Virtual Memory Issue

[Bobba Buoy]

I keep getting a message from my taskbar (Windows XP) saying that my virtual memory is low and windows is going to increase that for me yadda, yadda. What is causing that and is that something that I should do something about? I have about 50 gb free on my hard drive.

Thanks~

[Horus_Kol]

Virtual memory is hard drive space allocated to storing information that is not used a lot... i don't know the in's and out's of the actual algorithm that decides how it should be used...

but basically, if you're running several programs at once, and leave your PC running for a long time, then your memory requirement will grow... some background processes that you don't know about could be the cause - check for spyware

Not all of the free space on your HDD is allocated as virtual memory - in general the amount on the disk should be about the same as your RAM.

If you are being told that it is being increased, then you are either running too much at once (possibly unwittingly - spyware) or you don't have a lot of RAM.

The amount of space currently being used for virtual memory can be found under the properties if "My Computer" - "Advanced Tab" - "Performance Options" - "Advanced".

[Bobba Buoy]

Thanks. So I should look for programs running in the background..... Spyware. Got it.