How to Increase the Memory Limit for 32-bit Applications in Windows 64-bit OS

1. Go to Control Panel, and click view by “small icons” in the top right hand corner
2. Click System
3. As per the image below, next to System Type, it should say 64-bit operating system. If it doesn’t then this utility is of no use to you.

The second thing to remember is that this utility can only be used on 32-bit applications. If you are unsure if an application you are running is 32-bit, run task manager by pressing CTRL-SHIFT-ESCAPE. Click the tab for processes. A list of currently running programs will load. Find your application in the list, and look to see if it has *32 next to it. The example image below illustrates what I mean.

Using the patch

Assuming that you’ve followed the previous two points and now wish to patch your 32-bit application, first backup the executable file of the program you wish to patch. If the patching process fails, or if you need to download an update for the program you are patching, you may need to revert to the original file. Remember, you only need to backup the executable file for the program (i.e. the file with a .exe extension), not the entire program folder itself. Once you’ve done this, download the patching utility from here. Run it, and it will ask you to select your program. Simply select the executable file you wish to patch and the utility will work its magic. Upon completion, it will ask you

 if you wish to patch another file. If you do, go ahead, if not, quit!

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this is the maximum amount of memory available for the process assuming you have that much RAM and Pagefile space.

	32-bit OS	64-bit OS
32-bit process	2 GB	4 GB
32-bit process with /3GB	3 GB	N/A
64-bit process	N/A	16 TB

These process numbers are contingent on how much RAM and disk space you have, so if you have 4 GB of RAM and 4 GB Pagefile, the total memory of all running processes can’t be greater then 8 GB.

Note: If you let Windows manage your Pagefile size, when you hit this limit, Windows will try to grow your Pagefile as long as there is disk space available.

For the amount a .NET application will use before we can expect to see out of memory, those numbers are:

	32-bit OS	64-bit OS
32-bit process	800-1200 MB	2800 MB
32-bit process with /3GB	1800 MB	N/A
64-bit process	N/A	2800 MB if using a 4 GB process or more if more RAM (around 70% of RAM + Pagefile)

Keep in mind that although a .NET process can grow this large, if the process is multiple GB in size, it can become very difficult for the Garage Collector to keep up with the memory as Generation 2 will become very large.