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Enable more than 4 GB of RAM in 32 bit Windows Vista

Nov 28, 2013

Windows Vista is the first Microsoft operating system that needs a specifically tailored computer to work. As a matter of fact, it is so memory hungry that it requires a powerful computer to run. This thing didn’t happen with XP which was as fast as a rocket even with as low as 512 MB of RAM and low-performing hardware. When Vista was released, Microsoft itself was very aware of its RAM needs and in fact advised “at least” 1GB of RAM to run the O.S. on a computer.

In the meanwhile a lot of people started buying 3,4,5 GB of RAM but what they didn’t know was that their 32-bit Windows Vista could only handle 3 GB at most!

Luckily for those guys, there is a little trick that enables their Vista “to overcome” that limit. Here is the trick:

1. Click Start.

2. Type CMD in the Search Bar.

3. Press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to run cmd in administrative mode.

4. Type BCDEdit /set PAE forceenable

5. If this doesn't work, try at least two other times. As a matter of fact, Windows Vista does not take this command right away in some cases. Make also sure to type the command in the same way it is written on point 4.

6. If Vista got this command successfully you should see the following message: The operation completed successfully.

7. To undo it, type: BCDEdit /deletevalue PAE

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