XP automatically increases the page file ??? when virtual memory gets low.
Is there a way to do it manually?

 

goto control panel, then system. goto advanced tab, click on settings, and then the advanced tab. virtual memory setting is at the botton.

 

Thanks suba

If I alter this will it have any drastic side effects?

 

The best way is to set the page file to 2 and a half times your system RAM, and relocate it on another partition, if you have one.

There will be no side effects, and you should notice an improvement in memory intensive applications.

 

Total paging file size for all drives is 768MB, maximum size is 1536MB.
I have got 512MB of RAM, do I decrease the 1536 or increase the 768?

 

Here's a great article:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/paging_file.htm

I hope it helps you out.