verify if largeAddressAware is in effect?

Since I didn't want to install a 1.6 GB heavy add-on to visual studio, I figured an alternative way.

You can upload the .exe onto www.virustotal.com, then under details you can see this near the bottom

ImageFileCharacteristicsExecutable, Large address aware

Yes there is, and the necessary tool is included with VS.

Open the "Visual Studio Command Prompt (2010)" console from the start menu, and CD into C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE (adjust for your own system if you have changed the installation directory or run 64-bit Windows).

Then do:

dumpbin /headers devenv.exe | more

The start of the output on my machine is:

Dump of file devenv.exe

PE signature found

File Type: EXECUTABLE IMAGE

FILE HEADER VALUES
             14C machine (x86)
               4 number of sections
        4BA1FAB3 time date stamp Thu Mar 18 12:04:35 2010
               0 file pointer to symbol table
               0 number of symbols
              E0 size of optional header
             122 characteristics
                   Executable
                   Application can handle large (>2GB) addresses
                   32 bit word machine

The second to last line is what you are looking for -- if it's there, your executable is large address aware.