Virtual memory is a file on your hard disk that the computer uses as if it were RAM. Your computer is doing this because it is running out of space in that file. If you're running XP you can incr...

But is increasing the virtual memory size a good idea? or is it going to make my comp go slow?

Your computer definitely slows down when it has to access virtual memory, but Windows is such a memory hog that it really needs a lot of virtual memory. How much physical memory do you have and wh...

yeah, how much RAM do you have? To find out: While holding the WINDOWS key, press the PAUSE/BREAK key. It'll tell you right on that screen.

256 MB? Does that sound like the right kind of number?

That's an ok amount of memory. What's your virtual memory set to? (To find out go through the same steps I mentioned in my first post only don't change the settings on the final page.)

Initial Size-384 Max Size- 768

Really? That should be enough for most purposes. My computers rarely even get up to 400MB of total memory used. Are you running a lot of memory-intensive applications at once?

Usually I'm just on IE and AIM and Media Player.

I have no idea why you'd be running out of virtual memory then. Those applications shouldn't come anywhere near to using up the 1024MB of total memory that you have on your computer.

might be some background application. is Kazaa or anything running? If you bring up the Task Manager (hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE), look under Processes, and sort by Mem Usage. What's the largest one, and ...