My virtual memory settings....

Fibonacci

what's the story here. should I leave it as default on manual with whatever settings came with the computer, or switch it to 'Computer Controlled'...

have switched it to computer controlled, and I think my system is running faster, but I could be imagining these things....

Khannie

Virtual memory is basically disc space that your computer uses as ram when it's run out of actual ram. When you hit virtual memory, and are working from it, the computer will slow to a crawl.

One way to speed up virtual memory access is to have a contiguous block of disc devoted to it that doesn't change in size. "computer controled" may be better than "default" (not sure), but a decent chunk of contiguous space that never changes size is the best setting.

Mutant_Fruit

computer controlled just means windows will dynamically increase and decrease swap file space. This takes time, so you'd experience slow downs as it increases/decreases. A fixed size would stop this from happening. 500-700 megs should be all you need.