Virtual memory

Virtual memory in the Windows OS can be defined as the amount of physical RAM plus space allocated on hard drives to which memory in physical RAM can be temporarily moved to, sometimes known as swapfile, in order to avoid running out of memory. This can be very useful if you are for instance running a model that encompasses the the whole world.

The virtual memory on Windows OS can be expanded in Windows 10 or 11 as follows:

• go to the Windows taskbar search area, type SystemPropertiesAdvanced.exe and click the executable.

• In the left System properties window click the settings button in the performance tab. This navigates the user to the right Performance Options window. Click in this window the Virtual memory Change button.

• This opens the Virtual Memory window. Here click on custom size and change this setting appropriately. The example below for instance adds 700GB to the total virtual memory using the D:\ drive.