Well for some all memory handling will be easy. When I titled this “the easy way” what I meant was easier for most, i.e. using the windows interface to handle it. With a lot of games you will find you receive a memory error message. This can vary through a few messages and I don’t think it would benefit either of us for me to just sit here and list them. Needless to say the common ones are those that mention “not enough EMS memory” or “not enough Conventional Memory” or simply “Not enough memory available” It doesn’t matter whether you have 4096MB DDR RAM or 64MB SDRAM you will most likely encounter some problems. To start of very quickly and easily there are 3 types of memory that you will need to know:
Conventional Memory – The first 640kb of DOS memory
EMS Memory – a.k.a Expanded memory –several games use it.
XMS Memory – not needed that much but can greatly help when trying to increase conventional memory.
You can find more information about memory from the great experts themselves, Micro$oft. - here
Windows can often help you with these messages and solve them and it is always worth trying to do things within windows first. Of course if that fails then see the corresponding guides for further help.
Anyway to handle a memory error from within windows:
Right Click on the executable file
Select properties
Select the memory tab
Set the necessary options
Hit Apply
Hit Ok.
The following pictures are screenshots of the interface. One is done within Windows XP and one within Windows 98. Don’t worry if yours looks different, as long as you can see the memory tab.
Windows XP Shots
Windows 98 Shots
So what do you do now that you are in the memory tab? Exactly what you need to do. Most of the time setting things to auto will suffice especially with regards to things such as EMS. Other than that, without a specific problem I can’t help you more. Use this window as you wish! If a game asks for a specific amount then try giving it slightly more than that but as I said earlier, setting things to ‘Auto’ will usually suffice.
The chances are you will come across at least one game where the windows dialog will not help you. In which case move on to my further guides for you!
