- At its most basic, "virtual memory" is just disk space that's being used as RAM.

- In Windows a "paging file" is created and programs are spun to this allocated disk space which is called "virtual memory."

- By default, programs want to use RAM which is Random Access Memory.

- When more programs are open and available RAM goes down, Windows places programs that aren't currently active into virtual memory.

- You can go in and adjust the amount of virtual memory.

- Click on Start and then on Control Panel.

- In Control Panel click on System and Security and then click on System.

- On the left click on Advanced System Settings.

- Click on the Advanced tab and under Performance click on Settings.

- Click on the Advanced tab and you can click Change to alter virtual memory settings.

- In most cases you can just let Windows manage your virtual memory.