When your PC starts throwing out-of-memory errors or grinding to a halt under a normal workload, the instinct is to assume you simply don't have enough RAM. That's rarely the whole story. A proper Windows memory shortage fix usually comes down to three or four specific configuration problems, and most of them take under 15 minutes to sort. This guide walks through every layer, from the quick wins to the deeper diagnostic work, so you can stop the slowdowns without guessing.

TL;DR

The fastest Windows memory shortage fix is to close heavy apps, restart, then check your page file settings in Advanced System Settings. If that doesn't solve it, disable high-impact startup apps, run Windows Memory Diagnostic to rule out faulty RAM, and watch Task Manager for any process whose memory use climbs steadily over time.

⏱️ 13 min read ✅ 80% success rate 📅 Updated August 2026

Key Takeaways

A disabled or undersized page file is the single most common cause of out-of-memory errors on Windows, and it's a five-minute fix.
High-impact startup apps quietly consume RAM before you even open your first browser tab.
Faulty RAM hardware produces symptoms identical to software memory problems. Windows Memory Diagnostic separates the two.
A process whose memory figure climbs continuously in Task Manager is leaking RAM, not just using it.
The Windows memory shortage fix sequence is: free memory fast, correct virtual memory settings, rule out hardware faults, then hunt for leaks.

At a Glance

Difficulty: Easy to Medium
Time Required: 15 to 30 mins
Success Rate: 80% of users fixed with steps 1 to 3

What Actually Causes a Windows Memory Shortage?

Here's the thing: most people who land on a Windows memory shortage fix guide assume the answer is buying more RAM. And sometimes that's true. But before you spend money, it's worth understanding what Windows is actually doing with the memory it already has, because the majority of cases we see come down to configuration, not capacity.

The page file is where Windows spills RAM contents when physical memory fills up. Think of it as overflow storage on your SSD or hard drive. If that page file is disabled, set too small, or sitting on a slow drive with barely any free space, Windows hits a wall the moment your workload exceeds physical RAM. The error you see, whether it's a pop-up saying your system is low on virtual memory or an app simply crashing, is Windows telling you the overflow bucket is gone. Microsoft's own pagefile sizing documentation explains how the correct size depends on your RAM, workload, and crash dump settings, and it's surprisingly easy to get wrong.

Startup apps are the second big culprit. Every piece of software that loads at boot takes a slice of RAM before you've done anything. A handful of high-impact entries, cloud sync clients, manufacturer utilities, old printer drivers, chat apps, all running simultaneously, can consume 1.5 GB to 2 GB before you've opened a single browser tab. On a machine with 8 GB of RAM, that's a meaningful chunk gone before the day starts.

Then there's faulty RAM hardware. A stick with a bad cell produces symptoms that look almost identical to a software memory problem: random crashes, apps failing to open, the occasional blue screen. The only reliable way to separate hardware failure from configuration problems is to actually run a memory test. We cover that in the advanced section below.

Finally, memory leaks. An app or driver that steadily consumes RAM without releasing it will eventually eat everything available, no matter how much you have. This one's sneaky because the machine might be fine for the first hour and then fall apart after a long session. If you've fixed the page file and cleaned up startup apps and still see problems, a leak is almost certainly involved. For context on how drivers interact with memory management, HowToGeek's page file guide covers the underlying mechanics well.

Windows Memory Shortage Fix: Quick Method

Start here. This takes about five minutes and fixes the problem outright in a good proportion of cases, especially if the machine has been running for days without a reboot or if someone recently installed a new app that loads at startup.

Free Memory Fast Easy

Save and close large apps
Before anything else, save open work. Close video editors, virtual machines, large spreadsheets, and any browser with dozens of tabs. These are the biggest RAM consumers and closing them frees memory immediately.
Open Task Manager and sort by Memory
Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager. Click the Memory column header to sort processes from highest to lowest. Note the top five offenders. Anything above 500 MB that you don't recognise is worth investigating.
Restart the machine
A clean reboot clears transient memory pressure, flushes RAM that apps haven't properly released, and resets the page file. This one step alone often resolves slowdowns that have built up over a long session.
Disable high-impact startup apps
In Task Manager, click the Startup apps tab. Sort by Startup impact. Right-click and disable anything marked High that you don't actively need at boot. Cloud backup clients, manufacturer update tools, and old printer utilities are common culprits. Reboot again after making changes.
Recheck the symptom
After the second reboot, open Task Manager and check the Memory figure on the Performance tab. If committed memory is comfortably below your total RAM plus page file size, you're sorted.

Success: Memory usage drops noticeably after reboot and the out-of-memory errors stop appearing.

If you're also seeing slow boot times alongside memory problems, the startup app cleanup above overlaps with general performance issues. Our Windows slow boot fix guide covers additional startup optimisation steps that complement what you've done here.

Advanced Windows Memory Shortage Fix: Hardware and Leak Diagnosis

You've restarted, cleaned up startup apps, and fixed the page file. If the machine is still running out of memory or crashing, the problem is either in the hardware itself or in a specific app or driver that's leaking RAM. Both are diagnosable without specialist tools. You just need to know where to look.

