Microsoft KB Archive/315351

= Error message when you start Windows XP after you upgrade from an earlier version of Windows: &quot;Your system is low on virtual memory&quot; =

Article ID: 315351

Article Last Modified on 1/2/2008

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows XP Professional
 * Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

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This article was previously published under Q315351



SYMPTOMS
When you first start Windows XP after you upgrade from an earlier version of Windows, you may receive the following error message:

Your system is low on virtual memory. Windows is increasing the size of your virtual memory paging file. During this process, memory requests for some applications may be denied.

If you click OK, you may receive an error message that resembles the following error message:

The application failed to initialize properly. 0xc0000017

When you try to run Windows, you may also receive other error messages that resemble the following error message:

IEXVCES.EXE

The exception unknown software exception (0xc00000fd) occurred in the application at location 0x01ac5937.

You do not receive these error messages when you start Windows in safe mode.



CAUSE
This issue may occur if the Aventail Connect virtual private network (VPN) program is installed on your computer.

If the Aventail Connect program is not installed on your computer, this issue may occur if the virtual memory is low. For more information, see the &quot;More Information&quot; section.



WORKAROUND
To work around this issue, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Remove Aventail Connect
Restart the computer in safe mode, and then remove Aventail Connect. To start Windows in safe mode, press F8 during startup, and then select the safe mode option from the extended boot menu.

For additional support information, visit the following Aventail Connect Web site:

http://support.aventail.com

To research the availability of an update for the Aventail Connect program, visit the following Aventail Web site:

http://www.aventail.com

Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information.

Method 2: Exclude the Svchost.exe file
Add the Svchost.exe executable file to the Aventail Connect exclusion list. The Svchost.exe file is stored in the %Systemroot%\System32 folder. For example, this file may be in the following location:

C:\Windows\System32

For information about how to do this, please contact Aventail Connect.



MORE INFORMATION
If your computer does not have the random access memory (RAM) that is needed to run a program or an operation, Windows uses virtual memory to compensate.

Virtual memory combines the computer’s RAM with temporary space on your hard disk. When RAM runs low, virtual memory moves data from RAM to a space that is called a &quot;paging file.&quot; Moving data to and from the paging file frees RAM to complete its work.

Typically, the more RAM your computer has, the faster your programs will run. If a lack of RAM is slowing your computer, you might want to increase virtual memory to compensate. However, your computer can read data from RAM much more quickly than from a hard disk. Therefore, adding RAM is a better solution.

Virtual memory and error messages
If you receive error messages about low virtual memory, you must add more RAM or increase the size of your paging file to run the programs on your computer. Windows usually manages the virtual memory size automatically. But you can manually change the size of virtual memory if the default size is insufficient. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

308417 How to set performance options in Windows XP

For more information about Windows XP Home Edition system requirements, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/evaluation/sysreqs.mspx

For more information about Windows XP Professional system requirements, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/sysreqs.mspx



Similar problems and solutions
For more information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

308417 How to set performance options in Windows XP

826513 &quot;Your system is low on virtual memory&quot; error message when you try to start an Office program

811153 Virtual memory error message when you shut down the computer

314482 How to configure paging files for optimization and recovery in Windows XP

For more information about how to prevent low memory problems, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/34955e8d-9e3b-4f68-8e7d-773c167c61e21033.mspx

If these Microsoft Knowledge Base articles do not help you resolve the problem, or if you experience symptoms that differ from those that this article describes, please search the Microsoft Knowledge Base for more information. To search the Microsoft Knowledge Base, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com

Then, type the text of the error message that you receive, or type a description of the problem in the Search Support (KB) field.

The third-party products that this article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, about the performance or reliability of these products.

Keywords: kbresolve kb3rdparty kbenv kberrmsg kbprb ocsso KB315351

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