How to overcome "System Process - Out of Virtual Memory"

How to deal with the message "your system is running low on virtual memory"

Every user who uses computer regularly will be familiar with the system message "your system is running low on virtual memory". Generally while using a PC, sometimes we find that the performance of our system has come down and the browsers are taking more than expected time. This is the time when this message comes up with a Red Color Cross Mark on the left side of the message box saying "System Process - Out of Virtual Memory"

A novice user might generally get frightened thinking something has severely gone wrong with the PC. Users who are used to this message just ignore this generally and continue working. But let me tell you that this message is not as fearful or as severe as the Red cross depicts.

Virtual memory is the space allocated in the hard disk. Broadly speaking it is the process of increasing the physical size of a computer's random-access memory, in short called as RAM by using a section of the hard disk storage as an extension.

Here are few steps that would avoid such message to pop up on your computers screen.

1) To increase the virtual memory of the system.

The first way of avoiding the message to pop up on your screen is to increase the virtual memory of your system.

To increase the virtual memory you need to know the current RAM size of your system.

For this, right click on My Computer and click on Properties Tab. Here you have the RAM size of your system.

Once you know the RAM of your system you can go ahead and modify the virtual memory of the system. The below are the steps for increasing the virtual memory.

1) Click on Start --> Control Panel
2) In the classic view of Control Panel double click on System.(This can also be achieved by right clicking on the My Computer icon on the desktop or Start Panel)
3) Go to Advanced Tab in the pop up window.
3) Click on Settings under the Performance category
4) A pop up for Performance Options is displayed
5) Click on Advanced. Here you have the Virtual Memory section.
6) Click on Change tab.
7) Click on the drive that you want to modify the virtual memory of. Click on the Radio Button Custom Size and you have the option of entering the Initial Size (MB) and Maximum Size (MB) for Virtual Memory.
8) Enter the required values and click on OK.

Increasing the virtual memory of a system does not ask for restarting the system. But if you decrease the value then you should restart the system for it to be effective.

2) Increasing RAM

If the message still appears after increasing the Virtual memory then the only way left is to increase the RAM.

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