Retail Pro® Tips

What is Virtual memory?

Virtual memory is an extension of your computer’s physical memory (memory chips or RAMs). In order to be able to run multiple programs at once, the computer looks for areas of RAM that have not been used recently and copies them onto the hard disk into so-called page files. This frees up space in the RAM to load the new application.
The hard drive (virtual memory) is much slower than actual memory chips. When you don’t have enough RAM, the operating system has to constantly swap information back and forth between RAM and the hard disk. This is called thrashing, and it can make your computer feel incredibly slow.

The size of the Windows page file is manually set by J.D. Associates when your POS software is installed. After adding memory to the system, this amount is not automatically adjusted and must be manually increased.  Proper page file settings are just as important as the amount of installed memory for system performance and stability.

If you have added memory to your systems or your system seems very slow, J.D. Associates can help. Just call our Client Services Support number for help.