This morning when I was online and MSN open and tried to do a search in another window, this message popped up - "low Virtual Memory" and the search could not complete. First time I have ever seen the Virtual Memory message. Are there too many programs on my computer?

I did install a game this weekend - "SuperGranny 3" - would that account for the message?

Thank you.

Virtual memory is a portion of your hard drive used to supplement RAM. How much space is free on your C drive? How much RAM do you have? What version of windows? Do you have any other partitions?

"Low Virtual Memory" means that you are using too much active memory to allow the Op. Sys. To do it's search.

Here's a suggestion, just prior to your running a search, do a "CTL - Alt- Del to start the task manager.

Once you have task manager, on the screen, Scan down the active application until you find one that you are absolutely not using . Click on it and then select "End" from the bottom box.

Remember, this has to be an application that you know you are not using, don't just jump in and kill apps because you don't recognize it.

I use Windows XP. That was the easy question to answer. I don't believe I have any other partitions, but honestly, I am not sure. When I opened the disk defragmenter to check what the free space available is - it states
7.96GB - 41% free space. The capacity is 19.10 GB. Am I looking in the right place?

I did try the Task Manager and there are programs running I do not know what they are but hesitate to stop them.

Edited note: I do run Computer Associates all the time - does that make a difference?

Did you check how much free disk space you have?

Maybe a disk cleanup would help. ALso check the fragmentation levels and run

Defragment in safe mode. Adding more RAM could also help.

Hey check this link out, if it may help -- Virtual Memory in Windows XP

I did do some uninstalling of programs I use maybe once a year - like Microsoft Maps and Money and Picture-It. I can always re-install from the disc.

Then I did the disc cleanup and then the defrag. Now am up to 8.69
(45%)GB free space. Adding more RAM is an option I did not think about - thanks for the idea.

Edited note: In the Task Manager - how can I tell which is an essential process? When looking at the processes running, some say "owner" or "system" or "local service" or "network service" - so I just leave them alone.

A Defrag might help. You can tell how many partitions you have by how many drive letters. Some drive letters might be Cd or DVD drives.

From the info you posted it appears your C partition is 20G. Is your PC supposed to have a 20G hard drive? If so, then you only have the one partition.

You can tell how much RAM you have by right clicking on My Computer and selecting properties.

The original RAM of this computer was 512 MB. I did not think of that since my brother installed additional RAM for me about three years ago. So pardon my lack of knowledge here, but does that make a difference?

The capacity in Drive C is 19.1 GB. I have Drive A, which I never use and D, which I use to play CDs.

Ok, then you have a 20G hard drive. You could also replace that with a larger drive. The question is how much RAM do you have now?

I had to call my brother about that - as my own personal virtual memory does not work well all the time. He put in an additional 128MB of RAM, so that makes 640MB now. Does not seem like much, considering the newer machines. But it has worked well, up to now.

How can I prevent the "low Virtual Memory" message coming up again? Would adding more RAM take care of it?

My sincere, very sincere, thank you's for the advice.

For XP 640 is not a great deal. I would recommend at least 1 G for running XP.

Thank you, Scott. Is buying RAM as simple as going to a place like Office Depot?

I did some calling around and found a place that will do this for me. Electronics store whose owner does computer work as a side line business. Going to put in 2GB - parts at his cost - labor at the going rate, which he said is $60.00 an hour. I did some comparison calling and he gave me references, which I checked out. Since I have zip to zero talent in these things I will gladly pay this.

Huge thank you to Scott, Don, and Biggsie.

You have no partition for the harddisk? Just drive A for floppy, drive C, and drive D for CD?

There're some things you can do, to lighten the load of your memory (some already mentioned above I guess):

1. adding more RAM (the last option, if you don't have the budget to do it)

2. press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open the task manager, and go to the process tab. If you know how to look for unimportant processes, you can shut it down directly here. But don't shut down the processes with the word SYSTEM

3. go to start -> run -> type "msconfig" and click OK. Go to tab "startup". Here's the list of all programs/ processes that will run every time you login to your windows account. Uncheck the programs/ processes that you don't need on windows startup and click OK. Usually the programs that NEEDED are your antivirus, windows cftmon (I don't know what that is, but since it's located in windows folder, I don't mess with it), etc. restart your computer and wait for the windows to load again.

I hope it helps

I did add 1 GB RAM today and will see how that helps - it is bound to make the computer run smoother.