In this article, we show you how to optimize virtual memory in Windows Vista.

What is “Virtual Memory” and why should I care?

Windows uses memory Random Access Memory (RAM) to load and run its Operating System (OS) and your programs.

When the RAM is full, Windows will use your Hard Disk Drive (HDD) to “extend” it’s available memory.  This area of the HDD is known as “Virtual Memory” (VM).

HDD is a lot slower than RAM. Therefore, the less RAM that you have the more Windows needs to use your VM.

Excessive use of VM (e.g. if you have lots of programs running at the same time) can result in dramatic slowdowns for your computer. Also, if your PC has incorrect settings, you might see the popup message “insufficient virtual memory”.

What you will need

Windows Vista is automatically optimized for the best settings if you are running a “standard” hardware platform. Specifically, if your PC has a single hard drive, STOP! You will not be able to optimize your VM settings to gain any performance benefits.

You are going to need another physical HDD (a partition on the same disk as Windows won’t do). The HDD needs to be fast and preferably internal to your PC although a fast external USB2.0 drive might work too.

Steps to configure and optimize Virtual Memory

1) Right click “Computer”, select “Properties”

2) In “Tasks”(left side bar)  Click “Advanced system settings”

3) Click “Advanced” tab

4) Find the “Performance” box and click the “Settings…” button

5) Click the “Advanced” tab

6) Find the Virtual memory box and click the “Change…” button

7) Uncheck the “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” check box

8) Find the box labelled “Paging file size for each drive”

9) Select C: and then click the option “Custom size:”. The settings that you need are “Initial size (MB):” = 500, “Maximum size (MB):” = 500

10) Select the drive letter associated with your other physical HDD (see “What you will need” above) then click the option “Custom size:” The settings that you need are “Initial size (MB):” = 1.5 x the amount of RAM in your computer. For example, if you have 4GB, you would set this to 6144 (i.e. 1.5 x 4096MB), “Maximum size (MB):” = 6144

11) Click “OK” several times. A reboot might be necessary.

The benefits

You should immediately start to see some improvement in performance. When Windows needs access to virtual memory, it has a completely separate (and fast) HDD to use.

You will particularly notice the performance improvement if you use any video or image editing applications (e.g. Adobe Photoshop or Windows Movie Maker) or a game player.