I keep getting a message about virtual memory beng low and Windows increasing it.

My initial size for Drive c is 372 and max is set at 744.Paging size for all drives is recomended 370 and allocated 496.

What should I set please.I'm running Windows XP

thanks

I would suggest System Manage Size.

Lots of details here:

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

How big is the said hard drive first of all. And how much ram do you have? I set it at about 1 gig, because I have the space, but it is rarely all used up.

This message frequently appears when the hard disk is running out of free space and the CPU needs more working memory. I recommend you uninstall any programs you are not using, then use disk cleanup utility to rid your system of unnecessary files. I use CrapCleaner, a great disk cleaning program that is excellent at cleaning the system of 1000s of temporary files, including all history and cache files. During installation, uncheck the option to install the Yahoo toolbar. Before first use, go to Options > Settings > Advanced and ensure Only delete files in Windows Temp folders older than 48 hours is unchecked. To delete all "tracking" cookies, (which I urge you do), you must delete all cookies, so ensure the Cookies setting remains checked. Ensure you know your site credentials (user name and password) for sites you frequent; you will have to login again at next visit. Note that CrapCleaner's "Issues" checker is a great Registry cleaner as well. Ensure you follow the prompts to backup the Registry before making changes to the Registry. It is often necessary to scan for issues 2 or 3 times until it reports, "No issues were found". [TIP: Run CC before malware scans and defragging - no need to scan 1000s of temporary files!]

I have 2 hard discs.The main one is 53gb with 32.4 gb free.the other one is from my old computer and is 24.4 gb with 11.7 gb free.I have a Pentium 4 2.66ghz with 248 MB of Ram

Ok, no wonder you were low then. I'd set the pageing file to about 1500mb, and be done with it, but I agree with Digerati's post; you need to get rid of any stuff junking up your hdds.

248Mb of RAM??? If that is correct, that is a tiny amount. But 8Mb short of a full 256Mb stick is an odd amount - most on board video is 32 or 64Mb so I don't know where that 8Mb is going. Nevertheless, that much is barely enough for XP to run itself, let alone anything else. With that small amount, XP and the CPU must go out to your page file all the time. This is greatly impacting your over all performance. I recommend 512Mb as the bare minimum, with 1Gb of RAM as the sweet spot.