How to resize virtual memory in Windows 10

Virtual memory is essential in the Windows 10 operating system. Specifically, virtual memory is an ability to manage memory in Windows 10 so that your computer can compensate for physical memory shortages by temporarily transferring data from access memory. random (RAM) to hard drive storage. Virtual address space is increased by using active memory in RAM and inactive memory on hard drives (HDD or SDD) to form contiguous addresses that contain both the application and your data.

Related: How to check problems with the RAM memory of your Windows 10 computer.

By default, the Windows 10 operating system self-manages virtual memory. It will establish a value based on what it considers best and the amount of total RAM that your computer has (hardware). However, you can change the virtual memory size in Windows 10 and specify manually and specifically what the maximum virtual memory size is.

The virtual memory of Windows 10 can be decreased or increased manually; however, you should know that increasing it requires that you have free space on your hard drive. Having said this, below we want to show you step by step how to change the size of the virtual memory of your Windows 10 computer:

How to resize virtual memory in Windows 10 (increase or decrease)

– In the Windows search you must search for the Control Panel and select the tool once shown among the results.

– Within the Control Panel you will have to go to System and Security> System.

– On the next screen you will have to click on the option Advanced System Configuration located on the left side of the interface.

– In the new window you will have to go to the section: Advanced Options.

– Line followed by click on the button Setting option: performance.

– When the Performance Options window is open you will have to select the section again: Advanced Options.

– Click the button Change inside the message Virtual memory.

– This will cause a new window to open in which you will have to uncheck the box: Automatically manage paging file size for all drives.

– By checking this box, you will have to select hard drive on which the operating system is installed.

– Then check the option Custom size, in which you can specifically configure the Initial size and the maximum size of Windows virtual memory in MB.

Note: there is a minimum limit of 16 MB but you should know that this is very, very small. You will also find a recommended size which can also be quite small and then there is the actual size of the virtual drive.

– Change the size of virtual memory according to the specified limits. When you’re done, click To accept and proceeds to close the three windows. You will see a message that it is necessary to restart the Windows 10 operating system if you want all the changes to take effect.

– Accept the request and restart your computer to change the size of the virtual memory.

– Increasing the size of virtual memory will make your system work smoothly but within reason. If you have problems running applications that tend to consume a lot of RAM, increasing the virtual memory should be useful should it solve the problems with that program.

– Decreasing its size can have a negative impact on Windows performance. In fact, setting it to the recommended size might not be a good idea. The recommended size is considerably smaller than what Windows 10 sets by default or self-regulating, but that’s not always a good idea to set virtual memory to the recommended size.

– If you have space to spare, adding more extra size to virtual memory is not a bad idea. Also taking into account that it is very easy to change the size of virtual memory again if Windows 10 does not offer better performance.