How to Increase the Virtual Memory Paging File Size in Windows XP

Windows uses a file on your hard drive, called the paging file, to increase the memory available for applications. This is called virtual memory. By default, XP sets the size of the file to one and a half times the size of the physical memory. You can increase the size of this file in the system applet of the Control Panel in order to optimize the performance of your Operating System.

Instructions

1. Click on the "Start" menu.

2. Click on "Run" at the bottom of the start menu. A text box will appear where you can type commands.

3. Type the "sysdm.cpl" command which will open a System Applet.

4. Choose the "Advanced" Tab.

5. Choose the "Settings" option under "Performance."

6. Click the "Advanced" tab of the "Settings" page.

7. Choose "Change" under "Virtual Memory."

8. Choose the drive that contains the paging file.

9. Choose "Custom size" from the "Paging file size for selected drive" options.

10. Type the new size in the "Initial Size (MB)" or "Maximum Size (MB)" text boxes. The sizes must be given in megabytes.

11. Click "Set" when you are finished making the changes.

12. Click "OK" to Apply the changes and close the applet.

References

• Performance Options in Windows XP
• Optimize the Windows 2000/XP/2003

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish