windows - How do I create a (32-bit) .NET application to use 3 GB RAM?

Question

I am creating a .NET application (C#) that needs to use a lot of RAM. I recently knew that on 32-bit versions of Windows XP I can only use 2 GB, unless I use the /3Gb switch, and set the IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE flag in the executable header. But since I'm developing a .NET application, I guess I cannot modify the executable directly, can I? So, what should I do to allow my application to utilize the 3 GB?

Answer 1

An .NET exe is still a standard PE file; so you could try using editbin /LARGEADDRESSAWARE to set the flag, but note that this won't work if you are using something like ClickOnce (since that maintains a cryptographic hash of the files).

However, note that you'll still have the same .NET limits in terms of the maximum size of a single object/array. For huge amounts of memory, x64 is a better idea.