If you didn’t know, there are 2 editions of Windows starting from XP which is the 32-bit and 64-bit. Sometimes a Windows 32-bit is referred as x86 and 64-bit as x64. I won’t go into details on what are the differences between x86 and x64 but one of the major differences is a 64-bit Windows can support more 4GB of ram. If your computer has 4GB of ram and you’re using a 32-bit of Windows, you’ll notice that only about 3.5GB is being recognized and the remaining 500MB of memory is gone. Weirdly Windows 2003 and 2008 can already address more than 4 GB of memory so why can’t we do that with Vista? The answer is: Microsoft doesn’t want that and it is all just a licensing matter.
Windows 32 bit ram memory limit remover
We can of course go for 64-bit of Windows but honestly, there are still quite a lot of software which cannot run on x64, such as the recent Mamutu and Online Armor. Free licenses are given out to EVERYONE but unfortunately you can’t even get to try it because of your Windows 64-bit. Not only that, Windows 64-bit doesn’t accept unsigned drivers unless you disable driver signature enforcement manually every time you boot. How frustrating… Well here is a good news for Windows 7 and Vista users because I found patches to make your 32-bit Windows support more than 4GB of memory.

Before you download the memory limit patchers, please be informed that some antivirus detects it as a hacktool or backdoor. I’ve analyzed the files using ThreatExpert and they are absolutely safe.

Thanks to Remko, he has provided us with a dUP2 file for the patch according to Geoff Chappell’s article about Vista’s Memory Limit. You’ll need to compile the dUP2 file with diablo2oo2′s Universal Patcher to get the executable file. If you don’t know how to do it, I’ve compiled the dUP2 file provided by Remko and you can download from this link. Remko confirms that the patch works on both Windows Vista x86 Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2. You can either drop this file in Windows\System32\ folder and run it to patch the ntoskrnl.exe file or run it from anywhere and browse for the file.
Remove Windows Vista 3GB RAM limit

As for Windows 7, you will need a different patcher and this time it’s from a Russian group called Staforce. Their group also came up with crack/activator for Windows 7. This patch works on Windows 7 (x86) Build 7600 RTM. The official link to download the 4GB memory limit patch is at this link but you’ll need to register for an account to see the download link. If you don’t want to register, I’ve uploaded the patcher here for your convenience. Other than patching Windows 7′s kernel to support more than 4GB memory, the installer also comes with a watermark remover. You can press the N key from your keyboard to disable the watermark remover.
Windows 7 4GB memory limit patch

To be honest, I did not get to test either of the patch above because both my desktop and laptop has only 2GB of memory. As for Windows XP to support more than 4GB of ram, I wasn’t able to find any patch for it. If you know any please leave a comment.

[tags]memory, ram, 4GB, windows, patch[/tags]