If Windows Vista detects possible problems with your computer’s memory it should provide a notification asking you to start the Memory Diagnostics Tool automatically. You can also initiate it yourself from the Administrative Tools area of the Control Panel. As this is a very low-level tool and Windows itself has its hands on areas of memory that prohibit it from being tested, the Memory Diagnostics Tool requires the system be restarted to perform the test. You are given two choices: either restart and run it right away, or run the tool the next time you restart your computer.

While the Memory Diagnostics Tool runs, you will see a progress bar indicating the status of the test. Once complete, Windows will again restart automatically. If the Memory Diagnostics Tool does not find any errors, you'll simply get a message that no errors were found. If it does detect errors you are advised to “contact your computer or memory manufacturer for more information.” Oh well. I don’t expect the tool to repair memory problems so I guess this is a friendly way of saying you’ll be replacing your memory now.

While it is recommend that you let the Memory Diagnostics Tool run automatically, you can actually adjust the tools settings yourself if you are so inclined:

If you hit F1 when the Memory Diagnostics Tool starts, you’ll see the following settings exposed:

Test mix = Choose what type of test you wish to run
Cache = Choose the cache setting you wish for each test
Pass count = Here you may specifiy the number of times you want to repeat the tests

When you’ve made your desired settings adjustments, press F10 to start the test.