Virtual Memory is a memory used in conjunction with the computer hardware. It is an alternative and imaginary memory. As the name describes, virtual addresses are used by the programs; and not real addresses. During the runtime of a program the formers are converted into latter. Swapping (also called as paging), is a task of copying of virtual pages from disk to main memory.
It expands the address space in order to facilitate execution of an application by copying the same into the main memory. Disk is used to store each page until it is required. This memory is divided into different pages so that Windows can copy virtual memory into real memory. These pages are equally-sized.
Mapping is the task of translating virtual addresses into real addresses. Memory manager fetches pages from the disk whenever the memory is addressed by process references. The process of fetching is done in a vacant physical page of Random Access Memory (RAM), which basically facilitates the programs and processes running on your PC to use virtual memory. The space is usually larger than the memory available of your RAM. During this process some contents which are temporarily stored on RAM are passed on to the hard disk. References are routed from the logical pages to the physical pages of the RAM. A process becomes target of similar references when an address is referenced and stored in a vacant physical page.
Swap Area is used to store logical pages whenever your PC fails to get a free physical page. That is the reason why users find files named PageFile.sys stored on their drive. Least Recently Used (LRU) is one of the strategies used to select a page to be swap out.
Addresses are translated in physical memory and it acts like whole memory space is available. A process is incapable to access memories of other processes. Usually, the Swap Area equals to the memory addressed by a process. However, the latter may vary, it can be smaller too. A PC with 2 GB of Page File can have a process that actually uses 2 GB of space but addresses larger space, say 4 GB. In most cases, the Swap Area size is 1.5 times the size of physical memory, i.e. RAM.
Whenever the assigned paging file size of your computer is too low Windows shows the following message:
“Your system is low on virtual memory. Windows is increasing the size of your virtual memory paging file.
The above message indicates Windows is forced to increase the it due to current insufficient size. Thus pages are swapped out from RAM to the Page File. Fresh swapped out pages use newly increased space.
Secondly, this situation arises when a number of background processes cause insufficient memory for each process. The process doesn’t feet into the memory.
As a result of both the cases described above, your computer runs slow and low virtual memory notification appears.
How do I change it?
You can change it if the current size specified in Windows settings is insufficient, or if you do not wish to use it at all for a particular partition.
1. Right click Computer desktop icon.
2. Select Properties.
3. Click “Advanced system settings” link.
4. System Properties dialog will open.
5. Click Settings button under Performance frame.
6. Performance Options dialog will open.
7. Click the Advanced tab.
8. Click Change button.
9. Uncheck the checkbox labelled “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives”.
10. Select the partition to change its paging file size.
11. Select Custom Size option.
12. Specify a value in the text boxes.
13. Click Set.
14. Click OK thrice.
15. Restart the system in order to finalize the changes.
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