Re: Physical Memory


Let's have a look at these zillions of processes. At a Command Prompt issue the following commands, pressing enter after each:

net start >C:\Startlist.txt
tasklist /svc >>C:\Startlist.txt

Note the single redirector ">" in the first command and the double one ">>" in the second command. After you run the commands find and paste the contents of the Startlist.txt file to your next post so we can have a quick look at your running processes.

Windows XP Home doesn't include the Tasklist.exe utility, I can't figure out why Microsoft excludes this utility from the Home Edition, but you can download a copy of it here: http://www.computerhope.com/download/winxp.htm

In addition to the sites that Daave gave you you might also find the following to be useful:

Services Guide for Windows XP
http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm

Windows XP x86 (32-bit) Service Pack 3 Service Configurations
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

John

JohnD wrote:

Not to walk over Daave, but in his reply to me he mentioned that there would be processes running in the background. I have replied to him that there are zillions of them. It seems to me that your explanation to me must apply to these processes, because after all they are also programs.

So the question that comes to my mind is whether these processes are all necesesary. Is it possible that some might be associated with applications I no longer have? Or that they have been installed without my knowledge off the Internet? Is there a way I can find out and get rid of the unnecessary ones?

I thhought db was suggesting ways I could do this, but apparently what he was suggesting was going to do something else.

Certainly my computer has become much slower than it used to be. I have a 3.0 gig Pentium 4 processor and apparently a half gig of available memory, but it takes forever to load Microsoft Word, say, or AOL.

"John John (MVP)" wrote:


Don't listen to that db character and don't use that crap that he recommends. Memory optimizers/defragers are nothing more than snake oil, they provide absolutely no useful benefit to the memory management of your Windows installation, quite to the contrary they create havoc and force disk paging in order to create an illusion that they have freed memory!

These optimizers work by making demands on the Windows Memory Manager for a rapidly and steeply increasing amount of memory to the point where the Windows Memory Manager pushes all the pageable code and data to the pagefile to satisfy the demand. Once the code and data for all the other applications (the Working Sets) has been paged out the snake oil program then tells the Windows Memory Manager that it no longer needs the memory that it asked for and it releases it, this creates an illusion that memory has appeared out of nowheres.

The only problem with that is that all the other applications and pageable system processes are now in the pagefile and that anything that you do that needs the paged out code and data takes an eternity to run because it has to get it from the pagefile, in many instances some applications will simply crash! Things like using your web browser's "Back" button to go to a previous page or reopening a Word document that you had open only 30 seconds ago will now take forever! Even certain Windows functions will lag and be sluggish.

The funny thing about all of this nonsense is that the snake oil memory optimizer cannot do anything on its own, like all other applications and processes it cannot manage memory at all, the Windows Memory Manager does *absolutely* not permit this, all that the rogue application can do is ask the Windows Memory Manager for RAM and then close the process demanding the RAM or have the process "unallocate" the RAM. Yet even more of a silly thing is that if you open an application, like lets say Word, it will ask for a certain amount of RAM and the Windows Memory Manager will comply, just as it did for the snake oil, and if needed it will page out code and data just as it did for the snake oil. Once your Word program is up and running if you want to open documents the same thing happens all over again. The difference is that the Windows Memory Manager will do this in a measured orderly manner as demanded by the properly designed application instead of in a completely reckless manner as demanded from a rogue snake oil program!

John

JohnD wrote:


Thanks for your response. Perhaps you might read my response to Bruce.

"db.·.. ><))) ·>` .. ." wrote:



the helpful response
would be for the o.p.
to add up the consumption
used by the processes
running in memory.

but what would a troll
like you know, except
being a smart-as*

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

"Bruce Chambers" <bchambers@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:eFCY$eFEJHA.4900@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


JohnD wrote:


System information on my XP PC tells me I have total physical memory of 1,024.00 MB, and Available physical memory of 491.98 MB. Does this sound right? Why the discrepancy?



What discrepancy? Naturally, if your computer is powered on, some of its memory will be in use, and therefore not "available."


--

Bruce Chambers

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