I skipped the expensive RAM upgrade with this free Windows 11 trick — here's how to do it

1. Open Settings

The very first thing you’ll need to do is to head to your PC’s settings. To do so, open the Start menu. Then click on Settings.

Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Windows + I.

2. Go to System

From the left sidebar, click on System. This is where Windows 11 keeps performance and storage-related options.

3. Open About

Scroll down and click About. This page includes links to more advanced system controls.

4. Select Advanced system settings

On the about page, expand the device specifications section and click Advanced system settings from the list of related links that appears. This opens the classic System Properties window.

5. Open Performance settings

In the System Properties window, make sure you’re on the Advanced tab. Then under Performance, click Settings.

6. Open Virtual memory settings

In the Performance Options window, click the Advanced tab.

7. Adjust virtual memory

You’ll then see the virtual memory portion of the menu. Next, click Change.

8. Turn off automatic management

At the top of the window, uncheck “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives”. You won’t be able to set a custom size until this is turned off.

9. Select a drive

From the list of drives, click the drive where you want to allocate the virtual memory.

Usually, you’ll want to select your fastest drive. With the correct drive selected, click Custom size. This unlocks the two boxes where you’ll enter the amount of virtual memory in the next step.

10. Enter the desired size

Traditionally, the rule of thumb was to set the initial size to around 1.5x your RAM.

If you’re aiming to set around 4GB of virtual memory, you could use figures similar to the following:

In the “Initial size (MB)” box, type 4096.

In the “Maximum size (MB)” box, type 5120.

Click Set, then click OK.

11. Restart your PC

Lastly, restart your computer to finalize the changes and enable your new virtual memory settings.