«Your system is low on virtual memory» error message when you try to start an Office program

Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.

Symptoms

When you start any of the Microsoft Office 2010, 2007, or 2003 programs, you may receive an error message that is similar to the following error message:

If you click OK, you may receive the following error message:

Cause

This behavior may occur if you try to start any of the programs included in Office on a computer where the paging file value setting is too low.

Resolution

To resolve this behavior, increase the size of the paging file. To do so, follow these steps as appropriate for your operating system.

Note Microsoft Office 2010 and Office 2007 require Windows XP or later.

Windows 2000

Right-click My Computer and then click Properties.

In the System Properties dialog box, click Advanced

Click Performance Options.

In the Virtual memory pane, click Change to increase the paging file.

Windows 2000 requires an Initial value of 126 MB for debugging.

After you change the setting, click Set, and then click OK.

In the System Control Panel Applet dialog box, click OK to the following message:

The changes you have made require you to restart your computer before they can take effect.

Click OK to close the Performance Options dialog box, and then click OK to close the System Properties dialog box.

When you are prompted to restart your computer, click Yes.

Windows XP

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
3. In the Performance pane, click Settings.
4. In the Performance Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
5. In the Virtual memory pane, click Change.
6. Change the Initial size value and the Maximum size value to a higher value, click Set, and then click OK.
7. Click OK to close the Performance Options dialog box, and then click OK to close the System Properties dialog box.

More Information

With virtual memory, the computer can use hard disk space as random access memory (RAM). The computer uses virtual memory to augment the ordinary RAM that is installed on the computer. If you reduce the size of the paging file, the Office program may not start correctly or may not start at all. This behavior may occur even if the computer has lots of RAM. For additional information, see Tips to free up drive space on your PC.

Did this fix the problem?

Check whether the problem is fixed. If the problem is fixed, you are finished with this section. If the problem is not fixed, you can contact support.

My PC is always low on virtual memory.Why is this/

Even when my PC is not running any open programs,I always have a warning box appear to tell me that windows is low on virtual memory.

I run XP home edition 2004.

I have recently xferred all my photo + music files to an external hard drive but I still am told the memory is low!

What is causing this + can I do anything to put this right?

Explorer too is running slow and often egg times or starts not responding forcing me to use task manager to close the program.Is this connected to the memory problem?

The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM. (But I doubt you do!) Tell us those figures.

Once we have the above information, we will have an idea what your situation is.

Since it’s always a good idea to rule out malware (since malware uses lots of memory, among other things!), you should do the following:

Then, run the FREE version of MBAM (not the pro or trial version!):

Let us know the results.

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The Support Engineer advice does not make any sense. You can’t just change the value to some higher value unless you know more about your system. Those are just guesses.

Just what would a higher value be. 10? 50? 10000? A meeelion?

If you mean you are seeing an informative message like this:

Virtual Memory Minimum Too Low: Your system is low on virtual memory. Windows is increasing the size of your virtual memory paging file.

That means Windows XP is letting you know it is doing it’s job. The message is not an error message — it is an informational message.

If XP thinks the size of the paging file (usually c:\pagefile.sys) is too small to accommodate your current operations it will adjust the paging file to make the paging file larger and display that message as it does so. It is not necessarily a «problem», but the message is annoying.

Sometimes the message indicates somebody has been tampering with the XP paging file settings to try to solve some other problem that usually has nothing to do with their paging file and adjusted things in an inefficient manner.

It could mean that the settings were adjusted to some values that do not make sense for the system configuration. Unless more is known about the system, you can’t just pick some values out of thin air and expect your system to behave efficiently. You might not see the message again but that does not mean the settings are correct.

It could mean that the settings were never set properly in the first place when XP was first installed and things need to be set up properly.

Sometimes, as your system configuration changes over time and more applications are running and get larger, you may need to add additional RAM to your system to accommodate things (or run fewer applications).

Unless you know more about managing memory that Windows XP, it is usually best to just let XP handle the size of your virtual memory paging file.

To see what your current settings are, right click My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Performance Settings, Advanced tab, Virtual Memory, then click the Change button.

Make a note of the current settings in case you need to change them back later.

The best setting for the Paging file size is usually going to be:

System managed size

Right click My Computer, Properties, Advanced tab, Performance. Settings, Advanced tab, Virtual memory. Change.

Make a note of the current setting so you can change things back later if you have a problem.

If it is not already, set the Paging file size to:

System managed size

Be sure to click Set (to set it), OK (several times) and then restart your computer.

«Because somebody told me to» is not a good reason to start making adjustments to the paging file size. Just adjusting it to make it larger by some arbitrary value may relieve the symptom of the problem and stop the message, but may not result in the best configuration for your system.

If you want your system to run as efficiently as possible, you need to figure out what is going on and fix it properly and not just start trying things or make some arbitrary adjustments.

The size of the paging file may really need adjusting, but you should at least try to know what you are doing and why you need to do it. It is unlikely that anybody can tell you how to adjust your settings properly without more information.

