virtual memory & disk space

What exactly is virtual memory and disk space ? Sometimes Outlook Express says that it cannot display my e mail because I am low on virtual memory and disk space. I have 512 ram and about 40 GB harddrive space still available but somehow I think this is something else isn't it ? How do I increase this virtual memory and disk space if I don't even know what it is ?

Virtual memory is hard drive space allocated as additional system memory for the operating system. So, if you don't have a lot of free space on your drive you don't have lots of virtual memory open. If you have too many applications open you could be using up too much RAM and virtual memory. If you have some sort of memory management problem with the OS you may need to reload windows.



Virtual memory is controlled and should be controlled by the OS itself, I don't recommend that you manually configure it.

How would I check to see what applications are open that I could close to free up RAM and virtual memory. Would installing more RAM be of help ? I thought 512 RAM that I have was plenty, isn't it ? Is McAfee virus protection or AdAware that I also have installed the culprit here, maybe taking up too much memory ?

Yeah if you have lots of stuff running eatting up all your RAM, every other application will eat up virtual memory space. Upgrading RAM is easy and very cheap these days, so I don't see any down sides too it. If you have 512 now, add one more 512 to get 1024 and that should set you straight.



What do you use your computer for?

Basically just for browsing the internet.