The “Your Computer is Low on Memory” warning on Windows 10 means the system is running out of RAM and has started leaning heavily on the page file. When this happens regularly, your PC slows to a crawl, apps freeze, and you may see the warning pop up even during simple tasks like browsing or editing a document.
The fixes below cover every practical approach, from closing memory-hungry apps right now, to increasing virtual memory, disabling unnecessary startup programs, and running a disk cleanup to recover storage that Windows is misreporting as consumed memory.
Quick Answer
Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, click the Processes tab, sort by Memory, then right-click the top offender and select End Task. For a longer-term fix, go to Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings > Performance Settings > Advanced > Change, uncheck “Automatically manage paging file size,” select your C: drive, set a custom size (initial: 1.5x your RAM, maximum: 3x your RAM), and click Set.
Close Unnecessary Applications
The fastest way to free memory is to kill applications you are not actively using. Web browsers are often the biggest culprit because each tab runs as a separate process in Chromium-based browsers, and a session with 15+ tabs open can consume several gigabytes of RAM on its own.
Right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager. On the Processes tab, click the Memory column header to sort from highest to lowest usage. Right-click any process you do not need and select End Task to immediately reclaim that memory. Be careful not to close system processes, which are typically listed under Windows processes at the bottom of the list.
Increase Virtual Memory
Virtual memory is a reserved section of your hard drive that Windows uses as overflow when physical RAM fills up. Increasing its size gives Windows more headroom before it starts throwing low memory warnings, though it is slower than actual RAM, so it is not a substitute for having enough RAM installed.
Right-click This PC and select Properties, then click Advanced system settings. Under the Advanced tab, click Settings under Performance. Go to the Advanced tab and click Change under Virtual Memory. Uncheck “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives,” select your C: drive, choose Custom size, enter 1.5x your installed RAM as the initial size and 3x as the maximum (for example, 6144 MB and 12288 MB for 4 GB of RAM), then click Set and OK.
Run Disk Cleanup
Disk Cleanup removes temporary files, old Windows Update remnants, and cached data that accumulates over time. While this frees disk space rather than RAM directly, a near-full system drive can cause Windows to struggle with virtual memory expansion, which in turn makes low-memory warnings more frequent.
Type Disk Cleanup in the Start menu search and open the app. Select your C: drive and click OK. Check all the boxes you want to clean, then click Clean up system files for a deeper clean that includes previous Windows installations.
Disable Startup Apps to Free Background Memory
Many applications install themselves to run automatically at startup, consuming RAM from the moment Windows boots even when you never actually use them during a session. Disabling the ones you do not need at startup does not remove the apps, it just stops them from loading until you launch them yourself, which can recover hundreds of megabytes of RAM.
Open Task Manager, click the Startup tab, and review the list. Right-click any app you do not need running at boot and select Disable. Good candidates to disable include update helpers for software you rarely use, cloud sync clients like OneDrive or Dropbox if you do not need them running constantly, messaging apps, and third-party antivirus scan schedulers if you have Windows Defender enabled. Restart your PC after making changes to see the freed memory take effect.
Update Your Drivers
Outdated drivers, especially GPU and chipset drivers, can cause memory leaks where a driver allocates RAM but never releases it. This kind of leak builds up slowly over hours or days of use and can trigger low-memory warnings even on systems with plenty of RAM installed. Keeping drivers up to date is good maintenance that prevents this class of problem.
Visit your hardware manufacturer website directly, or run Windows Update and check for driver updates under optional updates. For graphics cards, download the latest driver from the NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel website rather than relying on Windows Update, which often lags behind by several driver versions.
Monitor Memory Usage
Knowing which process is eating your RAM makes it much easier to address low-memory problems at the source rather than applying general fixes. Task Manager gives you a live view of exactly how much memory every running process is consuming, which lets you catch memory leaks and identify apps worth replacing with lighter alternatives.
Open Task Manager with Ctrl + Shift + Esc and click the Performance tab, then select Memory from the left panel. This view shows total RAM, how much is in use, how much is available, and the current committed memory (the amount Windows has promised to processes including virtual memory). If committed memory consistently exceeds installed RAM, increasing virtual memory or adding more RAM are the practical solutions.