“Your system is low on virtual memory” error message when you try to start an Office program

When you start any of the Microsoft Office 2007 or Microsoft Office 2003 programs, you may receive an error message that is similar to the following error message: If you click OK, you may receive the following error message:

This behavior may occur if you try to start any of the programs included in Office on a computer where the paging file value setting is too low.

To resolve this behavior, increase the size of the paging file. To do so, follow these steps as appropriate for your operating system.
Note Microsoft Office 2007 requires Windows XP or higher.

Windows 2000

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. In the System Properties dialog box, click Advanced
3. Click Performance Options.
4. In the Virtual memory pane, click Change to increase the paging file.
   
   Windows 2000 requires an Initial value of 126 MB for debugging.
5. After you change the setting, click Set, and then click OK.
6. In the System Control Panel Applet dialog box, click OK to the following message:
   The changes you have made require you to restart your computer before they can take effect.
7. Click OK to close the Performance Options dialog box, and then click OK to close the System Properties dialog box.
8. When you are prompted to restart your computer, click Yes.

Windows XP

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
3. In the Performance pane, click Settings.
4. In the Performance Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
5. In the Virtual memory pane, click Change.
6. Change the Initial size value and the Maximum size value to a higher value, click Set, and then click OK.
7. Click OK to close the Performance Options dialog box, and then click OK to close the System Properties dialog box.

With virtual memory, the computer can use hard disk space as random access memory (RAM). The computer uses virtual memory to augment the ordinary RAM that is installed on the computer. If you reduce the size of the paging file, the Office program may not start correctly or may not start at all. This behavior may occur even if the computer has a large RAM. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: