Essentially all processes in Windows run using Virtual Memory, which is
mapped to "Real" or physical RAM. When the applications you are running
require more memory than there is available RAM, some of the Virtual Memory
is written on your hard disk in a file called pagefile.sys. The total
amount of available memory on your computer is thus esentially, the sum of
the maximum size of the pagefile.sys file and the amount of RAM on your
computer. When the amount of memory actually in use by your applications
gets close to this maximum, Windows puts up the Virtual Memory low warning
dialog box. Your web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer) is an application
like any other and thus uses Virtual Memory. When you "print" something, a
process starts to translate the page to the data stream required by the
printer. This process also uses Virtual Memory. So, if you are typically
running close to the maximum available Virtual Memory, requesting a print
will put you closer to the maximum and trigger the warning message.
When Windows is installed, the maximum pagefile size is defaulted, usually
to about 1.5 times the amount of RAM you have in your computer. You can
increase the pagefile size and thus the maximum available Virtual Memory by:
1. right click My Computer and select Properties
2. select the Advanced tab
3. click Performance Options
4. click the "Change..." button
5. under "Drive" find the drive that has a value under Paging File Size
(MB) - if you only have one hard drive with one partition, there will be
only one entry (C
and it will be selected
6. see what value is shown for "Space Available". If this is around 1000 MB
or more, increase the value in "Maximum size (MB):" by 512. If the "Space
Available" is less than 1000 MB, increase the value in "Maximum size (MB):"
by half of the "Space Available". Note that there is nothing magical about
these numbers, its just a guideline that may be useful.
7. click the "Set" button, then OK. You will probably get a warning about
the changes needing a restart; click the OK button.
8. click OK, OK, then Yes to restart
If you are consistently using all the RAM on your computer, you may want to
consider adding more. You can check how much RAM you have and how much
Virtual Memory is in use using the Performance tab of Task Manager (right
click the Task Bar and select Task Manager - select the Performance tab).
Physical Memory (K): Total tells you how much RAM you have in your computer.
Commit Charge (K): Total tells you how much Virtual Memory you are currently
using. If Commit Charge: Total is consistently higher than Physical Memory:
Total, more RAM will make a difference to your performance.
