Freeing up memory is the wrong way to look at what I think you are
seeking to achieve, better system performance. You need to either add
RAM memory or curtail excessive use of the pagefile. There are a number
of ways to proceed.
How much RAM memory do you have and what is your typical pagefile usage?
Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?
You can get more accurate information on pagefile usage using
pagefilemon, a small freeware utility.
Use page file monitor to observe what is the peak usage. Start it to run
immediately after start-up and look at the log. Pagefilemon takes
snapshots. You need to run it at the beginning of the session at then
run it again at intervals throughout the sessions. The log is Pagefile
log.txt. If you right click on the file in Windows Explorer and select
Send to, Desktop (Create Shortcut). The same applies to
XP_PageFileMon.exe.
A small utility to monitor pagefile usage:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm
Note that programs using undo features, particularly those associated
with graphics and photo editing, require large amounts of memory so if
you use this type of programme check these first observing how the page
usage increases when they start and whether the usage decreases when you
close the programme.
You can get clues as to what is generating peak memory demands but this
is not a precise science, more a matter of judgement.
You should be able to gather more information from Task Manager. With
the Processes tab open select View, Select, Columns and check the boxes
before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. What are the figures
for the 6 processes using the largest amounts?
Do you leave the computer on 24/7?
I would be interested in seeing a Disk Defragmenter report. Open Disk
Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and
click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents
Folder and post a copy. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it
is more informative.
The last request is asked to get background information not because I
think you might need to run Disk Defragmenter! You may do but that is
another question.
When you have identified, which programmes are generating excessive or
untimely demands for memory you have the choice of modifying their
behavour or replacing them with an alternative. The first move should be
to see if you can change the programme so that it is available on demand
(when you need it) from just loading automatically when you boot. Look
in the programme setting to see whether there are options. If that is
not possible then use Autoruns to disable it from starting when you
boot. Autoruns is far more suited to what you have in mind than
msconfig. It also identies more start up items than msconfig.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx
With Autoruns you can uncheck an item, which disables it from starting,
or you can can right click an item and then delete it. If you uncheck
you can recheck to re-enable the item. It is a much safer approach than
editing the Registry. Another useful feature of the programme is that
you can right click an item and select Search Online to get information
about the item selected.
Another change to be considered concerns automatic daily scanning by
your anti virus etc. Often these are timed to occur either when you boot
or shortly after. A change to another time may be beneficial. Look at
the settings in your anti-virus.
Often users are "sold" anti-virus and other security software that
offers protection at a high cost in terms of performance. Norton and
McAfee producted are well known for this downside. Perfectly adequate
freeware software is available without these adverse side effects.
Something else to watch. Too many Internet Explorer Add-ons.
When you have carried out a review of what is going on on your computer,
making appropriate changes, you may establish a need to add more RAM.
However, do not overlook that adding RAM may not improve performance if
something else like a low CPU speed is holding the system back.
--
Hope this helps.
Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
would like to learn hoe to set to my parameters to free up memory and
speed.
I will need to know what is abso;utely needed and what can be
modified.
Any assets out there to help? thank you
As Leonard said you do not free up RAM