Since the Microsoft Answers forum does not prompt for any kind of system information when a new question is asked, we know absolutely nothing about your system. Not knowing fundamental information about a problem prolongs the frustration and agony of resolving these issues.

Thank you MS Answers, for making the resolution of simple problems as frustrating and time consuming as possible.

Please provide additional information about your system as best you can:

What is your system make and model?

Describe your current antivirus and anti malware situation: McAfee, Symantec, Norton, Spybot, AVG, Avira!, MSE, Panda, Trend Micro, CA, Defender, ZoneAlarm, PC Tools, Comodo, etc.

After making adjustments and rebooting, let’s see what you’ve got:

Click Start, Run and in the box enter:

Click OK, and when the System Summary info appears, click Edit, Select All (Ctrl-A), Copy (Ctrl-C) and then paste (Ctrl-V) the information back here in your next reply.

There will be some personal information (like System Name and User Name), and whatever appears to be private information to you, just delete it from the pasted information.

This will minimize back and forth Q&A and eliminate guesswork.

How to change virtual memory size on Windows 10

Source: Windows Central

On Windows 10, virtual memory (or paging file) is an essential component (hidden file) designed to remove and temporarily store less frequently use modified pages allocated in RAM (random-access memory) to the hard drive. Using this approach allows the system to prioritize faster physical memory for more frequent processes and applications, improving the overall performance and preventing the device from locking up in the event it runs out of system memory.

In addition, the paging file is important to support crash dumps during a system crash (Blue Screen of Death), as without a large enough page file, a dump with all the contents of the system memory won’t be created.

Although the system does a pretty good job managing the paging file size according to various factors automatically, sometimes, you may still need to increase the default virtual memory values manually. For instance, when you see the «Your system is low on virtual memory» message. You’re noticing slow performance over time, or a particular application requires specific parameters to work as intended.

If you’re experiencing issues with virtual memory, the device doesn’t have enough memory, or you’re trying to improve the system performance, Windows 10 allows you to increase the size of the virtual memory in at least two ways using the Settings app and Command Prompt.

In this Windows 10 guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to increase the size of the virtual memory to improve the system responsiveness.

How to increase virtual memory using Settings

To adjust the virtual memory size on Windows 10, use these steps:

Warning: Although anyone can change the paging file size, it’s only recommended to use these instructions if you have a valid reason, and you know what you’re doing.

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on System.
3. Click on About.

Under the «Related settings» section, click the System info option.

Source: Windows Central

Click the «Advanced system settings» option from the left pane.

Source: Windows Central

Under the «Performance» section, click the Settings button.

Source: Windows Central

Under the «Virtual memory» section, click the Change button.

Source: Windows Central

Specify the initial and maximum size for the paging file in megabytes.

Source: Windows Central

Quick tip: The size of the virtual memory is unique to each device, and it can’t be generalized. However, usually, it’s recommended to use a number that’s one and a half times the total available memory for the «Initial size» and three times of available memory for the «Maximum size» when possible.

Click the Set button.

Click the OK button.

Click the OK button again.

Restart your device.

Once you complete the steps, you should notice an increase in performance when navigating Windows 10 as well as when running multiple apps at the same time.

If you need to revert the changes, you can use the same instructions, but on step No. 10, make sure to check the Automatically manage paging size for all drives option, and restart your device.

How to increase virtual memory using Command Prompt

To modify the paging file size with Command Prompt, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to understand the current status of the paging file and press Enter:

wmic pagefile list /format:list

Source: Windows Central

Type the following command to switch form manage to custom virtual memory and press Enter:

wmic computersystem where name=»%computername%» set AutomaticManagedPagefile=false

Source: Windows Central

Type the following command to set the initial and maximum size of the virtual memory and press Enter:

wmic pagefileset where name=»C:\\pagefile.sys» set InitialSize=YOUR-INIT-SIZE,MaximumSize=YOUR-MAX-SIZE

This example sets the paging file to «9216» and «12288» megabytes for the initial and maxium size:

wmic pagefileset where name=»C:\\pagefile.sys» set InitialSize=9216,MaximumSize=12288

Source: Windows Central

Type the following command to restart your computer and press Enter:

shutdown -r -t 00

After you complete the steps, the device will start using the new values for virtual memory, which, if done correctly, should help to improve system performance.

If you no longer need to use the custom size for virtual memory, you can always revert the changes and allow Windows 10 to manage this feature using this command: wmic computersystem where name=»%computername%» set AutomaticManagedPagefile=true and restarting your device.

While it’s recommended to use one and a half times the available memory for the initial and three times the memory for the maximum size, make sure to test the changes and adjust the values if you’re experiencing freezes, crashes, and other problems.

Although it’s possible to disable virtual memory on Windows 10, even when you have a large amount of system memory, it’s not recommended to disable this feature. Usually, if you disable paging file, some applications may stop working, some system features may not work efficiently, and you may end up with some weird behaviors.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

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