What is VirtualMemory?
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What do you do when you run out of real random access memory (RAM)? Easy, pass it off to VirtualMemory. To do this you need a VirtualMemory manager (usually a function of the operating system) that maps pieces of data and code to storage areas that aren't RAM. VirtualMemory is really a part of your hard disk called a swap file, dedicated as a storage area for bits of data in RAM that aren't being used much. By freeing up RAM, you're virtually increasing the amount of working memory available to you. Windows memory management system can use both Physical and VirtualMemory. As soon as you run out of RAM windows starts to swap the data from physical memory to disk to make room. Thus you could run much more applications than your physical memory. But this system is not fool proof and some times some of program resources are on disk and others in memory or scattered all over. This results in memory leaks, program crashes, blue screens and disk activity after each and every task. |
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