that often, and when it is its then moved back to RAM.

There are some programs, like Adobe Photoshop, that require a large amount of Virtual Memory; The reason behind this I'm not aware of, since it has not been an issue for me to research.. But from my basic understanding, and a few explanations from co-workers, Photoshop requires this because it is a RAM pig. Especially the newer version of Photoshop.

I try it and see what happens........