Memory Handle Allocation

Last reviewed: November 2, 1995
Article ID: Q91194

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with:

    - Microsoft Windows NT versions 3.1, 3.5, and 3.51
    - Microsoft Windows 95 version 4.0

This article discusses the limitations that exist when allocating memory handles.

The minimum block you can reserve with each call to VirtualAlloc() is 64K. It is a good idea to confirm this number by checking the allocation granularity returned by GetSystemInfo().

With HeapAlloc(), there is no limit to the number of handles that can be allocated. GlobalAlloc() and LocalAlloc() (combined) are limited to 65536 total handles for GMEM_MOVEABLE and LMEM_MOVEABLE memory per process. Note that this limitation does not apply to GMEM_FIXED or LMEM_FIXED memory.

Additional reference words: 3.10 3.50 4.00 95
KBCategory: kbprg
KBSubcategory: BseMm

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Last reviewed: November 2, 1995
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