virtual memory full

jockettuk

hi my mother in law has been getting the message VIRTUAL MEMORY FULL on her pc, we know a lot of the family have been using her pc as theres either broken or they been to skint to pay for broadband, so we presuming they all downloading rubbish that is playing in the background when switching the pc on

1 what is the virtual memory

2 how do we get to be less full

3 how do i shoot the family ok this one not exactly a techie question but would make me feel good

thanks for all your help and info

rose

wakandem

virtual memory is space on the hard drive that is used by windows as ram memory. I would be very surprised if this problem was caused by normal usage, & would suspect the pc is infected with spyware & or virus.

jockettuk

yes we suspected all this as they dont clear out the pc of all the rubbish going onto it..

thanks

evilgoose

Yes Virtual memory is basically a file maintained on your computers HDD to act as if you had more physical RAM than you actually have.

Amoungst other things - It can be filled by buggy programs which do not release the space they used correctly when they finish or as others have said viruses can also do this.

(I think your family are safe, as its really not their fault - its a system controlled thing - unless they've installed some rubbish software!, then shoot away!)

You can make it less full (lol) by restarting windows.
You can increase the size allowance which windows uses, it depends on the version of windows you've got, but its more or less here:--->
(I using windows XP).
right click My Computer and select properties.
then select advanced
then select Settings in the performance section
then advanced (again)
then your see something called 'Virtual Memory' click change and increase the maximum setting - increase it by a 1/4 or so and see if it helps, it'll need to restart after your changed it. dont be tmepted to put it to high and it does depend on how much free space you've got.
hope it helps