Faulty RAM is more common than people expect. A single bad memory cell on one stick can cause intermittent crashes, random app failures, and allocation errors that look exactly like a software problem. The symptoms often get worse as the machine warms up, which is why the machine might be fine in the morning and unreliable by afternoon. Windows has a built-in diagnostic tool that catches most hardware-level faults, and it's been part of Windows since Vista. It's not as thorough as MemTest86 running overnight, but it catches the majority of real-world failures.

Memory leaks are a different animal. An app or driver that leaks RAM doesn't crash immediately. It slowly consumes available memory over hours. The tell-tale sign is a process in Task Manager whose memory figure climbs continuously, never dropping back down even when the app is idle. Common offenders include browsers with certain extensions, some versions of antivirus filter drivers, and apps that haven't been updated in a while. Third-party security software is a particular area to watch: outdated filter drivers can interact badly with Windows memory management in ways that are hard to predict.

For a deeper look at how driver-level issues affect system stability, Microsoft's official PC performance guide covers driver hygiene alongside memory management. If you're also seeing blue screens alongside the memory errors, our Windows blue screen fix guide covers the overlap between memory faults and BSOD causes in more detail.

Diagnose RAM Hardware Faults Medium

Launch Windows Memory Diagnostic
Press Win+R, type mdsched, and press Enter. Choose Restart now and check for problems. Save any open work first because the machine reboots immediately.
Wait for the test to complete
The diagnostic runs automatically before Windows loads. The default Standard test takes around 10 to 20 minutes depending on how much RAM you have. You'll see a progress bar and pass count. Don't interrupt it.
Check the results after sign-in
After Windows loads, check the notification area in the bottom-right corner. A results notification usually appears within a minute. If it doesn't, press Win+R, type eventvwr, and navigate to Windows Logs, System. Filter for the source MemoryDiagnostics-Results. Any entry mentioning hardware errors means the RAM is faulty and needs replacing.

Success: The test completes with no errors, confirming the RAM hardware is not the cause of your memory problems.

Find and Fix a Memory Leak Advanced

Monitor processes over time in Task Manager
Open Task Manager and leave it running in the background for 30 to 60 minutes while you work normally. Periodically check the Memory column. A process whose figure climbs steadily from, say, 200 MB to 800 MB without you doing anything new in that app is leaking.
Identify the offending app or driver
Note the process name. Search it online if it's unfamiliar. Common leakers include browser processes (especially with heavy extensions), cloud sync clients, and security software. If the leaking process is a system process like svchost.exe, you'll need to expand it in Task Manager (click the arrow) to see which service underneath is responsible.
Update or remove the offending software
Check for updates to the app first. Many memory leaks are fixed in newer versions. If no update is available, consider whether you actually need the software. For third-party security or filter drivers, update them through the vendor's website rather than Windows Update, as the Windows Update version is sometimes behind.
Test with the software temporarily disabled
If you suspect a specific driver but aren't certain, disable it temporarily in a controlled way and monitor memory over the same period. If the leak stops, you've found the cause. Re-enable it only after updating to the latest version.

Success: Memory usage stabilises over a long session and no longer climbs to 100 percent after a few hours of use.

If you've worked through all four solutions and still can't pin down the leak, it may be a Windows component rather than a third-party app. Our Windows performance fix guide covers Resource Monitor and Performance Monitor as deeper diagnostic tools for exactly this scenario.

Preventing a Windows Memory Shortage

Prevention here is mostly about not letting small configuration problems compound. The single most important habit is leaving the page file on automatic management. It's tempting to tweak it, especially if you've read advice about disabling it on SSDs to reduce wear. That advice is outdated and wrong. Modern SSDs handle page file writes without meaningful degradation, and the performance cost of a properly sized page file is negligible compared to the cost of hitting an out-of-memory wall mid-session.

Keep free disk space above 15 percent on the drive holding pagefile.sys. Windows needs room to expand the page file dynamically when demand spikes. A drive that's 95 percent full can't expand it, which produces exactly the same symptoms as a disabled page file.

Review your startup apps every few months. Software installs have a habit of adding themselves to startup without asking, and the impact accumulates. Anything you haven't actively chosen to run at boot probably shouldn't be there.

Run Windows Memory Diagnostic once a year as routine maintenance, or immediately if you see random crashes, blue screens, or apps failing to open for no obvious reason. Catching a failing RAM stick early is much less painful than diagnosing it after it's caused data corruption.

Watch for the slow climb pattern in Task Manager. If a machine that used to be fine starts getting sluggish after a few hours of use but is fine after a reboot, that's a leak signature. Catching it early, before it causes crashes, means you can fix it on your schedule rather than urgently.

Windows Memory Shortage Fix: Summary

The Windows memory shortage fix process follows a clear order of priority. Start with the free and fast options: close heavy apps, restart, and clean up startup entries. If that doesn't hold, fix the page file settings in Advanced System Settings and make sure Windows is managing it automatically with enough headroom. If problems persist, run Windows Memory Diagnostic to rule out a hardware fault. And if the machine is fine at boot but degrades over hours, you're looking at a memory leak in a specific app or driver, which Task Manager can identify with a bit of patience. Most cases are sorted at step one or two. The hardware and leak diagnosis steps are there for the stubborn ones.

Windows memory shortage fix