XP Virtual Memory

I suspect that I can rectify the problem (not an elegant approach I know), by increasing the virtual memory. How do I do that?

 

That won't really help spped up your system. I tried it, too. By default, Windows will automatically regulate the amount of pagefile it needs. The problem is reading memory items from the hard drive is much slower than from the physical memory. I added another 256 MB of physical memory to my old computer when I had a lag problem also, and it cleared up a lot of those problems. Contact your computer manufacturer's website to find out what memory they would recommend. There is usually someone with a special deal either online or even retail, whichever you are more comfortable with.

 

This is from Microsoft, and should answer your original question. Below it is the url for full page with more tips.
How to manage computer memory
When your computer is running low on RAM, and you must have more RAM immediately, Windows uses hard disk space to simulate RAM. This is known as virtual memory. It is also known as the paging file. This is similar to the UNIX swapfile. By default, the virtual memory paging file (named pagefile.sys) that is created during installation is 1.5 times the RAM on your computer.

You can optimize virtual memory use by dividing the space between multiple drives and by removing space from slow or heavily accessed drives. To best optimize your virtual memory space, divide it among as many physical hard drives as possible. When you select drives, follow these guidelines:
• Try to avoid having a paging file on the same drive as the system files.
• Avoid putting a paging file on a fault-tolerant drive such as a mirrored volume or a RAID-5 volume. Paging files do not require fault-tolerance, and some fault-tolerant computers experience slow data writes because they write data to multiple locations.
• Do not put multiple paging files on different partitions on the same physical disk drive.
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How to change the size of the virtual memory paging file
You must be logged on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure.
1. Click Start, click Run, and then type sysdm.cpl in the Open box.
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Performance.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Change under Virtual memory.
4. Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change.
5. Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, type a new paging file size in megabytes (MB) in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, and then click Set.
If you decrease the size of either the initial or maximum paging file settings, you must restart your computer to see the effects of those changes. When you increase the paging file size, you typically do not have to restart your computer.

Notes
• To have Windows select the best paging file size, click System managed size. The recommended minimum size is equivalent to 1.5 times the RAM on your computer, and 3 times that figure for the maximum size. For example, if you have 256 MB of RAM, the minimum size is 384 MB, and the maximum size is 1152 MB.
• For best performance, do not set the initial size to less than the minimum recommended size under Total paging file size for all drives. The recommended size is equivalent to 1.5 times the RAM on your computer. It is good practice to leave the paging file at its recommended size. However, you may increase its size if you frequently use programs that use much memory.
• To delete a paging file, set both the initial size and the maximum size to zero, or click No paging file. We strongly recommend that you do not disable or delete the paging file.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308417

 

Thank you Just Reply

I suspected as much. I just need some documentation to present to my superviser. This is a problem I have in administering educational environment networks. I have so much to contend with!